Homemade Jerky

There are so many ways to make jerky and every way is just perfect. I will share OUR way of making it.

I grew up making and eating venison jerky as a kid and have just started making it again in my adult years and whenever I eat a piece it takes me right back to being a kid.
Gavin harvested two deer this fall during hunting season which we are all thankful for. Having wild meat means more to me and my family than most things in our world.

One of the main things that we do with our meat is use cuts of the meat for jerky strips. I have heard there is some sort of contraption that grinds the meat and then presses in into “ground strips” but that’s one more step to making jerky and one more unnecessary piece of equipment in my house. We just simply cut the meat into strips of about 1/4 of an inch thickness and they can be as long or as short as you want them.

There are MANY different methods of marinading the meat for flavor. Many stores sell “jerky kits” of which most contain highly toxic preservatives.

I chose to use a recipe from an old book that my Dad had and has used for years. It was the book that he used for many of our meat processing projects when I was a kid. It is “The Sausage Making Cookbook” by Jerry Predika.

Here is the first recipe that I have done on my own as an adult.

NEW MEXICO STYLE JERKY RECIPE
This recipe is for 5 pounds of meat strips.

• 3 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons organic ground pepper
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 5 cloves pressed organic ground garlic
• 3/4 cup (non gmo) organic soy sauce
• 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

Combine all of the above ingredients in a bowl and thoroughly mix. Once mixed combine your jerky meat strips in a one gallon bag with the marinade. Refrigerate the bag and routinely turn the bag for mixing. Soak for approximately 12 hours, more if desired, and proceed with the drying method of your choice.

We used my Dads wood cook stove for drying. It makes me feel like a kid again! And its the most natural and self sufficient way of doing it. Its fine to use a dehydrator or oven but if you did not have electricity you could still use our method successfully.

We put two pieces of jerky per one tooth pick and hang them on the bars of one of our oven racks. Once all of the meat is hung we then leave it drip off over the sink for an hour or two. Once the meat is done dripping we then move it to the wood cook stove. We have a metal stand that we set the oven rack on. We leave it to hang dry for two or three days.

Once completely dry it can be stored in bags or buckets or jars. Anything really. We remove the toothpicks before storing. You really don’t have to but they fit better into a storage container.

What a perfect and healthy high protein snack!! Very inexpensive and very self sufficient means of gathering food. Its an easy grab and go food!! This is such a fun tradition to pass on to my boys! I hope they carry this on with their children as well!

*Healthy and Happy Home*