Make Your Own Beef Jerky, Save Money, and Enjoy it More

 

I recently embarked upon a month of hardcore paleo living because it makes me feel better, and I had plateaued in my post-baby weight loss. One of the things that I have noticed is that I am hungry more frequently since I am not filling myself up with bulky grains. I decided that I could no longer leave the house without snack foods since there is nowhere, in Northern Texas at least, to drive through for paleo snackage when on the road.

Yes, I can stop and buy nuts, but I can get them so much cheaper in bulk. I cringe at the thought of paying gas station prices for nuts or seeds, but yes, in a snack emergency, do this. Even if you are not paleo, consider the nuts and seeds option over the nuggets, cheese sticks, candy bars, or whatever your fast food killer may be.

Plus, I need more than nuts and seeds.  I need meat.  Yummy, tasty, chewy meat! Also, dried fruits, but that is another conversation.  But have you looked at the ingredients in beef jerky?!  If you are lucky, it is only soy sauce (contains wheat), brown sugar (not paleo), and unspecified flavorings (which may hide corn or potato byproducts); the unlucky will find high fructose corn syrup, nitrates, and even monosodium glutamate! Seriously, why are companies still using this?  Perhaps they do not have the allergic reaction to MSG that many of us do.  I get mouth itchiness and headaches.  My dad was hospitalized.

The really lucky will find Epic Jerky for $6+ per serving. Yummy, seriously yummy, but ugh…What is a frugal paleo girl to do?  Buy a fancy $264 dehydrator?  (Yes, please, someone buy a girl one of these)  Set up a box fan contraption borrowing the genius of one Mr. Alton Brown and make your own (hands down, my favorite episode of “Good Eats,” by the way)?  I hope it is a new box fan.

But making your own should still be an option, right?  People used to make their own food before the mass consumer culture was born, right?  I determined to find another way and discovered the Food Hacks Daily section of Wonder How To, with the article “How To Make Homemade Jerky Without a Dehydrator."  The problem was this how-to was not a recipe and left me wondering how much of everything to use.  

They (Brady Klopfer) did tell me, “There are three essential elements to a jerky: salt (which provides, well, saltiness, but also brings out the flavor of the meat), pepper (for spiciness), and vinegar (which concentrates high levels of flavor in the beef).”  Everyone talks about salt when discussing jerky, but no one uses salt.  Brady used apple cider vinegar, honey, Worcestershire sauce, and sriracha in his example.  Alton Brown gives precise proportions as his is an actual recipe, but again no salt.  He uses Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, liquid smoke, and spices.  No vinegar.  Hmmm, interesting.  So, I kept searching and found thehealthyfoodie.com, where she used actual salt, a bit of fish sauce, lots of vinegar, and a nice assortment of seasoning.  Thekitchn.com, one of my all-time favorite food blogs, apparently adapted her from Lobel’s Meat Bible, which I had never heard of and now sits in my Amazon cart.  I liked the addition of sesame seeds, which I had been considering (and will add to batch two), but it was just soy sauce again for saltiness.  I also noticed that people have a tendency to go spicy on this.  Feel free to add your own heat.  I prefer things sweet with a bit of black pepper, which you will find here.

So, as I often do when faced with dissatisfaction with the resources before me, I made up the recipe. I used Brady’s six steps as my guide:

Step one: Choose Your Meat

He says fancy cut is not important but quality is, so he recommended grass-fed flank steak, which worked fine, though he demonstrated with a ribeye. Any lean meat will do.  I, of course, bought grasped beef when it was the manager’s special and froze it until ready to use.  Also, he says you can use chicken or turkey and that you can also make jerky for your dog. I will be doing this once Duster runs out of jerky and he did taste test for me on batch one.

Step two: Trim the Fat

Brady says that beef fat doesn’t render, which is patently false; it renders at 155°F over many hours, but you should always trim the excess fat for healthy meat. Also, silver skin won’t get any better, so remove it. I left the tiny bits of marbling fat and took off the chunks, which was quite a tasty surprise. Thehealthyfoodie.com said the fat will go rancid, so trim it.  I refrigerate my jerky and doubt that it will go rancid in my two hour car trip while I am eating it.  Again, go with lean meat, so it is not a huge concern.

