So I love whole meat Jerky and usually have venison made into some each year by a local venison butcher. But I like doing things myself so I had a lot of venison this past hunting season cut into jerky meat so I can make my own.
Got my propane smoker in December and the first thing I tried in it was making jerky. Boy what a fail that was. Live and learn though right?
Tried two batches.
First was a Con Yeager jerky kit. Followed the instructions and marinated over night.
Second was a homemade marinade from a friend. Soy sauce, Worcestershire, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. Notice his recipe did not use a cure salt. So i went to a local butcher shop and purchased a pack of cure (it was Con Yeager) and added a teaspoon I believe. I now know that was wrong and it needs to be added based on weight. Marinated over night.
Onto the part where I smoked both of these batches of meat. Remember I just got my smoker and was new to this.....tried regulating temp using the thermometer in the door and an oven thermometer. Up until now my experience with making jerky was using a dehydrator and making burger jerky (if you can call that jerky) when I'd find some burger that needed used up in the back of the freezer. Dehydrator was always set to 160 F for making jerky. So i tried to maintain 160 F which was nearly impossible using the thermometers I had to use at the time (now have wireless probes). Burnt all of the jerky and it was pretty inedible from a texture standpoint.
The Con Yeager kit turned out a little better but not much. Both had decent flavor besides the burnt pieces. BUT here is what I saw....... The homemade marinade broke down the meat something fierce. It was breaking apart as I was pulling it out of the bowl it was marinating in. It was a really odd texture. Almost much that was still somehow held together a little bit.
Did I use too much cure? Too much salt? Thoughts?
I don't want to waste more meat experimenting leaving ingredients out to see what the cause was.
I see some people don't use a cure and others say a heavy salt recipe is all you need to act as a cure. I like the idea of adding cure because I'd rather not end up dead.
I see some threads here were people smoke the jerky for long times (up to 12 hours) at low temps, 140 F or less. Is it possible to make good jerky at temps of 160 or higher to ensure the meat comes to temp? Only reason I ask is because the wife is pregnant and not supposed to eat meat that doesn't come up to temp and she'd like to eat some jerky.
Sorry for the long post but I appreciate any feedback.
Got my propane smoker in December and the first thing I tried in it was making jerky. Boy what a fail that was. Live and learn though right?
Tried two batches.
First was a Con Yeager jerky kit. Followed the instructions and marinated over night.
Second was a homemade marinade from a friend. Soy sauce, Worcestershire, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. Notice his recipe did not use a cure salt. So i went to a local butcher shop and purchased a pack of cure (it was Con Yeager) and added a teaspoon I believe. I now know that was wrong and it needs to be added based on weight. Marinated over night.
Onto the part where I smoked both of these batches of meat. Remember I just got my smoker and was new to this.....tried regulating temp using the thermometer in the door and an oven thermometer. Up until now my experience with making jerky was using a dehydrator and making burger jerky (if you can call that jerky) when I'd find some burger that needed used up in the back of the freezer. Dehydrator was always set to 160 F for making jerky. So i tried to maintain 160 F which was nearly impossible using the thermometers I had to use at the time (now have wireless probes). Burnt all of the jerky and it was pretty inedible from a texture standpoint.
The Con Yeager kit turned out a little better but not much. Both had decent flavor besides the burnt pieces. BUT here is what I saw....... The homemade marinade broke down the meat something fierce. It was breaking apart as I was pulling it out of the bowl it was marinating in. It was a really odd texture. Almost much that was still somehow held together a little bit.
Did I use too much cure? Too much salt? Thoughts?
I don't want to waste more meat experimenting leaving ingredients out to see what the cause was.
I see some people don't use a cure and others say a heavy salt recipe is all you need to act as a cure. I like the idea of adding cure because I'd rather not end up dead.
I see some threads here were people smoke the jerky for long times (up to 12 hours) at low temps, 140 F or less. Is it possible to make good jerky at temps of 160 or higher to ensure the meat comes to temp? Only reason I ask is because the wife is pregnant and not supposed to eat meat that doesn't come up to temp and she'd like to eat some jerky.
Sorry for the long post but I appreciate any feedback.
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