The perks of the job.

Beef Jerky

Beef Jerky has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. I had a neighbor across the street that would make beef jerky. I would mow his lawn every couple weeks in the summer and he would pay me with a $20 bill and a few pieces of beef jerky. I’ve had beef jerky from the jar in the convenience store, the Jack Links bag of jerky and even the classic machine formed treasure, Slim Jims (I don’t think it can even be called real beef). Still, nothing matched the taste of the homemade stuff.

When I went into high school and had my first real job, my summer days were in the sporting goods store, not mowing my neighbor’s lawn. The store didn’t hand out paychecks with a piece of beef jerky either, unfortunately. But on occasion if I ran into my neighbor and he had a fresh batch made, he would come out and give me a few pieces. I had asked multiple times how it was made, but it always seemed so complicated to do myself.

Fast-forwarding to my post-college life, I looked into making my own beef jerky. It is not as hard as I once thought as a youngster; you just need to have a food dehydrator. There are quite a few brands on the market, both fancy and basic, but they all do the same thing. I went onto eBay and bought a used machine for about $30. From there, the rest has been history in the making!

What you need:

Food Dehydrator, electric outlet timer (optional)

Ingredients:

3-8 pounds top round beef or similar

1/4c. Soy sauce

Cola

1T. Onion power

1T. Garlic powder

Squeeze of lemon juice

1/4c. Teriyaki sauce,

1/4c. BBQ sauce,

3T. Brown sugar

3T. Honey

Crushed red pepper flakes to taste

Black pepper to taste

Directions:

Start with a small batch and work your way up as you find flavors you like. The recipe above is the main go-to recipe I use. You can easily tweak the recipe and add more of a certain flavor you may fancy, or venture off into your own mixture. Start by trimming the fat off the outer edges of the meat. Next, you need to slice the meat thin. This is not an easy task with a large piece of meat. If you have a deli slicer, that is the best option for even, thin pieces. For the majority of us who don’t own a slicer, the best way to get nice even slices is to put the meat in the freezer for an hour to an hour and a half. The meat will be semi solid, but still easy to cut. Slice pieces to a desired size, but make sure they are not thicker than a 1/4 in. A 1/8 in is an ideal size. Place all of the sliced meat into a large bowl. Add your dry ingredients and toss the meat so the pieces are evenly covered. Add all the remaining ingredients. When everything is evenly coated, use cola to fill the bowl until all of your meat is submerged. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place the bowl in the fridge for 24-36 hours. Once the meat has marinated, plug your dehydrator into your timer (if you have one) and set it to stay on for 8 hours. Make sure the dehydrator is on the meat setting or set to 165 degrees. Place the marinated meat on the dehydrator racks. Try to keep all the meat evenly spaced. The pieces can be touching, but don’t overlap them. If you want a little more pepper flavor or a little more heat, you can lightly sprinkle black pepper or crushed red pepper flakes on the meat once the trays are full. After the 8 hours, you will notice the meat has shriveled to about half the size of the original marinated pieces. Don’t freak out, his is normal and the beef jerky is done! You can eat the jerky immediately. Seal the jerky in a plastic bag and consume with in about a week. Fair warning, it never lasts that long and you won’t want to share! Cheers!