Howdy Folks, long time no see... This topic of jerky is what got me started smoking meats early last year. I live in a fairly rural area and there's lots of hunting out here. So I figured that a lot of locals would be into smoking jerky. Well if they do they don't sell it. So I got my own thing going, found a small electric smoker called a Cookshack used on eBay and if you know me I really poured myself into this whole smoked meat thing. Ribs, brisket, pork butt for pulled pork, jerky, smoked chicken wings. The whole number. Really awesome. Let me share what I learned about jerky. http://ezinearticles.com/?The-History-of-Beef-Jerky&id=386985 Jerky started WAAAAY back in Europe hundreds of years ago as a way to preserve meat, SALT was and still is the big ingredient used. Salt and air drying helps dehydrate the meat. Jerky reall is nothing more than flavored dehydrated meat. It also was a way people of Central and South America cured meat to preserve it. It's just a process that was used all over the world, dating back well over 500 years ago.Most of the jerky we know of is marinated in a soy like solution (be it with teriyaki, worsteschire sauce, molasses, onion and garlic powder, lots of black pepper and brown sugar) and then oven dried. Really awesome old world jerky is slow smoked and you really taste a good difference. Here's a Cookshack video of Bill Vice showing you how to make great deer jerky. I've worked with Bill over the phone many times and he is as happy and helpful as he seems in this video. DO give his recipe a try.
The thing that sort of alarmed me in most of the recipes I saw posted here was the lack of salt, it is used to eliminate the chance of bacterial growth. I use a combination of sea salt and Morton's Tender Quick, the Tenderquick is a blend of sugar, salt and nitrates and nitrites. For meat sliced 1/4 of an inch thick it takes about 24 hours for the "cure" to penetrate that thickness of meat to make it food safe. If you follow Bill's recipe (which is pretty much what I use) it makes the best doggone jerky you'll ever taste - whether you dry it in a dehydrator or in a smoker like I have. Give it a shot.Best of luck to all of you. BigMike
Thanks bigmike&nan. I love learning about stuff on this site.
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