Kitchen sink jerky

[PitRow]

Well, once again my best laid plans got foiled, though in all this turned out alright.

I had a hankering to make some jerky a couple weeks ago, so I stopped by the store on the way home from work and bought a 4-ish pound top round roast. Snag #1, turns out that what I grabbed wasn't the best piece of meat. It was a nice strip of lean beef wrapped around a complete hunk of junk. I ended up using just the thin piece that was wrapped around the outside, the inside was too much gristle and fat to be useful. Make good stew though. Dunno, never bought a top round before, so maybe that's normal. So I cut it up into pieces about the width of my finger. I like the bigger jerky nuggets. Came out with just shy of 2 lbs of useable meat after trimming the fat and silver skin.

So on to snag #2. I had planned on using some Hi Mountain jerky seasoning that I'd had sitting in the cupboard for a while. Got the cure packet out, weighed it and coated the meat with it. No problem there. Pulled the spice packet out and apparently it had been sitting in the cupboard way too long. It had melted into what had the consistency of saltwater taffy. Guess the sugar in it got too hot and melted? Dunno. Anyway thought for a while about heating it up in some water to make a marinade with, but decided that in the shape it was in I wasn't going to chance. So the meat with the cure sat in the fridge a couple days to cure.

Now to the 'kitchen sink' part. Since I didn't have the spice mix I figured I'd just make my own outta whatever looked good. I don't quite recall everything, but there was some red wine, garlic, cayenne, brown sugar, sweet chili sauce, A1 sauce I think a little black pepper, and probably some other stuff too. Mixed it up real well and threw it in the fridge again to marinate.

Snag #3. I had planned on making this last weekend, but Saturday morning we got a call that my mother-in-law was being admitted to the hospital. Blood pressure was somewhere around 240/130. Not sure how she avoided a stroke or heart attack. Anyway rushed up to the hospital and spent the entire three-day weekend there. Finally got her BP down to normal, but she still has pulmonary hypertension and low blood oxygen. They sent her home on thursday with meds and oxygen.

Anyway, I finally got to get the jerky going Sunday morning. I skewered about 6 pieces each on bamboo skewers and hung them from the racks in the bandera, fired up the A-maze-n smoker with hickory and added a couple briquettes of kingsford blue. Smoked it at about 80 degrees for 6 hours. Then I took them out of the smoker and put them on jerky racks and into the convection oven at 100 degrees for another 8 hours. Some of the real thick pieces still have a little chew to them, but most of it is just right. Pretty good flavor too. Starts off with a nice red wine flavor, then gets a little bit of sweet, and finishes off with a touch of heat. Pretty good for just throwing the kitchen sink at it.


Hunk o' meat:

Marinating in the bag

After marinating, draining a little on the jerky racks before getting skewered

Smoking away

After 6 hours of smoke

All done. They show up a lot darker in the pics than they actually are. They're a nice mahogany color.

Thanks for looking

 

[Sway]

Do you have to use the cure in the smoker? I been doing jerky for years in my dehydrator without the cure. After talking with a local jerky maker he said I didn't need it since we ate it within a week or two. I have never made any in the smoker before, so not sure if that makes a difference on using the cure or not?

 

[PitRow]

Considering it's in the danger zone of 40-140 degrees for more than the allowed 4 hours it's a nice safety net.

 

[Arlin_MacRae]

Nice jerky!
I've never used cure on jerky, whether I've smoked it or just dehydrated it BUT it will get furry if not eaten within a week or two so maybe that's a good idea!

 

[Sway]

I really only make about a pound or so, so it doesn't really last a week. That was the reason he told me I didn't really need the cure. But yeah, I have had some leftover that went past two weeks and the flavor was off.

 

[cowgirl]

Mike it looks great!
Hope your Mother in law is doing better.

 

[PitRow]

Thanks Jeanie! I can't stop eatin' the stuff so it must be good. The MIL is doing better with the oxygen, but still not out of the woods yet.

 

[B-Lazy BBQ]

Do you have to use the cure in the smoker? I been doing jerky for years in my dehydrator without the cure. After talking with a local jerky maker he said I didn't need it since we ate it within a week or two. I have never made any in the smoker before, so not sure if that makes a difference on using the cure or not?

Considering it's in the danger zone of 40-140 degrees for more than the allowed 4 hours it's a nice safety net.

Nice jerky!
I've never used cure on jerky, whether I've smoked it or just dehydrated it BUT it will get furry if not eaten within a week or two so maybe that's a good idea!

The use of a cure when smoking jerky (or sausage for that matter) does not only pertain to the length of time in the 'danger zone'. It must be used due to the fact that the product is in low temperatures and an oxygen deficient environment...the perfect breeding grounds for botulism. You do not need a cure in a dehydrator because there is plenty of oxygen being circulated around the meat. It also has nothing to do with how soon you consume the jerky. Salting and dehydrating the meat properly makes it a sufficiently unsuitable environment for bacterial growth. If it is furry, it is usually because it is not dried enough.

BTW...nice looking jerky, gotta do me some more soon:thumb:

 

[captndan]

As far as the meat you got screwed. Other than that watch the safety zone.