Making homemade beef jerky is a fun and rewarding project that allows for experimentation with flavors and avoids preservatives. Choose a lean cut of meat, season it with marinade or dry spices, and dry it in the sun, oven, food dehydrator, or smoker until almost black in color and rubbery in texture.
Beef jerky is a popular snack, not only because it tastes great and is high in protein, but also because it keeps and travels well. While there’s often a wide variety of beef jerky flavors at your local grocery or grocery store, making your own beef jerky can be a fun and rewarding project. You can avoid the preservatives in commercial jerky and experiment with the flavors. Homemade jerky is also cheaper than the store-bought variety.
The first step in making beef jerky is choosing a good cut of meat. Game meats such as venison can be used in place of beef. Choose a lean cut and use a sharp knife to cut it along the grain into bite-sized strips. One-inch (2.5 cm) cubes are another option. Remove any greasy or white tissue. It may be easier to cut the meat if it’s slightly frozen.
Next, you need to season the meat. There are nearly endless options for this step. You can marinate the meat overnight in the refrigerator using your favorite barbecue sauce or marinade. Alternatively, you can blanch the meat in boiling water and use dry spices to season it, or you can simmer the meat briefly, about a minute, in a hot marinade. Many marinade recipes can be found in cookbooks or online and are easy to customize to suit personal tastes or develop a distinctive flavor.
Finally, the dried meat must be dried. Purists may want to hang the seasoned beef strips in the sun for a few days. Tie each one onto a piece of string and hang them where they will get plenty of sunlight and air. Use cheesecloth to protect the meat from parasites. It may be necessary to bring the jerky inside overnight to protect it from the morning dew.
For those who prefer more modern – and quicker – methods, dried beef can be dried in the oven or with the aid of a food dehydrator. If using the oven, turn it on to the lowest setting to avoid overcooking the meat. Arrange the beef strips on a wire rack over a baking sheet to catch the drippings. The strips shouldn’t touch each other and should have plenty of airflow around them. Leave the door partially open, perhaps propped up with a spoon, and your beef jerky will be ready in six to twelve hours.
A food dehydrator should contain instructions on how to jerk the meat, and the hold time is comparable to the stove method. Another option is to use a smoker, which will also take at least six hours but offers the added benefit of a smoky flavor. When using any of the methods mentioned above, except drying in the sun, check by jerking regularly after six hours. The beef jerky should be almost black in color and the texture of rubber. Don’t let it get too dry, but don’t interrupt the drying process if the meat is still raw inside.
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