My jerky sucks.......wtf

[Meat Hunter]

I have never, made a batch of jerky that actually had some flavor to it. Im talking about homemade recipes or ones that I have found online. Commercial ones like backwoods I have less than impressed with. Just last night, I had 2 pounds of venison marinating in some thick stiore bought teriyaki marinade. 2 days it sat. Into the dehydrator, took it out this morning. Totally flavorless.

What am I doing wrong. Store bought jerky seems to have that nice sticky layer to it, nothing like that with mine.......

[devo]

Never tried their Jerky mixes yet but if they are anything like using the Veri Veri Teriyaki® Marinade & Sauce that I add to my Jerky you can't go wrong or just use the bottle stuff like I do. Comes out with lots of flavor
https://shop.soyvay.com

Teriyaki for 5 lbs

3 Tbs non iodized salt
1 tsp cure 1 (if smoking)
1 Tbs garlic granules
1 Tbs ginger pwder
1 Tbs ground mustard seed
1 Tbs black pepper
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup Veri Veri Teriyaki® Marinade & Sauce


Combine all the ingredients, mix well

Add meat to a plastic container with lid. Pour marinade into meat and combine. Try to keep meat covered with marinade and place in fridge for 8-10 hours or overnight. Toss meat strips in marinade every few hours. Next day take meat from marinade (dont rinse it off) place on racks and smoke/dehydrate as normal.

[DDave]

It's not teriyaki but Mad Hunky Original Jerky Cure & Seasoning + 2 or 3 TBS of Mad Hunky Hot Whang! Chicken Rub =

Mix the Hot Whang! and the jerky seasoning with 1 cup of decent red wine. Add 5 pounds of meat and into the fridge for about 36 hours "smooshing" occasionally. I used top round. I smoke it for 3 or 4 hours at 160°ish then continue to dry until it still bends but some spots may crack slightly.

The last batch I did.





Hoping to do another batch this weekend.

[Mark R]

How hot are you smoking your jerky? Might be cooking the flavor out of it??
I like to ramp the heat up, kinda like sausage. Start off at almost a cold smoke 100 - 110°, them build the temp up to 160°ish.

[Fishawn]

Are you using cure? Seems to add something good when using cure

[Richtee]

Well, you are not getting the smoke, obviously. Not that jerky requires it...

Too much liquid will cause issues. I find for 5 pounds of meat about 1 cup of liquid will be almost totally absorbed..meaning most of the FLAVORINGS/SEASONINGS will be on the meat..not in the liquid.

I do find that odd tho. I’d be happy to send along a sample for you to try out.

[Jailer]

Got a pretty simple one from a friend years ago that I really like. I finally wore him down enough to give me his secret recipe. The original recipe called for 1/3 cup TQ but that ended up being WAYYY too much for the recipe. The recipe below is as written.

Tender Quick - adjust/lb of meat
4 tsp Teriyaki sauce
2 Tblsp Soy sauce
2 Tblsp liquid smoke
1 tsp Garlic powder
2 tsp season salt
3 lbs meat
1/2 cup water
2 Tblsp brown sugar
1 tsp black pepper

1/4 inch strips for the meat and instructions to "rinse real good before cooking" on the back of the paper.

Cook in oven for 8 hours 150 deg with door propped open.

[Richtee]

If you are rinsing..it’s off. Recipe needs adjusting. It should go on as-is.

[BBQ Engineer]

What am I doing wrong.

Prolly because you haven't been around here enough and you lost your touch.

Just sayin'! (good to see you around.)

Rich suggested to me one time to use a cup of red wine as the carrier liquid and soak the jerky in the wine and seasoning / cure. That little piece of advice right there was instrumental to upping my Jerky game. Also, before I went to a dry rub / cure combo, I usually ended up with the ugly brown liquid (soy, teriyaki, worchestershire, etc.) that was such a salt bomb it almost made the jerky not edible. a cup of liquid will be easily absorbed by 5 # like Rich said...here check this out using Rich's jerky seasoning http://www.smoked-meat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12972

If you haven't used some Mad Hunky jerky seasoning and cure you should hit Rich up and try a batch like that...it would be worth an experiment.

[Meat Hunter]

Well, you are not getting the smoke, obviously. Not that jerky requires it...
I do find that odd tho. I’d be happy to send along a sample for you to try out.

NO smoke on this one Rich, dehydrator. Ill order some of your stuff before too long, promise.

Got a pretty simple one from a friend years ago that I really like. I finally wore him down enough to give me his secret recipe.

Thanks for the recipe jailer, appreciate it. One can never have too many recipe in the file box

Prolly because you haven't been around here enough and you lost your touch.

Just sayin'! (good to see you around.)

Rich suggested to me one time to use a cup of red wine as the carrier liquid and soak the jerky in the wine and seasoning / cure. That little piece of advice right there was instrumental to upping my Jerky game.
If you haven't used some Mad Hunky jerky seasoning and cure you should hit Rich up and try a batch like that...it would be worth an experiment.

