Making jerky sticks

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How is it with a jerky gun? I slice it in strips after it partially frozen and then throw in a marinade with curing salt. Comes out great. I always wondered the gun and ground beef is.
 
It's an easy way to crank it out and be consistent with size and thickness. That being said, my entry level plastic jerky gun cracked after this last batch. But I still managed to crank out 3+ lbs of jerky. One advantage is that you don't have to waste a bunch of marinade, since it gets mixed right in with the beef. This was my first time using soy sauce in the jerky gun. Last time was all dry seasoning plus cure
 
They look tasty! I'm in the mood to do some snack sticks. But I want to get another brew in before I do.

I do jerkey both ways. Personally I prefer sliced meat. It is less work and clean up than the jerkey gun and I like the texture better.
 
I do love me some whole muscle jerky. I just can't always justify the price point on the meat
 
Do you just buy ground beef or grind your own?? I have made jerky, but always the traditional sliced meat type. I might have to try this.
 
You can, part of my batch was done in the oven because I ran out of space. It went on a fine mesh wire rack at 190f for about 4-5 hours
 
I made some this week too. It's jerky weather especially with the nasty storms heading in just in case!

With the jerky gun do you spice your beef and then add the marinade in when you're processing it or otherwise? I do the semi frozen method to slice thin and keep it pretty consistent before going into the marinade and then dehydrator so curious about the other side with the gun.

We go through it fast unless there's bad weather coming, backpacking trip planned or it has a purpose and not just wanting to make jerky! Figure the gun would allow for making more =)
 
rekoob said:
I've always wanted to make jerky... I don't have a dehydrator, can you do this in the oven?
Love me some jerky!!!
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You can if your oven goes low enough on the temp settings.

Mine gets down to 170° F, and I keep the door open with a fan going to help move the air around. I slice the meat about 1/4" thick, and it takes anywhere from 6 to 8 hours, depending on the cut of meat as well as other factors.

I like using London Broils as they are very lean, little to no waste, and it dries out the fastest, but it can get crumbly very easily. Other cuts are better on that end, and are usually cheaper, but there's more waste, so it all about evens out.
 
Vex3521 said:
I made some this week too. It's jerky weather especially with the nasty storms heading in just in case!

With the jerky gun do you spice your beef and then add the marinade in when you're processing it or otherwise? I do the semi frozen method to slice thin and keep it pretty consistent before going into the marinade and then dehydrator so curious about the other side with the gun.

We go through it fast unless there's bad weather coming, backpacking trip planned or it has a purpose and not just wanting to make jerky! Figure the gun would allow for making more =)
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I actually mixed all my seasoning and marinade (in this case soy sauce and liquid smoke, plus Tabasco for the liquid and brown sugar and cure for the dry) straight into the beef before letting sit overnight and pressing and drying the next day. Since you're mixing it in you don't need as much liquid to make sure it penetrates. As a bonus you don't have to make or lose as much marinade, so it cuts down on the non beef ingredients cost.
 
The horrors of running out of marinade... don't get me started! I actually started making more than I think I will need and then pouring that over meat to reserve the extra and storing it for a small batch later. Better that then having to start trying to half or quarter a recipe and throwing stuff off flavor wise.

Totally am picking up a jerky gun! I had a slap full bag disappear this am and didn't realize it until this afternoon, was a lil mad until I got texted back with the question of if the ski club buys me meat or chips in can I make them more jerky for next week. Good thing I have 2 ovens and the dehydrator lol
 
One thing that Always goes into my jerky marinades, whether sweet or spicy, is liquid smoke. That stuff is great in chilli too
 
Your jerky gun jerky looks great. I use whole muscle cut thin....and I never use liquid smoke. I use smoke.

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slym2none said:
You can if your oven goes low enough on the temp settings.

Mine gets down to 170° F, and I keep the door open with a fan going to help move the air around. I slice the meat about 1/4" thick, and it takes anywhere from 6 to 8 hours, depending on the cut of meat as well as other factors.

I like using London Broils as they are very lean, little to no waste, and it dries out the fastest, but it can get crumbly very easily. Other cuts are better on that end, and are usually cheaper, but there's more waste, so it all about evens out.
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Where does the fan sit? Like center right in front of the open door?
 
