I just made another batch of ground beef jerky in my L'Equip dehydrator and think I've hit on a really good seasoning recipe. It's been a little bit of trial and error, but this last batch is really pretty good and gets a huge thumbs up from Jack - my trusted food taster.
Lots of people closely guard their jerky recipes, but I'm more than happy to share this one with anyone who wants to try it - it has a deep smokey flavor that Jack and I love. I used 4lbs of lean ground (93/7) beef and added the following ingredients:
- 2/3 cup of Worcester sauce
- 2/3 cup of soy sauce
- 2 tsp of ground black pepper
- 2 tsp of garlic powder
- 2 tsp of onion powder
- 2 tsp of Liquid Smoke
- 4 tsp of curing salt (optional)
Four pounds of ground beef will usually fill all six trays of my dehydrator and yield just over a single pound of dried jerky, or close to 40 full length strips. Feel free to try this recipe and tweak as you see fit. let me know if it works for you or if you have other suggestions for jerky seasonings.
Gear Links: My Store | REI | CampSaver | Patagonia | Altrec Follow @bfgreen
7 comments:
Sounds like a great recipe. I'm going to give it a try.
How important is the curing salt? I'd prefer to leave it out and I don't think it adds any flavor. My jerky doesn't generally last all that long.
Thanks for the recipe.
Carl
@Carl, funny you should ask. This recipe is great, but like you I am very careful about the amount of sodium in my meals especially having my kids eating it. I actually left out the curing salt completely on this last batch and loved the result. I'll probably stop using the curing salt from this point on.
There doesn't appear to be any real loss in overall taste by leaving out the salt. The only noticeable difference was that the jerky mix took a little longer to dehydrate than it does with the curing salt added; 8 hours apposed to the usual 6 hours. Which I think is a small price to pay for being able to remove the extra sodium.
Definitely try it without the salt and let me know how it goes, this is one of my kids favorite flavors of jerky :)
I made the recipe over the weekend. I did not use curing salt but I did add a bit of table salt. I also added 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper but did not taste it so I would add more next time.
The flavor is great. Next time I'm going to add a bit less of the wet ingredients so it will dry quicker. Took about 8 hours.
Thanks for sharing this great recipe. I'm heading from Green Bay WI to the Gila Wilderness in southern NM this weekend for a week of backpacking. The jerky will be a nice addition.
Carl
I haven't played with the spicyness of the recipe yet, so I'd be interested to hear what you find out. I know what you mean about the wet ingredients and I just discovered at my local Food Lion this weekend that there is a dry Worcestershire powder mix that appears to have pretty much the same ingredients as the sauce - that might be a good way to reduce the amount of liquid and speed up the drying time.
As I experiment I'll update my blog and share the results.
Now that I am gainfully unemployed, perhaps I will try this with some of the venison in my freezer this week. It sounds like it would be a great recipe but I might mix in a touch of sriracha sauce for some chili-spiciness...
Sounds like a great recipe to try in my new dehydrator. I've got bananas in right now. My brother does an excellent hamburger jerky, I think his secret is Tony zacheries(sp?) Seasoning. I'll have to hit him up and I'll let you know how it turns out. If you have any good backpacking recipies please share them, I've got a post on our FB wall for them.
Tim@Appalachia n Beyond
The curing salt is not for flavor, it's used to kill botulism. When using hamburger, it becomes more important to cure properly- beings as ground burger is a haven for botulism. ...Nitrates vs. botulism. Your call.
Post a Comment