First Markham Place Beef Jerky First Beef Jerky

How to make beef hasty at home

Hasty is an awesome snack nutrient that can be merely as salubrious equally it is succulent. If you lot brand beef jerky at abode then you'll hands brand better jerky than what you tin can buy in Australian supermarkets. Small-batch jerkies are normally made with excellent ingredients and a lot of care, so it can exist very satisfying to get a great finished product. But be warned, this is an addictive hobby than can spin wildly out of control – if you're anything similar united states you could end upwardly with a Tasmanian jerky factory! If you view this as a risk, y'all might want to visit our online shop instead.

Showtime: why brand beefiness hasty at dwelling house?

This is the kickoff question you lot should be asking yourself! Making jerky is at minimum a big investment of fourth dimension, and to go the best results you'll need to invest ~$500 into a hobby dehydrator. To go into this hobby you'll ideally love beef jerky, but the important thing is to really enjoy the process of making it besides. It tin be a lot of work, and then it's really a labour of honey. Just recollect how much hasty yous need to make to pay off a $500 dehydrator… Nosotros liken it homebrewing beer. It'due south a lot of fun the first time, simply few people stay motivated in the hobby.

Subsequently all that negativity we promise yous're still peachy. Making hasty is an awesome hobby, and you lot'll be able to brand products far superior to what is bachelor in store. One twenty-four hours y'all might fifty-fifty be described as the "jerky guy/girl" (or worse – information technology happens to us all the time).

Read on, and remember us when you make an crawly batch (send some to 15a Legana Park Bulldoze, Legana, TAS, 7277 – seriously, nosotros'll return the favour).

How much jerky should I make?

If you're using an Excalibur nine-tray oven then you lot should do a 5kg batch. Otherwise, try a 3kg batch. It'southward a lot of work to make hasty, so if you're going to do information technology, practice it properly and Go Large!

As a general rule of pollex 3kg of "moisture" meat volition make 1kg of "dry" jerky. Your dehydrator volition just agree so much meat, so here's a dominion of thumb: 1 square metre of oven expanse volition hold 3kg of meat.

Example: What is the chapters of a 5 Tray Excalibur Dehydrator

Each tray is 0.43 ten 0.485m = 0.21 sq m
0.21 x 5 trays = 1.05 sqm
i.05 x 3kg/sqm= three.15kg of meat

Fourth dimension required to make hasty at dwelling

Slicing: Forever! Avert this at all costs (run across "method" beneath for details)
Preparation: 30-40 minutes
Marination: 24 hours
Cooking time: 8 hours (This footstep requires loose monitoring)

Equipment required to brand jerky at home

A Large mixing bowl
Dehydrator (If yous don't have a dehydrator you can be a filthy casual past using a fan forced oven).
XL zip lock bags
Toothpicks
Aluminium foil
Pocketknife
Chopping board
Measuring loving cup
Scale

Beefiness Jerky recipe

This is an "original" recipe that you can add together flavours to. For every kilo of meat you lot will need:

Soy Sauce– 180ml
- Contains a LOT of salt (important for food safety)
- Gives jerky a dark colour, and improves texture
Apple Cider Vinegar – 35ml
- Acids can be helpful for food prophylactic. They inhibit microbial growth and keep your hasty safe.
- They as well taste practiced. Acidity oft is the offset thing you'll taste in a food, so it can be a lot of fun to pair acids with spicy (which typically take a chip longer to get going)
Water – 35ml
- This is simply to create plenty marinade to completely cover your meat.
Ground Blackness Pepper – 2g
- It's an oldy, merely a goodie. This is merely plenty to have a hint of pepper in the background.

A good hasty starts with a expert base

Nosotros've since written a whole page on beefiness jerky recipes that you can find here.