The way the kitchen is set up, it has to sit on a table a couple of feet away from the oven.
 
brewbama said:
Your jerky gun jerky looks great. I use whole muscle cut thin....and I never use liquid smoke. I use smoke.

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When the price is right I go whole muscle because that's fantastic, though cutting up a whole eye of round takes some time. I don't have a smoker, but wouldn't mind one down the road
 
That's very cool! You are obviously a pro at making jerky. And smoking is the way to go.

I made jerky one time from the Venison loin scraps we had leftover in culinary school and it was a hit. Slicing that thin, with a sharp blade, against the grain was key. If memory serves, I made my own marinade/rub with quick cure curing salt, kosher salt, brown sugar, garlic, onion powder, a can of chipotles in adobo, fresh cracked black pepper, probably about 4 other dried spices, and some hickory chips for a pre-smoke.

Our kitchen was so hot that over the course of 5-6 hours, it dehydrated just fine on a wire rack placed on a ledge over a hot stove.
 
Heat helps with dehydration, but it also cooks it a bit. My method uses heat, just with an added fan to help not cook it so much. I try for 3/16th to 1/4 of an inch on the slice, because I don't want the jerky to get crispy/crumbly, which heat-only can do, esp. to thinner slices.
 
Good to know the stove will work. Now I don't know if I should try the jerky gun or not?
It seems like it's pretty easy to do with the gun and I might have better luck starting out.
What do you guys think? gun or no gun?
 
I'm good either way. Check to see what kind of meat you can get on sale this week before you pull the trigger. Ideally you want extra lean ground beef, but I have done lean pork beef blend with success. The pricin of meat always drives my decision
 
rekoob said:
Good to know the stove will work. Now I don't know if I should try the jerky gun or not?
It seems like it's pretty easy to do with the gun and I might have better luck starting out.
What do you guys think? gun or no gun?
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No need to decide on one or the other, do both. Once you make one batch, you'll make another, and another, and...

They're different types of jerky, both turn out good in their own way.
 
KCBrewer said:
No need to decide on one or the other, do both. Once you make one batch, you'll make another, and another, and...

They're different types of jerky, both turn out good in their own way.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm looking forward to trying them both. I think I'll order the gun.
If I'm doing the slice method do I need to order the spices/curing packs or can I pick that stuff up at the store?
 
If you're doing the slice method you can skip the cure and just use household/ grocery store seasonings.

When using ground meat you should use curing agents
 
Yeah, I've never used a cure before. My base is soy sauce, either watered down a bit or just buy "lite" soy. You can pepper it up, garlic it up, onion, smoke, whatever, but soy is my base for the flavour.
 
I bought a jerky gun today and learned that I need to go slower with it and be more consistent with my strips. 5 hours in the oven and using the cure + seasoning package plus 1.5 pounds of 93% lean ground beef...I have jerky. I'll be looking at other seasonings because what came with the jerky gun is okay, but sort of underwhelming. I couldn't find oven safe cooling racks so I bought two pizza sheet things. They worked well
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Looks good. If you want thing easier, you can make each strip as long as possible on the pizza sheet and then cut them to length with kitchen shears after dehydrating them
 
You all should check out the little and Big chief smokers, all electric with the wood chip pans in the bottom. They are awesome. I've been making jerky (mostly venison) and smoked salmon in them since I was a kid. Bout a 100$ at wallymart.
 
phug said:
Looks good. If you want thing easier, you can make each strip as long as possible on the pizza sheet and then cut them to length with kitchen shears after dehydrating them
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Did you just keep constantly pulling the trigger while moving across your dehydrator tray? At first I thought it was some straight shot, a single pull, but it's not. I am glad I use 1.5 pounds of meat though because the seasoning and cure package was just enough for my taste. Anything less may have been too much.
 
Yup, just like laying a bead of caulk. You keep pulling the trigger and vary the pressure and the speed to get a uniform strip of jerky. Occasionally you have to let go an then resume pulling the trigger.
 
You jerky looks good! They make different nozzles so that you can do double(i.e. 2 sticks at a time.) My biggest gripe with the jerkey cannon was stuffing the meat into that little cylinder and then of course cleaning it.
 
I find it's easier to stuff if you roll the beef into little sausages before loading it into the tube. As for cleaning yeah that's a pain but if you can put it in the dishwasher it's not so bad.
 
Just be careful if your jerky gun is plastic the tube on mine cracked once. Pbw would probably work wonders too
 

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