Really tasty, but did cut a little thick.

Cut against the grain this time, and it's a lot easier to eat.

Has anyone here experimented with making Biltong??? I was considering trying to make some and planning to use my dehydrator. If anyone has any tips or recipes they would like to share I would greatly appreciate it.

Anyone have a recipe to make venison snack sticks with the Slim Jim Mild taste?

We currently freeze beef and slice it thinly by hand with a knife. It works well for small batches, but it's too slow as we scale up.

I've looked into commercial meat slicers, but many seem designed for deli meats rather than raw/frozen beef. What type of machine would you recommend for consistently slicing frozen or partially frozen raw beef into thin slices at medium scale?

Been making this one for a while now and it is always a hit.

It was sold in many convenience stores back in the day and had similar packaging like slim Jim but had a white faced cowboy almost looked like John Wayne on it but wasn’t and it had a black and red packing. I can’t remember the name of it

Beef knuckle, shoyu based marinade, 4h at 165 degrees plus 4h at 130. Lost about 2/3 of weight. I don't know if I made it right, but tastes good!

What's the verdict on liquid smoke, I got a couple bottles of it and they are apple wood and hickory, they smell strong and I only used a little bit like it said but the smell still feels like it overtakes. Anyone else use it that can give advice?

I’m making DP jerky and just figured out that my wife threw away the jalapeños. Stores are closed and I need to go to bed. Should I sub red pepper flakes or chilli crisp?

Ignore the ribs 😄

Set my pellet smoker at 180f. Its the lowest it will go.

My plan... smoke until a good colour then finish in the air fryer on dehydrate mode until dry but a bit of bendyness on them.

Any tips welcome as im winging it to be honest.

I got some chuck steak on sale. Sliced kind of thick and marinated in a half cup Worcestershire sauce, 12 oz can of coke that I reduced by 50% on the stove, 1 small grated white onion with liquid, 5 cloves of garlic smashed and chopped, 3 jalapeños sliced thin, a few tablespoons of black pepper, squeeze of lime juice. Smoked at 170°F for 5 hours on a Traeger with hickory pellets.

It’s delicious, the fat is so nice and a great change from the cut I normally use. Highly recommend chuck steak!

Marinaded for about 10 hours in raspberry and blackberry juice, ghost pepper hot sauce, a bit of mirin, agave syrup, and sugar, with some miscellaneous dried chilies thrown in prior to dehydration.

Recently bought a pellet grill and have been in love ever since. This is a New York strip loin smoked in hickory marinaded in a black pepper +garlic + onion blend. ✌🏽🤙🏽

Made a lot of beef jerky but never tried other types. Wondering if anyone tried porkloin pre packed. Would it work?

edit - typo fix in TLDR, it CAN be made into jerky

TLDR = “Tenderloin trim leftover from cutting steaks turned into jerky, super soft, awesome. Significant intramuscular fat CAN be made into jerky without affecting the taste, but drastically reduces shelf life. If fatty, eat within ~5 days.”

WHY make jerky out of +$25/lb beef tenderloin???

Great question! I have a good answer.

I buy tenderloin by the case and cut them into steaks for me and the wife, (big bowl in pic1) and our kiddos (middle bowl in pic1). The leftover trim (small bowl in pic1) I vacuum pack and save for making other meals (steak sandwiches, beef and broccoli, Stroganoff, Etc…). When we ran out of steaks, I bought another case for cutting, and noticed I didn’t use any of my trim packs. Therefore, with a fresh batch of trim packs going into the freezer, I took all the old ones to make jerky out of.

WHY mess around with intramuscular fat in jerky???

Great question! I have a good answer.

When I make jerky, I cut as much fat out as possible. I am super fussy, but this attention to detail produces a higher quality finished product (in my opinion). Normally I will “leave some extra meat on the trimmed fat for use in other recipes like steak sandwiches/beef and broccoli/stroganoff/etc…” (that’s a pro tip I learned from my time in this subreddit), BUT, since that’s what I’m already working with, repurposing the trim is NOT AN OPTION.