Food Safety:

There are risks to overcome when making any nutrient product. There are a few principles you tin can follow to meliorate the safety of your jerky:

Raw meat contamination: Never mix cooked and raw meat
General hygiene: Always wash your hands and the preparation expanse before and after meat contact
2hr/4hr rule:
- <2hr: Meat should not be exposed to room temperature for more 2 hours at a time before existence returned to refrigeration
- 2hrs: After two hours it should exist cooked immediately (you shouldn't return information technology to the fridge)
- 4hrs: if yous meat is exposed to room temperature for more 4 hours than you should throw it out.
Lethality of pathogens
- When we make jerky at KOOEE! we heighten the internal temperature of the meat to 65°C for 10 minutes to kill all living pathogens in meat
- This is hard (or impossible) to do with a hobby dehydrator, considering their heating elements are not very powerful, and they are rarely properly sealed for a "lethality step". It is likewise difficult to measure the internal temperature of meat
- For a hobby melt at home, we suggest cooking the hasty as hot equally possible and then use a "post drying heat stride" one time the jerky is finished. Merely put it in a 135C oven for ten minutes, this should accept care of anything nasty that may have contaminated your meat.
Brand sure your jerky is dry!
- The jerky needs to exist of a certain dryness (or "h2o activity") to exist shelf stable.
- You can't measure this without a very expensive auto, but you should exist concerned if your hasty is crimson in the middle, or seems "wet".
- A good "rule of thumb" is to dry out your jerky to 33% of its original meat weight (so you go 1kg of hasty from 3kg of meat)
Store it correctly
- Run into details below

Method to make beefiness jerky

Ready the meat:

Topside – The jerky professionals meat of choice

Select Meat
- Ideally y'all will purchase "denuded topside". If unavailable, purchase normal fatty topside and trim information technology yourself, or another lean cutting of meat. Bigger is better.
- Beef is a good choice for your first batch, but you can likewise expiriment with kangaroo hasty, wallaby hasty, camel hasty, venison hasty, etc.
Remove fatty from the whole cut of meat
- Avoid fat when making jerky.
- Firstly, you lot're non going to brand many friends giving away jerky with unexpected chunks of fatty
- Secondly, information technology destroys your shelf life. Fat will eventually oxidise and cause your jerky to spoil (it will go "rancid").
- So, Try to remove equally much fat equally possible from your whole cut of meat.
Slice Meat
- Firstly, avoid this stride if possible. Beg your butcher to slice the meat for you, because it takes hours.
- It might cost a few actress $/kg, but information technology is certainly worth information technology!
- Slightly chill the meat in your freezer to go far "tempered"(firm)
- Slice into thin strips approx. 6-10mm
- Where possible keep all slices to an even thickness to make sure all pieces are cooked to the same dryness
- For the best results cutting the meat against the grain, this will make the meat easier to chew.

Topside – The jerky professionals meat of choice

Be sure to trim off all visible fat

Prepare the marinade:

Combine marinade ingredients into a bowl
- Soy Sauce (or a substitute – but you might demand to add salt if you use a substitute)
- Vinegar
- Water
- Spices
Add together the sliced meat into the bowl of marinade and mix thoroughly ensuring every piece is soaking in the marinade.
Soak
- Place meat into a Zip Lock pocketbook and remove all air
- Leave meat to marinate 24hrs in the fridge
- The spice and marinade needs to contact all the meat for the best results – so option it upwards at the halfway signal (12hrs) and give that jerky a massage through the bag!

Marinate meat for up to 24 hours for best results

Cooking option 1: dry Hasty with a Dehydrator

Lay jerky on dehydrator trays (We call this "hasty tetris" in the KOOEE! factory)
- Put equally much jerky every bit you perhaps tin can on each tray, nevertheless make sure that in that location is a slight gap between each piece (5mm is fine)
- Ensure that yous never have folded or overlapping meat. Everything should be in a single layer and so it dries evenly.
Dry jerky in your dehydrator
- Set up your dehydrator to 75°C (note: nigh probable your meat will become nowhere near that hot on a hobby dehydrator)
- If you notice your hasty is charring or turning biscuity, lower the temperature of your dehydrator and conduct a longer cook.
- Approx. cooking time: viii hours, rotate the trays occasionally so that your jerky dries evenly.
Monitor
- It takes some experience to know when your hasty is finished. You should never meet whatsoever red sections when you break open a slice of jerky, it should look "cooked". Finished jerky will also be firmer than "wet" meat.
- Remove the jerky incrementally from your dehydrator to end information technology from drying too much. If you jerky can snap and then you've gone too far.
Post drying lethality step
- Once your meat has stale into jerky you should do a post drying lethality step to ensure you've achieved "lethality" (i.due east., killed the bugs!)
- Put your jerky in a 135C oven for 10 minutes, then remove. Read more details hither: Post drying heat step
Absurd and pack
- Allow the jerky to cool to room temperature
- See next pace for tips on how to store jerky

Before cook

Mid cook(2 hours) note the leading edge is drier than the rest of the tray. It is good practice to rotate the trays mid-cook

Melt is finished. Notice there is no moisture left. All pieces look the same colour and texture.

