First Attempt at Homemade Beef Jerky
Mar. 10th, 2019 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Test details: Used two pounds of beef bottom round pre-cut steaks, about 1/3-inch thick. Marinated overnight in commercial bulgogi marinade. Smoked two hours in mesquite, then dried in smoker for eight hours more at around 200 degrees.
Takeaways:
• This was tasty and ARR liked it.
• I should use even thinner cut beef. This was still not quite sufficiently dry that I’m comfortable leaving it unrefrigerated.
• Smoking for only the first two hours was the right call. Maybe try hickory smoke next time.
• Marinade could use more salt; but the high sugar content was good.
• Dried meat shrinks a lot, and I could easily fit 6+ pounds of these steaks into the smoker.
(I also made homemade slow-cooked baked beans today, because apparently it was a long-cooking day. They came out great, but given they contained half a pound of bacon and a cup of brown sugar, that was pretty much a given.)
Takeaways:
• This was tasty and ARR liked it.
• I should use even thinner cut beef. This was still not quite sufficiently dry that I’m comfortable leaving it unrefrigerated.
• Smoking for only the first two hours was the right call. Maybe try hickory smoke next time.
• Marinade could use more salt; but the high sugar content was good.
• Dried meat shrinks a lot, and I could easily fit 6+ pounds of these steaks into the smoker.
(I also made homemade slow-cooked baked beans today, because apparently it was a long-cooking day. They came out great, but given they contained half a pound of bacon and a cup of brown sugar, that was pretty much a given.)