Jonathon
Wow, this is really awesome content, appreciate the work you guys did on this! I’ve spent the past year trying to replicate the really tender brands like “KRAVE”. I think my issue has always been misunderstanding the concepts of water activity vs. moisture content, and this was very eye opening.

I’ve done a couple tests using your method with pretty good results. I don’t have a humidity-controlled oven, so have been adding a pan of water to my oven and putting dehydrator trays inside. Not perfect, but the humidity step definitely helps.

As you mention, the final product is left with a tacky exterior. Any thoughts on how to minimize this? I’ve noticed a lot of brands use “cane sugar” instead of brown sugar, I will try giving that a shot. Maybe use some phosphates instead of sugar to increase the water holding capacity?

Also, I was wondering if you’ve ever experimented with using celery powder/juice as your nitrite? I really want to perfect an all-natural jerky, but am uncertain where to start when it comes to processing and quantifying nitrite levels in celery.

Really happy I stumbled upon your site, thank you!
Max

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

Jonathon Hi Jonathon. Those advanced jerky classes sounds very interesting, looking forward to them! Perhaps you can look into making salmon jerky as a less traditional meat. I’ve made it a few times, and is great, just fatty, so not really shelf stable.

For beef jerky, I’ve been doing some experimenting with the thermal processing guide and process from your article: “how to make tender jerky at home”. Its lead to big improvements, but still having trouble re-creating the texture and mouthfeel of store bought jerky. It doesn’t have the same shreddable tear to it, and is somewhat tacky. Its almost like a pellicle formed on the outside, despite the very low and slowly rising temps. On the other hand, store bought is completely dry on the outside (though still tender on the inside), and almost with a sort of fuzz on the outside. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Also, I learned that most large-scale companies inject the meat with the marinade, tumble it, THEN slice directly onto oven trays. Perhaps this has something to do with it?

Jonathon
Interesting idea with the tuna. Makes sense since its so lean. Looking forward to the upcoming videos!

I’m still trying to figure out the reason for the tacky surface when doing the “tender jerky” process. I’m wondering if maybe the storing process has something to do with it. Like after sitting in a bag with an oxygen absorber for a few weeks, the outer moisture might be absorbed. The reason I say this is that if you leave jerky out in the open air for about 3 days, all of the tackiness is gone… I just realized this accidentally