Quote:
Originally Posted by kazana
Sigh, jerky lovers. When everyone knows biltong is where the money's at.
Ok, the fiance is South African, gets her biltong now mailed in from another ex-pat who lives in Georgia. We have at least 5 pounds in the freezer right now. I guess its a nostalgia for home thing, but I get the glare if I so much as sniff at her biltong.
OK it tastes pretty good, but I don't quite get leaving the fat in the meat, figure it would rancid up. But I was raised up on jerky, so gonna stick with the American way.
I will buy a rump roast, 5 lbs, cut all the fat off and use it to grind up with my venison I use to make burgers, then jerk the rest of the beef. As well as that will jerk the rest of the venison that I don't grind. I have a food dehydrator and am getting a low temperature smoker today from Amazon.
I have tried every different way to jerk the meat that I can, from "fixing" it in apple vinegar and spices, smashing it, leaving it in thicker cuts, soaking for days in cold mixes of various flavors etc. But have never been satisfied. It doesn't mean the stuff doesn't scarfed up like gold at deer camp or home, by all the leeches, I just have never got it up to the standard of really good commercial jerky.
So my next plan, is to take all of the venison in the freezer, cut it in to 1/4 inch thick, 2-3 inch wide slabs, soak in a mix of basalmic and apple vinegar, with no salt, play with the soak time (the vinegar fixes or cold cooks the meat with its acidity)then find a dry rub with as little salt as possible (over salted jerky has been a problem for me), then use the new smoker at the lowest temperature possible to get the meat to a nice pliable dryness. We will see how that goes.
Any other stories of home made jerky are appreciated.
Plus rump roast beef>>>venison for jerky, but the venison is lean, organic, free range, hormone free, and fair caught, and if I am going to all the trouble (and bit of emotional angst) to kill a deer, I am going to give that meat higher priority.
Last edited by ContactGSW; 08-26-2015 at 10:51 AM.