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Well this is how I do it anyway.
Sorry the pics seem alittle fuzzy, I don't know what caused it and by the time I discovered it , it was to late to re do. But good enough to get the point.
The Fruits of my Loin
This is a step by step of how I dry cure and smoke my Jerky
I have used this basic recipe that I had come up with for; Beef, venison and chicken jerky with good results.
It is recommended that you use the leanest meat possible for jerky and I had always wanted to try using a pork loin.
It is lean in the middle and you can’t beat the price, it is usually under $2.00 a pound here.
I picked this one up for $1.79 a pound and it weighs 4.98 pounds, Totaling $8.91
Removed most all the fat and membrane, and it trimmed up pretty good.
Got it all sliced at about ¼ inch thick and ended up with 3 ½ pounds for jerky.
I re-trimmed the scraps of additional membrane and had 1-½ pounds to add to my future sausage-making excursion.
The small pile is about ¼ pound of waste.
Carefully measured for each pound of meat:
1 Tbls. Morton Tender Quick
1 Tbls. Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Onion Powder
1 tsp. Fresh Course Black Pepper
¼ tsp. Cayenne Pepper
And mix to blend well.
In order to get a even distribution of the seasoning/cure I placed half or 1 3/4 pound each on separate sheet pans.
Weighed the seasoning/cure and divided by 2. I had 4 ounces of the mix so put 2 ounces in a shaker bottle for one pan of meat.
2 ounces of the mix filled the shaker bottle so I just eyeballed ½ the bottle per side of meat. Evenly distribute the mix on one side and let it set for a couple minutes, flip it over and do the same to the other side.
I then combine the meat on one pan and flop it around wiping the excess cure laying on the pan.
Then just bag it up in a zip lock, squeeze the air out and seal. Let this set for 24 hours. I knead it a couple times while it’s curing.
After the curing time is up I lay the meat out on screens and let set at room temp, while I go out and heat up the smoker.
I have the smoker in the pole barn and figured it a good idea to have a fire extinguisher handy. The wood for the day is cherry, it was one small split and I cut it into 5 chunks and thats all the wood I will be burning over the top of lump.
It took an hour to heat up so stacked the screens with the meat and headed out to make some jerky.
I like to keep the smoker running between 175 and 190, so in it goes.
Normally beef or venison only take about 2 hours to where I like it. And I cut my beef maybe a little closer to 3/8 inch thick. This pork was close to ¼ inch and it took 3 ½ hours to get the squeeze I like.
The texture of pork loin jerky is a lot different than beef or venison, it’s pretty chewy. The flavor is real good and I thought it would taste more like ham, but it tasted like jerky and I liked it. I like beef better. But for under 2 dollars a pound It’s great. I ended up with exactly half of the wet weight 1.75 pounds when finished.
So here is pork loin jerky.
Sorry the pics seem alittle fuzzy, I don't know what caused it and by the time I discovered it , it was to late to re do. But good enough to get the point.
The Fruits of my Loin
This is a step by step of how I dry cure and smoke my Jerky
I have used this basic recipe that I had come up with for; Beef, venison and chicken jerky with good results.
It is recommended that you use the leanest meat possible for jerky and I had always wanted to try using a pork loin.
It is lean in the middle and you can’t beat the price, it is usually under $2.00 a pound here.
I picked this one up for $1.79 a pound and it weighs 4.98 pounds, Totaling $8.91
Removed most all the fat and membrane, and it trimmed up pretty good.
Got it all sliced at about ¼ inch thick and ended up with 3 ½ pounds for jerky.
I re-trimmed the scraps of additional membrane and had 1-½ pounds to add to my future sausage-making excursion.
The small pile is about ¼ pound of waste.
Carefully measured for each pound of meat:
1 Tbls. Morton Tender Quick
1 Tbls. Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Onion Powder
1 tsp. Fresh Course Black Pepper
¼ tsp. Cayenne Pepper
And mix to blend well.
In order to get a even distribution of the seasoning/cure I placed half or 1 3/4 pound each on separate sheet pans.
Weighed the seasoning/cure and divided by 2. I had 4 ounces of the mix so put 2 ounces in a shaker bottle for one pan of meat.
2 ounces of the mix filled the shaker bottle so I just eyeballed ½ the bottle per side of meat. Evenly distribute the mix on one side and let it set for a couple minutes, flip it over and do the same to the other side.
I then combine the meat on one pan and flop it around wiping the excess cure laying on the pan.
Then just bag it up in a zip lock, squeeze the air out and seal. Let this set for 24 hours. I knead it a couple times while it’s curing.
After the curing time is up I lay the meat out on screens and let set at room temp, while I go out and heat up the smoker.
I have the smoker in the pole barn and figured it a good idea to have a fire extinguisher handy. The wood for the day is cherry, it was one small split and I cut it into 5 chunks and thats all the wood I will be burning over the top of lump.
It took an hour to heat up so stacked the screens with the meat and headed out to make some jerky.
I like to keep the smoker running between 175 and 190, so in it goes.
Normally beef or venison only take about 2 hours to where I like it. And I cut my beef maybe a little closer to 3/8 inch thick. This pork was close to ¼ inch and it took 3 ½ hours to get the squeeze I like.
The texture of pork loin jerky is a lot different than beef or venison, it’s pretty chewy. The flavor is real good and I thought it would taste more like ham, but it tasted like jerky and I liked it. I like beef better. But for under 2 dollars a pound It’s great. I ended up with exactly half of the wet weight 1.75 pounds when finished.
So here is pork loin jerky.
for the outcome. All the best...
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