How to Make Tender Jerky At Home
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marctrejo I fold a piece in half before the cook cycle starts and then I place a probe thermometer in between the slices. It’s the closest you can get as trying to stick a probe into pieces of jerky that are already that thin and about to get thinner is near impossible!
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maxmeats Glad you found us and are getting good information from our page.
Yes, the humidity definitely will help and a pan of water is better than nothing!
I’ve never done Celery Juice Powder for a cure, probably something I should discuss with our food scientist here and then do a video on!
As for how to make it less tacky, I tried lightly dusting it with cornstarch to see if that worked, don’t do that, it did not work out well! The best thing I have found was a vacuum tumbler for a longer period of time than normal jerky and when laying it out you need to take a little extra care to make sure none of your pieces have depressions in the side facing up. If they do you will end up with an almost puddle-like area of the cure-seasoning-sugar mix. I ended up vacuum tumbling this for almost twice as long as I did regular jerky.
We worked with Excalibur and had them remake Walton’s Bold Jerky with increased sugar, we just got the seasoning and will be making a test batch shortly, I will let you know how that goes!
You could use phosphates in jerky, I never have though. I would be careful with usage levels as it would be pretty easy to dry too much out of it and you would be left with a soapy flavored coating on the outside of the jerky, no very appetizing!
Jonathon
Thanks for the response!I think a video on processed celery would be incredible. The only place I have been able to find celery powder as a cure was from “The Sausage Maker”, they have a Facebook page. It was expensive, designed only for sausages, and wasn’t packaged well.
As for the tackiness, good idea with the cornstarch! There are a bunch of big brands with zero additives that were able to achieve the soft texture with no tackiness, so I’m thinking it has to be in the processing. I read an article where someone at KRAVE mentioned a couple details about how they process their jerky. He said they first inject the meat, then cook the whole pieces, then slice, then marinate, then dry. I have messed around with the idea behind this process a lot. Injecting with brine, sous-viding at a variety of temperatures and times, slicing, marinating, and drying. Decent results, but to be honest the high sugar method you introduced to me has seemed to have better results.
Anyway, I will keep trying to figure this out and will definitely keep you guys posted if I make any headway. In the meantime, if there is anything else you think might be worth testing, please let me know! It would be great to try and perfect this process together.
Max
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I would like to try to do this - I do have some limitations as a “do-it-yourselfer.” First - no vacuum tumbler, but I do have vacuum marinating canisters, so will use them to the best of my ability. Second - looking at the thermal processing schedule, it is a bit daunting. I have a traeger, and cannot get my heat down to 110, 135, 140, 150. I can do 175. Trying to keep my lid open has been a futile pursuit - as I have no consistency in temp. Any ideas on a heat/smoking schedule with the pellet smoker? Thanks! Love watching the videos and getting ideas!
Chris -
rouse If you have a thermometer that would let you monitor the ambient temperature inside the grill (not just relying on the readout from the pellet smoker) that might let you dial in the temperature more accurately. Try playing with the lid AND different settings on your smokestack, raising it and lowering it. A key thing here will be trying to get an initial drying stage. I’d start it as low as you can with the smokestack open and the lid propped to give you good airflow. Since you’ve added cure it can withstand some low temperature initially while it dries a little, so maybe the lowest setting your smoker will go to and the lid mostly open for 20 minutes, then close the lid down to just slightly open for 1 hour, then close your lid and your smokestack and just go at 175° until you get to 165° internal temp.
It’s definitely going to be a little more difficult with a pellet style smoker, this is why not everyone makes tender jerky, it takes some practice to get it right without specialized equipment!
Good luck!
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I would like to try to do this - I do have some limitations as a “do-it-yourselfer.” First - no vacuum tumbler, but I do have vacuum marinating canisters, so will use them to the best of my ability. Second - looking at the thermal processing schedule, it is a bit daunting. I have a traeger, and cannot get my heat down to 110, 135, 140, 150. I can do 175. Trying to keep my lid open has been a futile pursuit - as I have no consistency in temp. Any ideas on a heat/smoking schedule with the pellet smoker? Thanks! Love watching the videos and getting ideas!
Chrisrouse I am about to start smoking some jerky myself and am strongly looking at setting up http://engineeredmusings.com/pismoker/ for my pellet smoker/grill. It would give me more control over the process and allow extra addons like a meat thermometer. With some editing it would even allow for schedules like the above one. Not sure about adding humidity control because most sensors don’t like real high heat but I am looking into it. Might have to have a removable one.
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I had a question about the process on this. Just wanted to clarify that after the last step of cooking at 175 with 60% RH with the internal temp reached, the next step is to dry for another hour with 0% RH, also at 175? Thats what I gathered based on the video. Also, how long roughly did this whole process take for you? Thank you.
