Franklin County

 September 2008
 

Jerky Marinade
Venison is high quality, delicious and nutritious meat. Care should be used in handling venison just as you would any other meat. Most of the flavor in a meat product is in the fat; therefore, in making a breakfast-type sausage using game meat, pork fat is used.

• 1-1/2 to 2 lbs of lean meat (beef, pork, or venison)

• 1/4 cup soy sauce

• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

• 1/4 teaspoon each of black pepper and garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder

• 1 teaspoon hickory smoke flavored salt

Combine all ingredients. Place strips of meat in a shallow pan and cover with marinade. Cover and refrigerate 1-2 hours or overnight. Products marinated for several hours may be more salty than some people prefer. If you choose to heat the meat prior to drying to decrease the risk of food-borne illness, do so at the end of the marinating time. To heat, bring strips and marinade to a boil and boil for 5 minutes before draining and drying. If strips are more than 1/4-inch thick,    the length of time may need to be increased. If possible, check the temperature of several strips with a metal stem-type thermometer to determine that 160ºF has been reached.

Remove meat strips from the marinade and drain on clean, absorbent towels. Arrange strips on dehydrator trays or cake racks placed on baking sheets for oven drying. Place the slices close together, but not touching or overlapping. Place the racks in a dehydrator or oven preheated to 140ºF. Dry until a test piece cracks but does not break when it is bent (10 to   24 hours for samples not heated in marinade). Samples heated in marinade will dry faster. Begin checking samples after  3 hours. Once drying is completed, pat off any beads of oil with clean, absorbent towels and cool. Remove strips from  the racks and cool. Package in glass jars or heavy plastic food storage bags. Vacuum packaging is also a good option.

If the strips were not heated in marinade prior to drying, they can be heated in an oven after drying as an added safety measure. Place strips on a baking sheet, close together, but not touching or overlapping. For strips originally cut 1/4-inch thick or less, heat 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 275ºF. (Thicker strips may require longer heating to reach 160ºF.)

Source: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/dry/jerky.html

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		University of Missouri Extension Franklin County Site maintained by: Billie Jo Brenner, brennerbj@missouri.edu Last revised: 07/02/08