Beef Jerky methods/tips

steelarz47 said:

hey hans u may be ok with air drying as there is no heat or smoke in enclosed area to eliminate the oxygen,add the moisture from the meat and u have ideal growing conditions for the nastys.
IF IT CAN'T BE CURED , DON'T SMOKE IT; it only takes one experience and u will never do it again A- death is a real possibility B- u live regretting your decision and vow never again!!
i hope this sheds a little more light

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Yes, that helps vis a vis the jerky but raises another question.

I don't have a smoker but I like the smoke favor so what I do is put some wood on one side of he BBQ with heat and the meat on the other with no heat. The meat might be pork, beef or as today, a salmon. No curing, just seasoning.

So I'm wondering, does what you're saying apply only if you're just smoking something for an extended time at low temps but doesn't apply if you have enough heat that you're also cooking. In the latter case, the heat would kill "them varmints" aka nastys :grin:

Hans

Thanks Steelarz for your help and patience.

I'm pretty sure I understand what you're saying and I suspect if you post the USDA guidelines, it'll just confuse things. :-D

I guess I'm generally confused about gov't regulations on the whole. There's just toooooooooooo many examples of things that don't make sense and instances where depts out right contradict each other.

Referring to the case in point....curing salt. Gov't says use it to be safe yet its almost impossible to get a hold of. Go figure :crazy:

Hans

Just a little update on my experiments.

Still haven't used a curing salt and I'm still around. I'm not denigrating the use thereof, but as I've said: seems to me all those prominent websites like the food network et al, would have mentioned something if excluding it posed a health problem.

Okay, as to combinations of ingredients. So far no prefect combo for what I'm looking for BUT... I've kept on increasing the sweetness component and still haven't reached a "its too sweet" level.

The last batch was 1/4 cup Soy with 1/8 Worch coupled with 2 Tbs of brown sugar and 2 Tbs of honey along with all the rest ie garlic,pepper,onion, etc.

Its getting there. I feel upping the sweetness each time is giving a longer better "in your mouth" favour. I've also added a couple of tps of vinegar to counterbalance the sugar.. seems to be working.

When I have a perfect combination, it'll be shared here for any that are game for jerky perfection.

Hans