Teriyaki jerky seasoning too salty

[Dave in AZ]

Bummer to hear this! Sounds like you misidentified your seasoning maybe…
Look at your teriyaki seasoning. They sell 3 types, all with similar names and not located near each other on conversion chart, nor tabulated under “teriyaki”. If you just scroll through the conversion chart, the mandarin teriyaki comes first under M, but the teriyaki is under T if you just sped to the Ts. MANDARIN teriyaki uses only 2T plus a bit, half of what Teriyaki uses. Here is the sku to compare,
Teriyaki Jerky Seasoning
4550340050.

If you actually bought the Mandarin Teriyaki seasoning, you used 2x too much.

[Dave in AZ]

Best way is to not use a chart. Just do the math. I know you can do it, but a quick review for everyone and Jonathon did a video on this too:
Look at how much meat the package is for, say 25lbs. Now get a ratio using hiw much meat you’re doing, 5 lbs: 5/25 or 1/5 or 0.2. Now just multiply the seasoning bag total by that to get amount, and use a scale to weigh it. So for mandarin teriyaki, 2.375 lbs per 25 lbs, x0.2 = 0.475 lbs or 7.6 oz.

[Robert Brancheau]

Whole muscle. (Had to look up restructured muscle. Still not quite sure what that is)

[Robert Brancheau]

I measure out in level cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons.

I probably should have mentioned, I rubbed down the meat with the seasoning, then put it in a zip lock with a cup of water. Then placed it in the fridge overnight.

[Robert Brancheau]

4550340050 is the Teriyaki seasoning I used.

BTW, I just made a 5 pound batch of the Chorizo seasoned sausage. 0290000. And 5 pounds of the Blue Ribbon Brat seasoning. 0210360. Both turned out VERY good.

[processhead]

Robert Brancheau said in Teriyaki jerky seasoning too salty:

I measure out in level cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons.

I probably should have mentioned, I rubbed down the meat with the seasoning, then put it in a zip lock with a cup of water. Then placed it in the fridge overnight.

I can’t seeing any of your subsequent processing steps having any effect on the saltiness.
I also did not see any adjustments to the spice quantity regardless of whether you do whole muscle or ground jerky. Note that some jerky seasonings do adjust the seasoning amount depending on whether ground or whole meat, but not this one.
Assuming that the amount of spice used is correct for the amount of meat, all that leaves is uneven application of the seasoning to the meat.

You should be able to tell this though, because some of the meat would taste under-seasoned and some would taste over-seasoned.

[glen]

rebranch Was the meat beef or pork?
Some beef and usually all pork already have some salt added

[Robert Brancheau]

It was lean beef.

That was the only jerky seasoning I’ve tried from Waltons. I think I’ll try another and see if I get the same results.

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

Robert Brancheau said in Teriyaki jerky seasoning too salty:

Whole muscle. (Had to look up restructured muscle. Still not quite sure what that is)

Ground meat jerky

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

processhead spice wouldn’t t need to be adjusted, but if I’m not mistaken, you don’t need to hold ground meat overnight for the cure. I’ve done this before and had my ground jerky turn out very salty. Wondering if it might have been because of curing overnight.

[processhead]

Deepwoodsbutcher said in Teriyaki jerky seasoning too salty:

processhead spice wouldn’t t need to be adjusted, but if I’m not mistaken, you don’t need to hold ground meat overnight for the cure. I’ve done this before and had my ground jerky turn out very salty. Wondering if it might have been because of curing overnight.

Yes, agree on no adjustment in this case.
I only mentioned it because of Dave in AZ earlier comment and also Hi Mountain jerky seasoning does call for more seasoning in their ground jerky than in whole muscle when following their instructions, for reason I never understood.

[Dave in AZ]

Well, here’s a possible culprit. My logic chain:

1. Either it is actually too salty, or taster is not aligned with standard taste bellcurve. 4 tasters all said too salty, therefore it is actually too salty.
   1a. Either used too much, or used correct amount and the ends up being too salty. Reviewed calculations, product upc, and correct amount was used. Therefore, recommended amount is incorrectly high in salt.
2. Standard salt acceptance is 1.5% to 3% salt vs. Meat… wet meat is used for that calc usually. Anything over 3% actual in finished product usually perceived as too salty.
3. This teriyaki usage rate is 3.8oz per 5 lbs, which is 4.75%. Looking at the ingredient list, it appears to be more salt than usual, salt is listed 4 times as included ingredient. Once as salt, twice in dehydrated soy sauce which will be mostly salt once water is gone, and once as hydrolyzed soy protein which is primarily salt again. It also has citric acid, which tends to emphasize salt flavors.
   Ingredients:Salt, Dehydrated Soy Sauce (Soy Sauce [Wheat, Soybeans, Salt], Maltodextrin, Salt), Hydrolyzed Soy Protein (Contains Salt, Caramel Color), Spices, Fructose, Garlic Powder, Citric Acid.
4. Of the 4.75% of this spice mix added, I’d bet 3.5% or more is salt. If you dehydrate your jerky to 50%, the final saltiness your tastebuds get is 7% to 9% salt vs meat, which is probably over 2 or 3 times what most people like. Jerky, unlike most other products, you can easily vary the perceived saltiness by 50% depending on how much you dry it.

