slicing tips

[johnnyjerky]

[size=-1]Slice meat diagonally with the grain of the meat into very thin slices (If slightly frozen it slices more easily). Combine ingredients and marinate meat overnight. Be sure all pieces are covered (coated) with marinade. Drain excess marinade. Place meat on paper towels to soak up marinade. Meat should be squeezed as dry as possible in paper towels. If you dont own a dehydrator, place individual pieces of meat on rack in oven at 140 to 160 degrees for seven to 12 hours, or until meat is dry throughout. Leave oven door ajar (slightly open) during the drying process. Meat can also be hung in the oven by placing a wooden toothpick in each piece and strung from the rack. Store finished jerky in an airtight container. It keeps for several months. see more at tips www.johnnyjerky.com[/size]

 

[Dutch]

Found this in the Brisket thread. Moved to "Making Jerky".

 

[bassman]

When you get old and blessed with chewing with someone else's teeth, you'll be cutting across the grain!

Personally, I make mine from ground meat. If you can gum it long enough, you don't even need teeth!

 

[seboke]

Now that's funny right there!

 

[camocook]

How thin is very thin?I like to slice the meat at about 1/4".I'm fortunate to have a slicer to keep the pieces uniform.The volume reduces to near half.

 

[richtee]

I had not seen this or would have posted what you KNOW I'm gonna post.

A quick look at the recipes on site revealed NO nitrates being used in the process. Only "maranade". And in some cases it's not even a maranade.

Just a warning..."several months in an airtight container" no refridgeration mentioned... is risky unless cured. NOT maranaded, brined, or whatever - CURED.

Thank you for your time ;{)

 

[dodgeramsst2003]

I'm just adding my two cents worth here. Rich, I have had many people give me their jerky recipe to try in my smoker as they always did it in an oven. Everyone of them had no cure to the recipe. They always marinated and "cooked" the jerky. I'm still trying to convince them that this isn't really true jerky, but haven't had much luck. All of my jerky, snack sticks etc has some sort of cure in it so people don't get sick. I have had these same people tell me that there is no refrigderation required, I won't eat it unless I know they just made it. Its amazing that the general public confuses curing with dehydrating. I'll stick to the commercial stuff, or my homemade.

Chris

 

[richtee]

Yeah... now granted, if you dry the stuff like this guy suggests..to cardboard consistency- it is alot less likely to develop problems. The main risk is botulism here...IE the "airtight" environment. People don't realize how prevalent the botulism bug is... it's nearly everywhere that has dirt. Seriously. But it does require a certain moisture content to grow, and salt DOES kick it in the butt. Smoke added helps too. But a nitrate cure absolutely will kill the organism.

I know I sound pretty hung up on it. But as I have said more times than I care to count... science gives us the tools, why not use them?

also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botulism

 

[bombo80]

I know this might be splitting hairs, but I usually slice my jerky about 3/16". Yes having the meat partially frozen helps tremendously. As far as drying them off, well, I have never done that. I just drain them, and place them on my smoke racks, put the heat to them, about 180*, with lots of air movement. Once they get spongy, then put the smoke to them, with the damper closed, and let them sit in the smoke until it dissipates from the smoker. Then open the damper and let it cook until the proper consistency is reached. This is the way I did it, when I did it professionally too.

Good luck

 

[supervman]

Good Old Alton Brown makes what he calls a "snake" out of some rolled tin foil. He inserts tween the door and the oven to hold it open just a crack.