venison jerky

I have done jerky about 5 times. Egg works great. These were done with a dry cure at 200 grate temp for about 4 hrs. I used a stoker for temp control.

@outlaw77 please do not take this the wrong way but that jerky looks a bit thick. Is it? How do you 'slice' it and what cut of meat?

I make jerky frequently, and I freeze the meat lightly and run it through the meat slicer.  I cut across the grain, although there's a camp that cuts with the grain.  You can slice up to 1/4".  I've experimented with different thicknesses, I tend to like the thicker stuff better. 

The important consideration is, whatever thickness you cut, do them all consistently thick.   If you don't, you'll have some pieces too dry and others too wet, or you'll have to pull the thin slices out faster, babysitting the whole batch.  To me, overly dry jerky is not enjoyable to eat. Wet jerky doesn't have much of a shelf life without refrigeration.  If you cut across the grain, that quarter inch thick piece will stretch out to 1/8" thick if you want.

I prefer the taste of jerky that's dessicated but not cooked, so I don't do it in the egg.  I use curing powder #1 and cold smoke a little, then dry on racks in the oven at low temp.  You can use a fan to dry jerky. Alton Brown has an interesting method where he loads up the meat between a stack of air conditioning filters and puts the stack on a box fan. 

In the old days, people would slice, season and salt (pepper to keep the flies off it) and let it air dry in the shade, in the field.  You really can't do it wrong if you salt and dry.

My Dad had a real tasty jerky recipe.  Unfortunatly he has alzheimers and his brain is Spaghetti O's.  I'll look for it when I go see my Mom this weekend. 

r270ba said:

Man Nola is there anything in the cooking world you don't have experience with

haha...plenty.  And a lot of my experience has resulted in abject failure.    Failure = learn what not to do.

Anyone made jerky with venison hamburger meat?