Beef jerky.

[brotherdu]

Originally Posted by asixa

looks great. So if I wanted to try this at home, in a small quantity and minimal outlay, whats the best way to do that? I assume the oven is my friend here? temps, time and process?

Hey matey, cheapest way, if you are in a cool dry climate, is to just hang it in a small room under a fan. It takes a few days to dry out. You don't want to try this in a humid climate, ie, Brizzy in summer = no. Technically you don't need too much heat, its more a drying process. Heat just speeds up the process, so what would take a few days drying out, takes 5-8 hours in a dryer....having said that, if the meat goes 'greeny' chuck it out.

I've made it this way in the past, although I did it in the garage as there is a bit of a raw meat odor for a while.

Also regarding cut of meat, I find Silverside (uncorned / unsalted) is really good, and also not expensive.

Depending on how long you dry it for, I've found your lose about 2/3 of the weight. I.e. 3kg's of raw meat = 1kg when dry.

There are quite a few websites around that show method / recipes etc.

Also a good snack for the kiddies, my 3.5 yr old twin boys can't get enough of it.

[D3LTR33]

That looks identical to my dehydrator OP. I picked it up off eBay for $200. I've been making jerky for a couple years now, my first batch i made by laying down a pedestal fan and taping a cardboard box to it. Pretty dangerous apparently but nobody got sick luckily.

My favourite and most popular marinade goes a little like this:
500mL soy sauce
500mL worcestershire sauce
one squeeze of honey
half a bottle of tabasco sauce
1-3 splashes of liquid smoke
handful of chilli flakes
handful of onion flakes
handful of garlic granules

I usually do batches 3kg at a time, but it gets eaten faster than i can make it.

I was in Oklahoma recently and found a jerky which was strange at first, but quickly grew on me. It was similar to the above recipe but used less chilli and garlic, and instead focused more on brown sugar, maple syrup and molasses to deliver a spicy sweetness. Will be giving that a try soon hopefully.

[Dexamenus]

After loving Jerky for ages, I figured it was time to make some myself.

Put 1kg or so of topside in a standard sort of marinade about 18 hours ago. Just some Soy, Worcestershire, honey, onion flakes, garlic powder, pepper, some sweet and smoked paprika and some cayenne pepper. Oh and some coca cola for the phosphoric acid.

Just put it into dry in the sauna with the fire cranked. Temperature is floating around 50-55 degrees, might crank it up to 65 towards the end of the drying just to kill anything that might be there, and to give it a bit of a crunch on the surface.

Hopefully will done in 5 hours or so.





EDIT: 4 hours in, nearly done.



EDIT2: Calling it done after sampling a piece, once cooled it is still flexible but beautifully crunchy.

All bagged and tagged now, dont see this bag lasting long. Definitely making a few kilo batch once this is out.

[1shot1kill]

Originally Posted by Dexamenus

After loving Jerky for ages, I figured it was time to make some myself.

Put 1kg or so of topside in a standard sort of marinade about 18 hours ago. Just some Soy, Worcestershire, honey, onion flakes, garlic powder, pepper, some sweet and smoked paprika and some cayenne pepper. Oh and some coca cola for the phosphoric acid.

Just put it into dry in the sauna with the fire cranked. Temperature is floating around 50-55 degrees, might crank it up to 65 towards the end of the drying just to kill anything that might be there, and to give it a bit of a crunch on the surface.

Hopefully will done in 5 hours or so.

image

image

EDIT: 4 hours in, nearly done.

image

EDIT2: Calling it done after sampling a piece, once cooled it is still flexible but beautifully crunchy.

All bagged and tagged now, dont see this bag lasting long. Definitely making a few kilo batch once this is out.

image

That all looks pretty good, mate. Ingenious idea, too!

[Brad7000]

Bought some from here recently

http://www.mariani.com.au/

$60 for 4 bags (250+gram each) delivered.

1Kg for $60 I'm happy

Better than paying 5-6 for a 20 gram bag that's for sure.

[psychobunny]

Originally Posted by 1shot1kill

When it's chocka block, 5-7 hours.

Although now it appears that the heating element has died, so I've got to work out a warranty return. The current batch is almost done, so I'm finishing it off in the oven.

I think I'll return it and make my own dehydrator using a lightglobe for the heat source and a fan. I reckon for <$50 I can make one almost as good.

exactly my thoughts when my unit did the same thing....

2 years later and still havnt made one

what i did find is that girello has almost no fat at all

[Benno1988]

Currently have 600g of topside marinading away and another 600g all ready and sliced for some dry rub.

Bought a Furi 17cm knife to slice it all, worked out well. Trick is to let it freeze enough, not frozen enough and its quite hard.

[patto]

Does anybody here remember the great Jerky buys of OCAU?

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...erky+group+buy

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...ighlight=jerky

[gregpolk]

I remember one that would have been about 7 years ago I think. 500grams of jerky during exam block doesn't last long. Got good grades that semester, must have been the jerky fueling my brain.

[intrasonic]

Originally Posted by Brad7000

Bought some from here recently

http://www.mariani.com.au/

$60 for 4 bags (250+gram each) delivered.

1Kg for $60 I'm happy

Better than paying 5-6 for a 20 gram bag that's for sure.

Good stuff. This is the jerky sold at costco in sydney. My favourite was the hot and spicy, until the bulgogi flavour was released a little while ago.

[sammy_b0i]

I've bookmarked that site. I was buying Orara Valley beef jerky, extra hot and spicy @ ~$110 per KG. Will give this place a try when the current 100gm packet runs out

[round]

if you want good jerky, Schulte's Meat Tavern at plain lands on the warrago hwy, usually buy a couple of kg's of it when i go through, plain and tomato flavour,

non shredded in big long steaks.

[1shot1kill]

I bought another 3.8kg of sliced topside today, I've already got a bunch of it in the oven drying. I've got to dry about another 15kg of meat in the next month.

[Benno1988]

I did it the other day, learnt a lot.

I didn't like the marinade I did too much, it was soy based. I think i'd prefer a sweeter BBQ based marinade, so I'll have to find a recipe etc for it. Need a fuckload of salt too.

[Rogue_Elefant]

Originally Posted by gregpolk

I remember one that would have been about 7 years ago I think. 500grams of jerky during exam block doesn't last long. Got good grades that semester, must have been the jerky fueling my brain.

I remember that group buy! I got several kg's - god it was good!