I want to make beef jerky

[thirdeye]

Thirdeye, I really appreciate your posts. You have done your homework and present great answers to the questions. The whole curing thing is a mystery to most people and there are some many bogus Youtube videos about curing that I am surprised we don't have more bacterial infections..
The book, Charcuterie, is a great introduction to curing foods. It also has some great recipes.

I have had several neighbors give me their great Beef Jerky. However, if you eat too much of it you get the runs. Uncured, dried in the oven at a low temp for many hours. Bacteria heaven!

Thanks for some sanity!

Thanks for the kind words. You are right in that things like curing and home canning can be mysterious, in fact that is one of the reasons that most state extension offices publish information. I've noticed that not only do some folks use too little cure for some things, other times they use too much. I noticed an error in a recipe on another board just before Christmas.... it called for 15 teaspoons of pink salt in a rub to dry cure a 12 pound brisket. The recommended amount is 1 teaspoon for 5 pounds of meat. In another example, I have a book on smoking where the author refers to pink salt as "sodium nitrate", and even mentions buying it at a drug store (which by the way is the 100% stuff, not diluted and suspended in salt to 6.24% like it is in pink salt)... she goes on to call-out amounts of sodium nitrate by the tablespoons, this amount would kill a person. I sent an e-mail and a letter through the publisher, but go no response.

Charcuterie is a good book, I though the author was going to have a follow-up book..... might have to snoop around on that.

I have that book also, they have a basics dry cure recipe and it is very similar to tender quick . It's great for making your own bacon, and yes using some cure added to beef jerky is a good practice.

I just usually add a teaspoon or 2 of pink salt to my wet marinades for my beef jerky for safety .

I'm weakest on the brine cures, and the amounts of TQ or pink salt since liquid is now a factor. In fact I brine cured turkey drumsticks and fresh pork hocks this week... I'm smoking both of them today. Both my recipes are different (one with TQ, and one with pink salt), but they are proven to work and I stick with them. There are some things I use TQ in just for moisture retention or to give meat that pink color, like Texas hot links, or a poultry brine.

I knew the salt was for curing and would get most the bacteria. The name "Tender" threw me. I wanted chewy jerky. IamMadMan and jaester posted recipes for me to start with. I tweaked them to my liking. Our local farm store has a wall of flavored cures for jerky and sausage.

The word "Tender" gets a lot of folks. The easiest way to adjust the chew the slicing direction (with the grain is chewier) and the cut of meat.

 

[Mandreyka]

A very easy and very good jerky can be made by taking some yoshidas gourmet sauce, adding whatever spices you like (pepper, crushed red etc) and throw in about 2 tsp of pink salt for about 5 lbs of meat.

Marinate 24 hours then dehydrate, it will have a nice cured color when done.