I weigh out all my salt for recipes. Recently made a fairly dry canadian bacon at 82% final weight, so 18 % loss. It started at 2.8% salt, so ended at 3.4% salt, and that is about the max salt I would want in a dried meat. If it was 7% salt, I know I couldn’t eat it.

So, my suspicion is the starting recommendation recipe for this blend with 4 salt sources, is too much salt for a product you then concentrate dry.

If Walton’s would publish the sodium content of their spice mixes, we would know exactly how much salt/sodium we are using…

[YooperDog]

rebranch my recommendation would be to use an accurate scale. A scale will keep you accurate.
The cure 1 is a little high, 1/4 tsp, IMHO. Dave in AZ makes some good points along with Deepwoodsbutcher and processhead. Did you shake up/mix the spice bag to counteract any settling? Just my thoughts.

[Brianzipperdog123]

rebranch like I told you guys you’ve got to go metric to avoid screwups. The math is simple and easy.

[processhead]

I am not going so far as to say that the volume vs weight measurements are the actual source of rebranch salt issues, but I personally stay away from volume measurements on all dry ingredients these days.

It might be interesting to take some of the remaining seasoning and do a small split batch with half volume measurements and the other half by weight. That assumes he has the scale with the capability to measure the amounts needed. Even a reloading scale.

[twilliams]

rebranch so to just throw my .02 in, I went through and made sure calculations were correct for the jerky seasoning you used which they were and I will add to that. As others have said weighing is much better than hand measurements. If you have a scale these are the weights in grams which is what you will want - seasoning for a 5lb batch, 3.8 ounces=107.728 grams and sure cure .2 ounces = 5.67 grams. One thing I’m not sure on is if measurements should change from whole muscle jerky vs restructured jerky which is just simply ground meat that is made into strips using a jerky gun which looks like a full tube caulk gun. I do not recommend using a reloading scale as processhead touched on as I found no measurements in ounces to grains. Grains and grams are different weight measures. I watched a couple videos, one from Hi Mountain and the one from Walton’s. Waltons used water for an overnight soak and Hi Mountain did not for an overnight rest both refrigerated obviously. I would go by what the directions on the bag of the seasoning says per the manufacturer but remember we are trying to remove or suppress the water by dehydration and/or sugar content to eliminate bacterial growth.

I also went through and read the reviews of the seasoning you used and there were a few reports of over saltiness that they had. As well as kind of bland with not enough teriyaki flavor as well as others surprised of the amount of heat they were not expecting.

I hope you find a solution to have a better outcome, it’s rather disappointing throwing good meat and hard earned money in the trash. I’ve been there done that numerous times. Mostly my error but some seasoning issues as well.

[Dave in AZ]

twilliams That’s a really nice and lot of work you did. I’m very interested and will be watching the teriyaki spices. I had 4 families of relatives over today, they all had my venison beef snack sticks which were Willie’s seasoning. They all liked, but wished they were teriyaki I think. I myself love the Willie’s mix, it is exactly what I think of as a meat stick, so I was surprised that almost all of them commented I should make teriyaki ones.

Now I’m wondering how folks felt the Mandarin and the Sweet teriyaki blends stacked up against the regular teriyaki, for folks that have made 2 or 3 of the versions. And will also have to search to see how much of the jerky seasoning they used in snack sticks to get the right salt in the more water sticks. I always forget just mixing a bit and cooking to taste it is good, but I will have to use a really accurate scale if I do that small amount.

[samspade]

I made some sticks last year that I used Tamari powder. My son has wheat alergy and most teriyaki seasonings use soy sauce which has wheat products. The powder tasted fairly salty so I cut back on the salt to about1.25% and brown sugar along with cure and the tang of EC. Turned out pretty close to what I felt a teriyaki stick should be.

[Dave in AZ]

samspade that’s good info. It must be very hard for you cooking, you have to really pay a lot of attention to product labels and even extrapolate a bit to be sure you know what is going into your stuff to protect your family’s health. I can barely imagine. My daughter has a no-gluten friend, and even with that being on most package fronts now, it is still hard to be sure when she comes over for dinner!

My wife is at the edge of reducing her sodium, or having to start high blood pressure medication, so I am trying to pay attention to all the salt/ sodium I’m putting in food, using lemons and acid when I can to still keep flavor. I’m making a lot of food with less salt and letting family add it at plate, but that doesn’t work great meat products where you need the salt to modify proteins.

[twilliams]

Dave in AZ I put quite a bit of faith in written and score reviews in all seasonings and products. Then make a determination if I want to try it. I am not a huge teriyaki guy. Even in Chinese or Japanese foods. My wife loves it so I do it for her. I have only done mandarin teriyaki so I cant give a comparison review of the ones you are interested in. The reviews on the teriyaki folks said that if you want more of a teriyaki flavor to go with the sweet teriyaki.