Cure #1 is the proper choice for jerky... Cure #2 is designed for meats that are not cooked.....
Place the jerky in the brine and heat to 170 ish... cool to ~100-110 and add cure #1 to the brine at a rate of 1.13 grams per pound of meat + weight of the brine/cure mix or 1 tsp cure #1 per 5#'s of meat+brine.... smoke and dry the meat per normal... The cook to 170, kills pathogens cure #1 does not address...
The following are excerpts from Marianski's web site....
Jerky made from wild game
Pre-cook wild game to 165° F (74° C). Game meats are often infected with trichinae and other parasites. If the meat will not be cooked, it should be frozen according to the USDA rules. Freezing meat takes care of trichinae but will not eliminate bacteria from the meat. The majority of recipes on the Internet do not mention the fact that jerky should be pre-cooked in order to be microbiologically safe. Some of us will refuse to accept this fact and will not cook jerky. Well, there are extra precautions that might be implemented to increase the safety jerky made from wild game:
Why is Temperature Important When Making Jerky?
Illnesses due to
Salmonella and
E.coli 0157:H7 from home made jerky raise questions about the traditional drying methods for making beef and venison jerky. The USDA current recommendation for making jerky safely is to heat meat to 160° F, 72° C, before the dehydrating process. This step assures that any bacteria present will be destroyed by wet heat. Most
dehydrator instructions do not include this step, and a
dehydrator may not reach temperatures high enough to heat meat to 160° F. After heating to 160° F, maintaining a constant
dehydrator temperature of 130 to 140° F, 54 - 60° C, during the drying process is important because:
- The process must be enough to dry food before it spoils.
- The process must remove enough water that microorganisms are unable to grow.
Why is it a Food Safety Concern to Dry Meat Without First Heating it to 160° F?
The danger in dehydrating meat and poultry without cooking it to a safe temperature first is that the appliance will not heat the meat to 160° F - a temperature at which bacteria are destroyed - before it dries. After drying, bacteria become much more heat resistant. Within a
dehydrator or low-temperature oven, evaporating moisture absorbs most of the heat. Thus, the meat itself does not begin to rise in temperature until most of the moisture has evaporated. Therefore, when the dried meat temperature finally begins to rise, the bacteria have become more heat resistant and are more likely to survive. If these bacteria are pathogenic, they can cause food borne illness to those consuming the jerky.
http://www.meatsandsausages.com/drying-preservation/jerky/whole-meat-jerky
http://www.meatsandsausages.com/drying-preservation/jerky/ground-meat-jerky