I got a request for sharing how to make Beef Jerky.. now I do have a dehydrator, but not everyone does, and I have the ability to use a smoker but not everyone does.

So for this post, I decided to go as basic as possible so that someone new to this would have the best chance at turning out some mighty fine basic but yummy jerky.

Take a lean roast, I used a sirloin Tip, but any roast will work, you want that baby cold, I mean part frozen pretty much for slicing, I was going to cheat and use my meat slicer and then remembered that most folks most likely don’t have it either…

So take a very sharp knife and slice it as thin as you can, its fine if its not perfect, trim off any fat, if needed trim off parts of the roast, you need lean meat to get proper jerky.

You will be amazed at how much Jerky can be had from a single roast, take a glass or steel (not plastic) container. Put a little layer of the sauce and spice down and then lay a layer of the slices, repeat until you finish and have the sauce on top.. put a cover over the pan or bowl and into the fridge for at least twelve hours.

Now the most basic sauce is soy sauce with a touch of Worchester sauce and I highly recommend you get the naturally brewed kind if at all possible, but you can use whatever kind is in the house.

Now you can add a tbsp. of brown sugar to it, I know folks that do, but I don’t think its needed, IF you can’t use the soy sauce then, consider a nice rice vinager1/3rd, apple cider vinager 1/3 and brown sugar 1/3rd.. because with the vinagers, you need to sweeten them up a bit.

Spice time..  it can be as simple as salt and pepper, or seasoning salt, or montreal steak spice or your favorite jerky spice mix..

I happen to know that the girls that I am heading out to a horse clinic with love it a bit spicy, so I made mine with Montreal Steak Spice and seasoning salt, some of the pieces will be a little less heat, and others a little more heat.

So now they have sat for 12 hours and you are going to notice that they “firmed” up compared to yesterday when they went in, that’s just fine. I figure the odds are good that you all have a oven so turn it down to either its lowest setting or 180 to 190 c,  if you have a warming cycle, that is not hot enough, needs to be at the lowest cooking setting.

Put it out on cookie sheets or if you have it, cooling baking racks on the cookie sheets so that you get air flow on both sides at the same time but I am going to assume that folks will have cookie or can pans but not going to assume that everyone has cooling racks.. The photo below, you can see the pull back and the nice drying and color on it, its ready to be flipped, this the same piece as the finished one on top in the bowl..

So lay them out, not touching and into the oven to go.. they will need a good amount of time to dry, the smaller and thinner pieces will dry faster, about half way though the process, you will need to flip them if they are on a flat surface, if on a rack or in a dryer, this is still a ok thing to do but its not nearly as needed.

You are looking for a dried piece of jerky, it should feel firm, dry but should still bend just a bit to the touch, if it snaps, its really well done, nothing wrong with that but for fresh eating, you want the bend ideally, it will be better eating. If you want long term storage, they will need to be dried to the point that they snap when bent.