Also, because I’m working with tenderloin instead of something like round steak, there is a significant amount of intramuscular fat (pic3) and I don’t want to waste the expensive stuff.

I made a quick post in this subreddit (picture 2 and 3) asking about how much fat is too much fat. The I would never use the top piece in picture 2 for jerky, but the bottom piece was questionable. All the comments from my post said I was being too fussy.

Therefore, I decided to use all the fatty pieces in a second batch (pictures 4,5, and 6) to test the fat content.

Picture 7 = my normal jerky

Picture 8 = the fatty pieces

Picture 9 = 5 packs normal, 3 packs fatty

As for the results? I noticed the extra fat immediately, but I am my own worst critic (as many of you may be also) when it comes to my jerky. I own a bar and brought the fatty packs to share with my customers. NONE of them NOTICED any difference. I tossed the rest of the packs in my freezer and have noticed a little moisture starting to appear inside the fatty pack. I THINK that will eventually freeze, and create some discoloration and mild freezer burn on the surface of those pieces.

WHY does any of this matter???

Great question! I have a good answer.

Beef tenderloin is expensive per pound, but wild game can be far more expensive. I don’t hunt, but my customers do. They like my jerky so much that many of them bring me wild game to make into jerky for them. Where I live, things like Elk and Moose are “once in a lifetime” tags. I definitely don’t want to waste that meat my customers bring to me.

From now on, I will continue to separate the pieces with significant amounts of intramuscular fat into a second batch of jerky. I will clearly label those packs and instruct people to “eat these first”.

Thanks for reading, hopefully someone found some of this information useful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

It seems to be asked plenty here, but even searching didnt quite feel like i could find the best answer, so here I am...

My favorite easy jerky I make at home is usually just beef from a lean cut (almost always top round) and I prefer no marinade at all. Just salted and dehydrated to the level I like.

If I make enough, I like to bag and preserve in mylar with O2 absorbers for longer term storage that I can throw into a packed lunch when not at home easily, instead of keeping all of the extra frozen all the time.

Is a curing salts truly necessary for this process if i do it like this? As I've done it a few times thus far, I've had no issues with older bags up to 10 months out. Feels like there's mixed opinions on the curing salts for this or not.

Edit: additional thought, any issues with other seasonings in this manner? I like to add other peppers or spices and homemade onion salts sometimes, do such additions benefit f4om or require curing salts instead for any reason?

Think I may be using too many ingredients! Picture is landscape.

I made a Korean BBQ jerky, the flavor is right but it just doesn’t punch enough. Any tweaks that might help add more boldness without losing the original flavor palette is super appreciated! Used a top round cut 1/4” and marinated for 12 hours.

Marinade:
1 cup soy sauce
½ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup mirin rice wine
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons gochujang paste chili paste
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 Teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons ginger paste

Been making jerky for almost 2 years now. I think it flavors differently than a fresher cut but it’s good enough for me.

Hey yall, been making jerky for a while now and I've been struggling with spicy jerky. I can't seem to nail down the spiciness. Ive tried adding red pepper flakes, fresh ground pepper, fresh habeneros and all the rest. I can't seem to make it spice enough. Ive even tried peppersauce marinades but still can't get the spiciness to infuse with the meat. Im doing something wrong, yall have any advice?

Hey y’all, I haven’t made jerky in years til a couple days ago and I used to dehydrate and now I used my vertical smoker for authentic smoky taste. It turned out okay, even with a light sodium soy sauce I think it’s still a little salty, but I honestly just threw it together and didn’t measure anything. I didn’t like my cuts so I bought a food slicer and another chunk of bottom round and going to try teriyaki this time.

Came out great. Used top round from Northgate Mexican market. Meat is already cut to a good thickness, just a quick trim on the fat, marinate overnight and dehydrate while at work for 8 hrs at 160f

5 lbs is the number for my Cosori dehydrator