The best deer jerky has a balance of salty and sweet flavors. That can be salt and spices sprinkled on the raw meat and allowed to rest overnight, or, more popular, a marinade. READ NEXT: How to Cook Venison: The Best Ways to Cook Every Cut Step 2: Marinade and Cure You have a ton of options when it comes to seasoning or marinating your jerky. While ground meat jerky doesn’t have the rewarding chew of sliced, many jerky lovers say the flavor is better since the seasoning runs throughout the ground meat. You’ll use a jerky gun, which looks like a large caulk gun and comes with various tips for squeezing out flat strips of ground meat for drying. The basic idea is to mix it with your favorite commercial or homemade jerky seasoning and form it into long, thin strips to dry. Have a few packs of last year’s ground meat in the freezer that you need to use up? Here’s how to make deer jerky from ground meat. While not adjustable for thickness, these units turn out a very uniform slice about ¼ inch thick and do it in a hurry. Often sold as a combo unit that includes a cuber attachment, these slicers have a large open neck at the top that allows the user to drop in a large cut of meat and guides it through a set of blades that turn with the crank of an outside handle. They have sliding guides that allow you to adjust the thickness of each piece, and make short work of several pounds of venison.Īnother handy option to crank out several pounds of jerky strips in a hurry is a crank-style jerky slicer. If you really enjoy jerky and want to make large batches, consider investing in an electric meat slicer. These guides are made from metal or wood and feature a shallow tray to hold the meat and thickness guide. Next, on the list is a jerky slicing guide. Work in batches, taking only as much meat out of the freezer at a time as you can slice before it softens back up. Partially freezing the meat for an hour or two before slicing helps to firm it up and makes hand slicing at a consistent thickness easier to accomplish. First, and by far the simplest, is a good sharp knife. There are a number of ways to slice your venison. I slice most of my jerky around ¼ inch in thickness. My preference is somewhere in the middle. Thin strips of meat dry fast, but they can get overdone in a hurry, leaving you with a crispy piece of meat that crumbles more than chews. Thick jerky also takes a lot longer to dry. Thicker slices, while meaty and satisfying, don’t keep well without refrigeration. What thickness, you ask? It’s up to you, to a point. Having a mix of thin and thick jerky drying means going through it constantly to pick out thinner pieces that may be finished, while a thicker piece next to it might still need hours before it’s safe to eat. You want the jerky to dry at an even rate. The most important part of slicing jerky is to make it a consistent thickness. Try them both and see which one you prefer. Going against makes the jerky more tender and easier to eat. Slicing with the grain gives the finished product more of a satisfying chew when you bite it. ![]() When it comes to slicing jerky meat, you have some choices. The best cuts of meat for jerky are top eye, and bottom round roasts, sirloin tips (that football shaped roast on the back hams), rump roasts, and neck roasts. Just about any lean part of your deer can be made into jerky. For the purpose of this article, we will concentrate on venison, but the techniques transfer over to just about any kind of meat. Venison of all kinds is popular, as is beef, pronghorn, bison, African plains animals-you name it. You can make jerky out of just about any lean meat. Step 1: Preparing the Meat Generally, you want to keep your slices about a quarter-inch thin. But, with modern appliances, we can make enough jerky to last an entire hunting season in a day or two, all while going about our normal day-to-day schedule. ![]() ![]() Those methods are time and labor intensive. In its earliest forms, jerky meant thin strips of salted meat dried either in the sun or over a smoky fire. It’s a simple process that has been used for centuries to preserve venison. But, to attain that heightened state of meat happiness, you’ll need to know how to make deer jerky. It’s even better when you make it yourself. A pocketful of jerky is pure bliss for most hunters.
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