I started a batch last night and took pictures. After work I'll hang it in the oven and take some more pics of the final product
EDIT: As promised, here's my first attempt at jerky since I was a kid
Ingredient list
- 1 cut of London broil
- 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
- 1/2 cup worsticher sauce
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2tbsp Tabasco
- 2tbsp garlic powder
- 2tbsp onion powder
- Dash of Accent
- 4 whole dried red chiles
- 2 whole dried mora chiles
- 1/4 cup American Honey
- 2tbsp whole pepper corns
- 1tbsp deli mustard
- 1tbsp dry mustard
That list is very approximate. I didn't have a recipe I was working off of, instead I just looked over a few and put together what I had available on hand. I probably should've cut back on the number of ingredients in order to narrow down a flavor profile for future batches. This one still turned out great though!
Step 1: Lay out all the supplies and get some counter space
Step 2: Chop whole peppers and pepper corns in spice grinder
Step 3: Mix up marinade in large bowl
Step 4: Using a very sharp knife, cut meat against grain in 1/8" slices. Then I tenderized it heavily with that spikey tenderizing tool
Step 5: I heated the marinade on the stove until boiling then dropped in the meat for a minute. I've never done or seen this in the past so I really had no idea what I was doing. I may skip this step down the road
Step 6: After marinading the meat in the fridge for 24hrs, remove and stack in layers of paper towels. The top layer needs two sheets of paper towels then press them all to remove excess liquid
Step 7: Using bamboo skewers, hang the pieces with enough gap to allow for one strip per slot of oven rack. Try to group pieces by their thickness so you can save yourself effort removing pieces that dehydrate faster. I also covered the bottom rack with foil in order to catch the drippings
Step 8: Be inventive (or cheap :bouncetau ). I hung a desk fan upside down so I could keep air circulating in the oven and not let them get too hot. Set oven to 100 degrees (or as low as you can).
Step 9: After 5-6 hours remove your jerky and bag (or eat) it up!!
That's it brothers. The final result is amazing. There's so many different methods to jerky that it's kind of hard to get a bad one. Let me know if you have any suggestions for when I try this next time. Next sale I see at the store I'll buy lots of cheap cuts of meat