Monday, December 2, 2013

Homemade Jerky - Dehydrating Beef Jerky

Homemade jerky may seem like some what of a novelty to many people today, but for millennia people have made homemade jerky as a way to preserve food. Dehydrating beef jerky is just one way to make food that can be either used for snacks or long term food storage. Dehydrating beef jerky can be done in various ways. It can be air dried by in a non-humid environment, dried in an oven, or dried in a dehydrator.The first step when you are planning to dry beef for jerky is to select and prepare the portion of meat you are going to use. Most any part of the cow can be used to make jerky, with the leaner cuts such as flank, round and sirloin are the best. Once you have decided which cut you will use (maybe you found a good sale), and you know how much you are going to dry, one of the most critical things you will need to do is to properly cut the meat. But before cutting the meat, you will want to trim off any fat and gristle on your meat.Jerky is cut into longer strips, but the critical factor is not as much the length, as it is the thickness, or the evenness of the cuts. You will need to cut it about 1/8th to 1/4 of an inch thick, but really focus on making it an even cut. If you have too much variance in thickness, some parts will be too dry and others will not dry adequately. One tip is to slightly freeze your meat before slicing. This can help make slicing easier, but is not necessary. If you have access to a meat slicer, this can really help you to produce strips that are of an even thickness. One way to do this would be to take a whole roast, slice it with a meat slicer so that you have sandwich type pieces, and then cut each piece into strips.Once you have made your strips for drying, you will season them by what ever recipe you are using. There are many different flavors of jerky, such as teriyaki and peppered, as well as other flavors. Quite often a marinade is used, but sometimes a brine can be used as well. At a minimum you will want to marinate your strips for at least 10 hours in olive oil, salt and pepper if you do not have a recipe to follow.When you are ready to begin the actual drying process, you will either be using the sun/air, an oven, or a dehydrator. Whichever method you have chosen, when you are placing your meat slices onto the drying surface, be sure to shake any excess brine or marinade off each piece, and ensure that no pieces are touching another. Your goal in making sure the meats do not touch each other is for maximum airflow around all the slices, and also not to have areas that don't dry properly because by touching they have created a thicker area that doesn't dry thoroughly.You will know your jerky is done successfully when the dried end product will crack, but does not break when it is bent.

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