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Dennis Guzman That is a great article you linked, thanks! maxmeats if you can control humidity then 175 with 60% RH until the meat is 160. Then stop cooking/smoking and leave out in the open air at room temp for an hour before packaging, don’t leave it in there for any longer than when the meats internal temperature reaches 160 degrees
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I have a couple of questions: 1. After marinating, do I pat the meat dry? I do this before smoking salmon. 2. Do I add smoke only for stage 2 (for 30 minutes) or do I smoke it through the remainder of the process?
Thanks in advance! -
@kanevak We do not pat it dry as we run a drying cycle at the beginning of our smoke schedule but you are free to do this, it might even cut down a little on the stickiness of the jerky.
Good question on the length of smoke. Starting at stage 2 you can smoke for the remainder of the time if you choose, I normally smoke until I reach the final stage and then just use that as thermal processing only.
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Any tips for those of us not using a tumbler and using a Weston dehydrator? I can get it pretty close to 160 deg, and don’t mind marinating it for a while. Thanks, John
vanhuffel You can throw the marinated meat in a zip loc or preferably a vacuum sealed bag and ‘knead’ it by hand for 10-20 minutes and then rest overnight, flipping on occasion. I will use my Weston racks over a covered sheet pan to cook the jerky to 160 in a 350 degree oven quickly then finish in the dehydrator set to 160.
Better Living Through BBQ!
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vanhuffel You can throw the marinated meat in a zip loc or preferably a vacuum sealed bag and ‘knead’ it by hand for 10-20 minutes and then rest overnight, flipping on occasion. I will use my Weston racks over a covered sheet pan to cook the jerky to 160 in a 350 degree oven quickly then finish in the dehydrator set to 160.
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vanhuffel I go for look more than time duration but I’d say 5-7 hours depending on how thick it is. I’ve been making super thick cut ‘logs’ lately (1”x1”x8”-10”) and that seems to be 6-7 hours. Standard 1/4” thick cuts go in about 4-5 hours. I’ve found that by the time the dehydrator gets to full temp when fully loaded it’s done. The jerky will also start to ‘sweat’ slightly with dry patches in between.
Better Living Through BBQ!
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vanhuffel I go for look more than time duration but I’d say 5-7 hours depending on how thick it is. I’ve been making super thick cut ‘logs’ lately (1”x1”x8”-10”) and that seems to be 6-7 hours. Standard 1/4” thick cuts go in about 4-5 hours. I’ve found that by the time the dehydrator gets to full temp when fully loaded it’s done. The jerky will also start to ‘sweat’ slightly with dry patches in between.
Joe Hell Wow! I think I need to reevaluate my technique. I cut it 1/4" and let it go 12-15 hours until its quite hard. I want a softer jerky. I bought the Weston to send jerky to everyone for Christmas. Have about ten pounds done so far, but it’s pretty tough stuff. Been making it for 20 years in a Nesco, and that was the way I always did it… I need to make another 15-20 pounds and trying chicken for members of my family who don’t eat red meat. Using Excalibur Sweet Teriyaki. hoping I did it right…
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Joe Hell Wow! I think I need to reevaluate my technique. I cut it 1/4" and let it go 12-15 hours until its quite hard. I want a softer jerky. I bought the Weston to send jerky to everyone for Christmas. Have about ten pounds done so far, but it’s pretty tough stuff. Been making it for 20 years in a Nesco, and that was the way I always did it… I need to make another 15-20 pounds and trying chicken for members of my family who don’t eat red meat. Using Excalibur Sweet Teriyaki. hoping I did it right…
vanhuffel I’ve also been using vegetable glycerine at a rate of approx 3/4-1 C per 5 lbs of meat instead of water. It adds a slight sweetness but it makes for an excellent soft and chewy jerky. You can find it on Amazon for approx $30 per gallon. Going from oven to dehydrator was a game changer for sure!
Better Living Through BBQ!
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vanhuffel I’ve also been using vegetable glycerine at a rate of approx 3/4-1 C per 5 lbs of meat instead of water. It adds a slight sweetness but it makes for an excellent soft and chewy jerky. You can find it on Amazon for approx $30 per gallon. Going from oven to dehydrator was a game changer for sure!
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Joe Hell do you just stack the racks on top of one another with meat loaded? then load in oven and bring it up to 160?
vanhuffel I just go one at a time but you got me thinking. If you were to have some separation between the rack you could probably stack a few on top of each other. I have some wooden ‘shipping bungs’ from wine barrels that should work perfectly for the job. If I get around to it this week I will post pics!
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Joe Hell Thanks, that’s what I would have recommended!
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What type of cooking equipment are you using to control those temps?
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rainbowrpk we made this in our Pro Smoker 500T which can control humidity and go to almost any temp we want from 80-225 and hold it, it also has a fan in it. To control your humidity in a home smoker check out https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1077/cured-sausage-205-advanced-thermal-processing
You can also get some good information from https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/1138/tender-jerky-using-home-equipment
Good luck!
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