Primal Jerky Creation Station
Making jerky is one of my favorite hobbies. I usually make about 3 pounds (before drying) every 2 weeks.
I know that I have been alluding to something special about my jerky all week so I guess I will finally let the cat out of the bag. I make jerky with no heat, no cooking, no boiling and nothing to ruin that delicious meat. Those of you that eat ceviche or sushi know how much better uncooked meat is. Cooking damages the meat and takes so much out of beef jerky. Is it safe? Very. I have been eating jerky made this way on and off for over 20 years (My mom used to make it when we were kids) with no problems. We kill the bacteria in another way, but we will get into that.
Not only is making your own jerky delicious and rewarding but it is so much cheaper than that preservative rubbish you can buy down at the Quickie Mart. Also, it is so easy!
What will you need? Not much:
1. Meat
2. Marinade supplies
3. Cooling racks
4. Fans
Steps and details:
1. Meat selection is important. This is one time that you want a lean meat. Fat will go rancid faster that meat. I personally use a Sirloin Tip, 3 pounds at a time (It is a lot of meat). It is inexpensive and suited perfectly for jerky. The meat should be cut thin ACROSS the grain in order to keep your jerky from getting too tough. You can either have your butcher cut it for you or you can cut it yourself with your handy deli slicer. The meat will need to be slightly frozen in order to cut it thin enough. 1/4″ is about where you will want it cut. You can tell the butcher to cut it at a 12 or a 13 for thin jerky or a 14 or 15 for thick jerky (I like mine thick). These numbers don’t usually translate to home slicers (or at least mine). Now you are ready to…
2. Marinate. Your marinade is important. You need a salt based marinade as it will be what kills the bacteria as the meat dries. For this reason I use soy sauce as the base for all my marinades. Beyond that, you can explore all the different flavors that you want to try. I do recommend using a tad bit of honey in your marinade. This is not necessary but the little bit of sugar will keep your jerky from over drying. I use 1 teaspoon of honey in 3 pounds of meat so it really is not very much at all.
This is an example of my last marinade: Soy Sauce, Worcestershire, Minced Garlic, Sea salt, Garlic Salt, Chile Powder, Crushed Red Pepper, Onion Powder and that dabble of honey.
You will want to marinade the meat for 3-6 hours depending on how flavorful you want your jerky. Anything less than 3 hours will not penetrate the meat well enough and anything over 6 will make your jerky TOO salty. I usually like a 4 to 5 hour marinade. After your meat is done marinating, you can…
3. Put the meat on your cooling racks. I buy racks by the pack at the dollars store. Lay your meat out on the racks in a single layer. Make sure that there are no overlaps and that you meat does not bunch up or fold over on itself. Now you can…
4. Dry the meat. What is the ideal climate for drying meat? Most people would say the Sahara or a desert… and they would be wrong. The truth is that you would be much better off on top of Mt Everest. The best environment for drying meat is a cold, dry environment. We will simulate this with box fans (available very cheap at Target or Walmart). Find a relatively cool area of your house. I use my kitchen but also garages work especially well in winter. Lay your racks out in front of box fans (Pictures below) and run your fans on high. The more fans you have running, the faster your jerky will dry out. I leave mine overnight. It is recommended that you leave this setup running for 16-18 hours in order to fully dry your meat. I find that my setup is very efficient and my jerky is usually done after 12-14 hours.
SoG Jerky Stations 1 &2
Now you can…
5. Enjoy. This jerky is delicious but keep in mind that it does not have all of the preservatives that store bought jerky has. Keeping it in the refridgerator or freezer will help prolong its life. The jerky in our house always goes within two weeks of making it so I cannot really speculate on the true longevity of this jerky.
I dare you to try this at least once and not be hooked! It may seem like a lot but it is truly quite simple and the jerky is hard to beat.
December 4th, 2008 - 1:09 am
SoG,
Bravo! This looks awesome and the marinade sounds delicious… which is exactly where I’m putting this article! Way to go!
All the Best,
Andrew R
December 4th, 2008 - 8:16 am
YEAH MAN!!!!!!
Ok, that’s looks so delicious.
SOG… Make you a deal;
I’ll send you some starfruit this weekend and you’ll send me a little bit of your home made jerky. What say you?
Marc
December 4th, 2008 - 8:19 am
Looks great just need to find some time to try it. I’ll need to get some more racks and sheet pans. I think I’m going to try to render some grass fed fat this weekend. I’ve been meaning to do that for a while and hope the fat in the freezer is ok.
Care to share the proportions of your marinade for a starting point.
Thanks,
Joe
December 4th, 2008 - 8:54 am
Andrew,
Thanks man. You should try putting this article in your belly too!
Marc,
I finally found star fruit locally so nice try! Lol, being the do it yourself guy I know you are, you will probably want to give this a go yourself anyways. Just be prepared for it to drive sir eddie nuts as you are making it.
Joe,
I pick up all my racks and sheet pans at the dollar store. Not the highest of quality but the price is right and they get the job done.
As for the marinade, I am guilty of not really proportioning. I fill a ziploc freezer bag with a good amount soy sauce and then just add everything by eye until it “smells like I want it to taste” I guess you could say. Then I put all my meat in the bag and throw it in the fridge. every hour or so I go in and flip the bag over and shake it around to get a good covering of my chile powder and crushed red pepper.
Thank you for all the great comments!
December 6th, 2008 - 6:48 pm
I’ve never had jerky…the stuff they sell in stores never looked at all appealing and the idea of it kind of weirds me out (even though I love raw fish and meat), but damn, your recipe really makes me want to try some. The place where I buy my grass-fed beef and bison makes jerky–I’ll have to buy that to see if I like it enough to make my own.
Great blog.