Yes, Dana, Ive been MIA. Im on here almost daily, but empty nesters, I have very little to contribute these days. HOWEVER, the kids are moving back home soon
One with a career change and the other just starting out after college. So, I will probably get a bit more active with the smoking stuff. So many new hobbies, so little cash. Got a new boat and and have been bow fishing everyday after work, (summer time mind you). I agree with the wine, have read that before, should incorporate that into the next batch.

[Meat Hunter]

It's not teriyaki but Mad Hunky Original Jerky Cure & Seasoning + 2 or 3 TBS of Mad Hunky Hot Whang! Chicken Rub =

Mix the Hot Whang! and the jerky seasoning with 1 cup of decent red wine. Add 5 pounds of meat and into the fridge for about 36 hours "smooshing" occasionally. I used top round. I smoke it for 3 or 4 hours at 160°ish then continue to dry until it still bends but some spots may crack slightly.

Yeah, I think I might have to try the hot whang. Seen so many posts on it, all good.

How hot are you smoking your jerky? Might be cooking the flavor out of it??
I like to ramp the heat up, kinda like sausage. Start off at almost a cold smoke 100 - 110°, them build the temp up to 160°ish.

Did this one on the dehydrator Mark, 165 was the highest it goes. The marinade I used was a thick one, almost like syrup. Thought for sure it would cling on and leave a good flavor behind. ahhhhhhh, NO, it did not not lol

Are you using cure? Seems to add something good when using cure

I did add a cure to this one Scott. The store bought ones just seem way too salty for me and others for that matter. Ive come across a few good, or what seemed like good recipes online, but in the end, dammit, the flavor just vanishes.

[Meat Hunter]

Never tried their Jerky mixes yet but if they are anything like using the Veri Veri Teriyaki® Marinade & Sauce that I add to my Jerky you can't go wrong or just use the bottle stuff like I do. Comes out with lots of flavor
https://shop.soyvay.com

Teriyaki for 5 lbs

3 Tbs non iodized salt
1 tsp cure 1 (if smoking)
1 Tbs garlic granules
1 Tbs ginger pwder
1 Tbs ground mustard seed
1 Tbs black pepper
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup Veri Veri Teriyaki® Marinade & Sauce


Combine all the ingredients, mix well

Add meat to a plastic container with lid. Pour marinade into meat and combine. Try to keep meat covered with marinade and place in fridge for 8-10 hours or overnight. Toss meat strips in marinade every few hours. Next day take meat from marinade (dont rinse it off) place on racks and smoke/dehydrate as normal.

Thanks Devo, appreciate it. Going in the recipe folder/to do list. Sometimes I wonder why I was meant to be good looking but not a good jerky maker. Oh why can't I be both.....

[minnbill]

I use all pre mixes from lems high mnt and nesco .have never had a flavorless one yet .actually they are all awesome what may help is all batches are marinated in my Revo witch is just a vacuum sealed container that slams the marinade into the meat pours.it could be done in any foodsaver container that you can vacuum out of.

[strength_and_power]

Rich posted this in a different thread. I’ve made it several times and the flavor is awesome.

Here’s a ballpark for 5 Lbs- the batch I made was only 3.5.





“Asian” style Pork Loin Jerky- 5 pounds of raw, lean sliced 3/16” thick-ish.

I have some old blurry pix of the trim process somewhere :D You gotta peel the fat cap and the bit of rib meat stuck to the side of a whole loin (NOT tenderloins tho). I recommend using Cure 1 because of the salt levels of other ingredients. I’ll include TQ too…using lo-sodium other ingredient should be OK.

Yer meat

1 tsp. Cure #1

5 tsp. Kosher salt

OR

8 tsp. Tenderquick

—THEN—

3 Tbsp. hoisin sauce

5 Tbsp. soy sauce

2 Tbsp. coarse crushed cayenne with seeds

1 Tbsp. fine ground red pepper (or Smitty’s iffin ya got it)

3 Tbsp. honey

3 Tbsp. brown sugar

5 Tbsp. fresh grated ginger, or maybe 1.5 Tbsp dry ground

2 Tbsp. sesame oil

3 Tbsp. wasabi mustard

heat 1 cup water, or a mid sweet white wine and dissolve all ingredients.

This SHOULD fit in a 1 gallon Zippie nicely. Burp and knead a few times during a 24 hour refridge period.

Dehydrate or smoke as usual...I did not smoke this.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[thewitt]

Here's a recipe I made a couple of weeks ago, along with my current process. It's money.

1000g sliced beef

235g teriyaki sauce
9g garlic powder
110g brown sugar
45g Worcestershire sauce
75g soy sauce
105g honey
2.5g Cure #1

Start with very lean beef (eye of round), trim the fat and connective tissue
Slice partially frozen meat into 1/4” strips, 6” long 1” wide
Slice across the grain for more tender jerky, with the grain for chewy
Marinate in vacuum seal bags for 48 hours in fridge
Place bags in 160F Sous Vide bath for 10 minutes
Remove from the bag, rinse off the cure and pat dry
Add pepper or other surface seasoning as desired
Place into smoker at 145F
Apply smoke for 30 minutes
Dry for 5-7 more hours or until meat cracks when bent without breaking
Hang from the smoking racks with paperclips to get more jerky in the smoker