Step Three: Cut the Steak

They all recommended freezing or partially freezing the meat before cutting it, and I concur. All future purchases of jerky-to-be will be trimmed after freezing. Freezing gives it structure, which makes it easier to slice thinly.  Thawed meat is mushy.  Turkey is apparently even worse than beef.

Then, cut into 1/8″ ribbons or as big as 1/4″ thick. Remember, the thicker the meat, the longer it must dry in the oven.

Pro-Tip: A trick I learned from Alton Brown when trimming a beef tenderloin into its component cuts that transferred well here is that when you reach the narrower part of the meat, do not entirely slice it, but leave it connected and flip that slice to the outside and continue slicing the other direction making for longer pieces.

Step Four: Make the Marinade

Again, our Food Hacker did not give quantities so I had to wing it. The recipe below results from my initial winging and correcting any weakness in flavor.  Batch two will be different, and I will include that below.

Step Five: Marinate the Meat

Brady recommends 4-12 hours. Alton recommends 3-6 hours. The other two preferred overnight.  Due to weird life scheduling, mine marinated for 24+ hours. I prefer at least 12 hours, though.

Step Six: Throw It In The Oven

We cook at a very low temperature on a cooling rack in a pan. Or, he says on the oven rack over a pan, should you not have a cooling rack. This spells disaster! Don’t do it. Go buy a cooling rack if you do not have one. It is an essential kitchen tool.

Step Seven: Bake

Recommended time is 2-5 hours depending on thickness and desired chewiness. Mine went a total five hours, was as thin as I could make it when slightly mushy, and was still soft and delightful to chew. I feared it would be like leather or store jerky that you can barely rip with your teeth. Not. It was sublime.   Some food bloggers suggest that the chewiness is dictated by whether you cut with or against the grain.  That just makes sense.  I have no idea which I did and will generally choose how I cut by what gets me the longest strip.

Homemade Jerky Batch One (Snacks) Serves 1 person for 1-2 weeks depending on snack size

• 2/3 cup coconut aminos
• 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey or erythritol (or 1/3 tsp liquid stevia)
• 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp kosher salt*
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 2 lbs lean meat

1. Freeze meat for 1-3 hours to firm for slicing.
2. In a blender, mix all non-meat ingredients.
3. Place meat in a deep, narrow container or plastic bag and add marinade.  Let sit in refrigerator for 3 hours to overnight.
4. Remove meat from the refrigerator and let sit for 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 170°F.
6. Line baking sheets with foil (significant clean-up step) and place cooling racks on sheets.
7. Lay the meat on the cooling rack in a single layer with space between each strip.
8. Put in oven.  Bake 2-5 hours, depending on desired texture.
9. Remove from oven and cool.  
10. Pack into an airtight container and place in a cool location, such as a pantry or refrigerator, depending on how you feel about it.

Homemade Jerky Batch Two (Snacks) Serves 1 person for 1-2 weeks, depending on snack size

• 2/3 cup coconut aminos
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey or erythritol (or 1/3 tsp liquid stevia)
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp kosher salt*
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 dashes of hot sauce
• 1-1/2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2.5 lbs lean meat

1. Freeze meat for 1-3 hours to firm for slicing.
2. In a blender, mix first 9 ingredients.
3. Place meat in a deep, narrow container or plastic bag and add marinade.  Let sit in refrigerator 3 hours to overnight.
4. Remove meat from the refrigerator and let sit for 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 170* F.
6. Line baking sheets with foil (important clean-up step) and place cooling racks on the for sheets.
7. Lay the meat on the cooling rack in a single layer with space between each strip.
8. Put in oven.  Bake 2-5 hours, depending on desired texture.
9. Remove from oven and cool.  
10. Pack into an airtight container and place in a cool location, such as a pantry or refrigerator, depending on how you feel about it.

* Due to relative saltiness, use 2 tbsp if using liquid aminos and 1 tbsp if using soy sauce.

I am making batch two right now!