December 7th, 2008 - 7:47 am
Leniza,
So very true. Most of the stuff in the stores is not very appetizing. Real jerky though is absolutely delicious and nutritious! I have been meaning to make bison jerky. Maybe next time around I will do a bison batch. Make sure that you still look at the ingredients of the jerky the place sells. I looked at even the elk jerk at the local place where I get my meats and they were still putting a lot of sugar and preservatives in the Jerky.
December 7th, 2008 - 11:24 am
[...] And speaking of the holidays, nothing says ‘Christmas’ like yuletide jerky. Guest poster and frequent commenter Son of Grok has a few good tips on homemade jerky. [...]
December 8th, 2008 - 11:24 am
SOK,
I just picked up a half a grassfed bison (a Montana ranch delivers to a central place in my area once or twice a year for co-op buys); it’s cut, wrapped, and frozen. This is the second bison buy I’ve made this year and this time several people shared in the purchase (I didn’t have enough freezer space for all of it but didn’t want to miss the opportunity.
This time I plan to try some of the meat as jerky, thanks to your inspiring post. Have you tried bison? What about other primal cuts, like the round? I’d rather save that nice sirloin tip roast for grilling instead, and use the round if I can. It’s very, very lean, but not a tender cut like the sirloin. I do have some sirloin steaks, so I guess I can try some of both and see how they come out.
I do have a number of sheet pans with racks, but I’m tempted to try the oven for drying, set to the lowest temp of 170°F, then if I prop the door open a bit with a wooden spoon, I can keep the air circulating and cooler at about 150°F (that’s what I do to dry soaked/sprouted nuts). Think that will work? I could do the countertop fan thing like you do, but I don’t really have a lot of undisturbed counter space to leave racks out with fans that long (not with a family in the family all the time), plus it might untrain the cat to start jumping up on the counter
. Plus I think I put the fans away for the winter with dust and stuff still on them – ugh. No time to clean those right now.
I have a dehydrator on my wish list, but I don’t really want to wait until after Christmas to make jerky. Maybe I’ll test a small batch in the oven and report back.
December 8th, 2008 - 11:51 am
[...] And speaking of the holidays, nothing says ‘Christmas’ like yuletide jerky. Guest poster and frequent commenter Son of Grok has a few good tips on homemade jerky. [...]
December 8th, 2008 - 12:06 pm
Anna,
Round works great so don’t worry about that! I really really want to do buffalo jerky but I have not gotten around to it yet. Turkey also makes a pretty good jerky as does elk.
As for the oven, that is a very popular method for the jerky and one that I have tried. In my opinion… DON’T DO IT! Really, when you use the oven or a dehydrator you are ruining the meat. Just do the air dry method that I recommend with a box fan. I promise that the jerky will turn out so much better. Heat is NOT required to dry meat. It isn’t even ideal for drying meat. You want that cool dry environment that I mentioned.
December 31st, 2008 - 8:25 am
tknDgI Thanks for good post
February 4th, 2009 - 8:56 am
[...] on Soy over at Modern Forager. I generally only have a little soy in the form of soy sauce in my homemade jerky (which I eat daily). As we know from the Japanese, a little soy won’t kill you so I never [...]
February 21st, 2009 - 10:25 am
[...] The Son of Grok Jerky Method [...]
February 21st, 2009 - 1:21 pm
[...] Son of Grok Blog Archive Recipe: The SoG Jerky Method How to Make Your Own Jerky | Mark’s Daily Apple [...]
February 21st, 2009 - 6:56 pm
For those of you visiting this post for the first time. I have stopped using soy sauce and started using sea salt and water. It makes MUCH better jerky and it is healthier!.
February 24th, 2009 - 6:28 am
[...] in the process of making some last night after reading this blog: Son of Grok Blog Archive Recipe: The SoG Jerky Method I bought 2 pounds of 1/4 inch thick top flank at my local meat store for 6.99/lb. I then cut the [...]
March 20th, 2009 - 8:13 am
[...] are some ideas: 1. Make an SoG Recipe. 2. Beef Jerky! 3. Make your own Mayonnaise. 4. Build a slosh tube or sand bag for exercising at home. 5. Do any [...]
March 20th, 2009 - 2:47 pm
SoG,
as i am new to the world of paleo eating, i wonder if you have tried liquid smoke in the marinade and if that is okay? the bottle i have in my pantry says it is just natural smoke contained in water. i want to use some in my pulled pork sauce tomorrow night. i have used it in other recipes before and it does add a good flavour.
also, i am going to try some of my own “caveman cookies” tomorrow, based on your recipes. thanks so much for the inspiration. even my sugar addicted husband thought they sounded delicious and is willing to try them!
thanks!!!
March 20th, 2009 - 5:23 pm
sammylou,
I don’t personally use liquid smoke but I also don’t see anything wrong with using it. Double points if you make your own! Liquid smoke is a popular addition to jerky marinades. Good luck with the cookies too ! Let me know how they turn out…. I highly recommend the Caveman Banana nut bars and the gorilla cake… especially for the sugar addicted husband.
April 16th, 2009 - 2:26 am
Great work! I also have my own blog I just find it hard to write quality content like this.
I guess I really don’t have the time.
May 6th, 2009 - 7:40 pm
[...] And if you just want to make your own with some healthy, natural, grass-fed beef: Recipe: The SoG Jerky Method [...]
May 28th, 2009 - 4:38 am
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
July 22nd, 2009 - 8:41 pm
Liquid smoke is fine…you can even make your own. Google ‘how to make liquid smoke’ and chose ur method.
If u don’t have space to lay out racks… you can lay the jerky on some sort of rack (paper air-conditioner filters, white plastic egg crate light covers, window screen etc) and stack them together and bungee cord to a box fan. It takes longer but keeps out critters and saves on space.