Venison Jerky

This week, I took in some Pecan Twigs, Hickory Twigs, Spices, Cutting Board, Butcher Knife Kit, and a Leg of Venison.

We talked about how the American Indians preserved Buffalo and Venison by making Jerky, and how the process worked.

Then they all washed their hands twice (under close supervision), I showed them how to slice the first piece, and then the boys sliced the rest & put the spices on the meat.

We also burned the Pecan and Hickory Twigs and passed them around, so that they could smell some of the different flavors used in smoking.

I told them that the "nasty" taste in Venison is mostly in the "white stuff" (the fat & gristle). I said that this is THEIR Jerky, that I am going to put it in my smoker, and they will eat it next week. If it is nasty, it will because they did a sloppy job of cutting the meat.

They did a nice, careful job.

*****************************************************************************


VENISON JERKY


PRAGUE POWDER/CURING SALT
LIQUID SMOKE
BLACK PEPPER
GARLIC POWDER
ONION SALT OR ONION POWDER
CELERY SALT

Cut meat into long, thin strips about 5 inches long, 1 to 1 ½ inches wide, 1/8 inch thick.
Cut meat along the grain, if you like it tough.
Cut it against the grain (or use a rotary slicer) if you like it tender.
Layer it in a plastic container.
Put spices on each layer--
Cover everything with spices, especially with curing salt (insurance against botulism).
Use 6 tsp (2 tbsp) per 25 lbs of meat
.3 to .4 ounces weight per 10 lbs of meat max.
Rotate and remarinate daily for 3 days.

After 3 days, place tooth picks through end of each piece of meat.
Preheat oven to 185 degrees.
Hang meat strips from oven rack.
A cookie sheet on the oven bottom will reduce clean-up.
After 30 minutes, reduce heat to 125 to 140 degrees.
Normal curing time is about 6 to 8 hours.
Jerky should be consistency of shoe leather...not overly dried out.

Dried, it will keep for weeks.
Dried & refrigerated, it will keep for months.
Dried, vacuum-packed & frozen, it will keep until the kids find it.

Prague Powder = 6% Sodium Nitrite in Sodium Chloride

Also called Pink Curing Salt.
You will use 1 1/4 teaspoons of Curing Salt per 5 pounds of meat.

We didn't smoke any jerky this weekend at the bat cave. We often lash a tripod and put 4 levels of wire around it and hang the jerky. I have used string before but it can get brittle and break and loose the jerky in the fire. After about 8 hours of slow smoking it's pretty tasty jerky.

This is the year we learned about string! Good stuff!

http://readyrangers.tzo.com/2013Batcave/101.jpg

Mark Jones

Mark Jones wrote:We didn't smoke any jerky this weekend at the bat cave.  We often lash a tripod and put 4 levels of wire around it and hang the jerky.  I have used string before but it can get brittle and break and loose the jerky in the fire.  After about 8 hours of slow smoking it's pretty tasty jerky.  

This is the year we learned about string!  Good stuff!

http://readyrangers.tzo.com/2013Batcave/101.jpg

Mark Jones

Good job of "bringing it home", Mark.

I suppose that the early Native Americans didn't hang their jerky from wire racks in their electric ovens.

Ya...but if they had it they would have used it. My first FCF event we had a guy that had been in the reinactment sceen for a while and he came with a big piece of metal and set us up right for smoking jerky. We had the fire on one end and the draw would go under the metal and the smoke and heat would come up from under the flat piece of metal and smoke and dry our jerky. It worked really well.

They talked of a hollow tree trunk to do the same thing.

Our tripod didn't work as well as it didn't keep the hot smoke focused on all the meat. It just kinda whipped around and got some of the meat. It worked but not as good as the other.

I find your method a neat way to do it inside the house. Many backpackers bring jerky and are not frontiersman and do a lot of dyhdration of foods. This is good there as well.

Mark Jones

One of the Great Sins of my Past is throwing out Freezer-Burned Venison Steaks.

Now I cut EVERYTHING into Jerky, and the venison is all eaten quickly. Nothing goes to waste. I even throw the large bones (with meat & tendon scraps on them) in the bottom of the Smoker for the dogs.