1st time making Tender Jerky, last time making jerky

[John Belvedere]

After watching all of Jonathon’s tender jerky videos I decided to give it a go. But before I go on I need to explain the topic heading. In reference to the last time in the heading, this will be the last time I make my jerky the old way I used to make it. The tender jerky was a Grand Slam! The jerky was the best I’ve ever made it. It was tender, flavorful and a bit hit with the family. I started out with 6 lbs. of eye round and after marinating and smoking I wound up with 4. lbs 6 oz. of the best jerky I’ve made. I did make one change to Jonathon’s method that I think really works well. The total weight of the meat was 2,746 Kg. I did 18% low sodium soy (496 grams) and 18% brown sugar 495 grams) with 2% water (55 grams) . I treated this mixture the same way I would as if making a simple syrup. The day before I started to make the jerky I combined the soy, brown sugar and water and weighed it. I then heated it to a low simmer and kept stirring until I had what I would call a nice cohesion. After everything was combined I weighed it again and added water to repl ace whatever water loss I had during the simmering process. This was then put in the fridge overnight to get nice and cold. The next day there were not sugar crystals on the bottom. I sliced the partially frozen meat against the grain into 1/4 inch strips using my Walton’s slicer. The meat was then cut in half to make nice size edible pieces. I took the soy/brown sugar syrup and added Walton’s pepper and garlic jerky seasoning as a base flavor along with 2 TBS. of garlic power, 4 tsp. of cayenne pepper and the proper amount of cure #1. The meat and the mixture was placed into a Marinade Express Pro and vacuumed tumbled for 60 min. and then placed into the fridge. The next day I opened the vacuum tumbler and hand tossed the meat in the tumbler and then vacuumed tumbled it again for another 60 min. The following day when I smoked the jerky as my smoker was coming up to temp I opened the tumbler again, mixed the meat by hand and did a final 20 min. tumble. I followed the smoke schedule that’s listed in the Waltons Tender home jerky post.

As stated I started out with 2.755 Kg (6 lbs.) of meat and with all the tumbling I wound up with a total meat weight of 3.828Kg (there was very little fluid left in the tumbler). After the smoking process I was left with 2.106 Kg or 4 lbs. 6 oz. of jerky. That to me is incredible.

A big shout out of appreciation to Jonathon and Walton’s for not only their excellent products but also for sharing their knowledge and also for this awesome community.

[Jonathon]

John Belvedere I quite literally cannot WAIT for you to listen to our podcast that will be out next Monday. Many, many good laughs should be had on something that happened that ties to this post! The lack of product loss is shocking, thats as good as I do with what I assume is better equipment, so well done there for sure. I am thinking your 60 minute tumble the next day helped with that. Also, really nice and thorough write-up of your process. This deserves a tip of the hat!