Cooking choice ii: Dry Jerky with an Oven (like a filthy casual)

Yes, y'all can make beef jerky in a household fan-forced oven if you're not fix to commit to a dehydrator. Information technology'due south a fleck trickier, just you can still get skillful results.

Line bottom of oven with aluminium foil
Identify toothpicks through your jerky and hang it from your oven trays
Jam a wooden spoon in your oven door to keep it ajar, this will increment airflow resulting in meliorate jerky
Cook
- Set the oven for 70C
- Cook the hasty for 3.five hours, checking occasionally
- The jerky is finished one time it has lost all of its soft spots simply can still bend when folded (it shouldn't snap – that ways it is overcooked) it is finished.
Post drying lethality step
- Once your meat has dried into hasty yous should exercise a post drying lethality step to ensure you lot've achieved "lethality" (i.e., killed the bugs!)
- Put your jerky in a 135C oven for 10 minutes, so remove. Read more details here: Mail drying heat footstep
Cool and pack
- Permit the jerky to cool to room temperature
- see next step for tips on how to shop jerky

How to store your finished jerky

The shelf life of your hasty can be extended significantly by storing information technology correctly. When washed improperly, you can expect your jerky to terminal 3 days. Proper storage volition let it to terminal upward to a yr!

When fabricated correctly, jerky will "become off" because of lipid oxidation. This ways that the fat in the jerky goes rancid and will smell bad. To prevent this you need to keep your jerky away from oxygen. Here are 2 ways you can store your jerky:

Store in an airtight bag or container
1. You tin can simply put your jerky in a zip lock bag or plastic container
2. oxygen will slowly leak into the bag/container, but it should final a couple of weeks
Vacuum pack it
1. You can buy a hobby vacuum sealer and some "channel bags" to do some DIY vacuum sealing. It might also be fun to use the machine for some sous vide if you're an aspiring abode chef!
2. Vacuum packing your jerky will get in look ugly, simply volition allow y'all to continue it for up to a year

At that place are likewise several product qualities that will improve the shelf life of your jerky. To improve your shelf life yous might consider:

more salt and sugar
dryer jerky
less fat

A Hobby sealer is the safest option for hasty storage

If you lot don't take a hobby sealer, try storing the jerky in an air-tight jar.

Only use a ziplock bag if no other options are available

Other things to think about on your way to jerky greatness

What other flavours can I brand?

There is no limit to what Jerky flavours you can create.

Meat – this jerky recipe will work on any blazon of appropriate meat
- Kangaroo hasty: Expert choice. Kangaroo and Wallaby are both ideal meats for hasty considering they are so lean. They are besides very loftier on omega 3s.
- Venison: Yous've got some venison? Send information technology to us in Legana, Tasmania! Jokes aside, yous tin can make incredible hasty with venison.
- Camel: There is not enough quality jerky in Australia, and far too many camels. Practise your fellow citizens a favour and try making some camel hasty.
Sweetness – Not necessarily salubrious, but sweeteners tin help bring out the flavour of meat, improve texture, and increase shelf life. Try:
- Dear (we're partial to Tasmanian leatherwood honey)
- Fruit juice (try Spreyton Apple Juice)
- Teriyaki sauce
Acidity – adding vinegars requite your flavours a boost, but get piece of cake, equally too much volition ruin surface texture
- apple cider vinegar
- red wine vinegar
Spice – A fan of heat? Add something special to make your jerky a talking point
- Wasabi
- Habanero
- Carolina reaper

What near presentation?

Humans eat with their optics! A natural fashion to bring an attractive colour to your jerky is to utilise paprika spice. Also, we recommend adding something chunky to your marinades to add visual grapheme to your jerky. Play with sesame seeds, chilli flakes, herbs, and anything else yous can get your hands on.

Alternatives to Soy Sauce?

Soy sauce is used in Beef Jerky to add flavour and salt. The salt content helps preserve the meat and the flavour gives the jerky a familiar salty season. Soy Sauce is cheap and readily available which makes information technology extremely pop. Even so, it does contain gluten due to the wheat content. There are alternatives that tin can be used for the gluten intolerant/Coeliac population likewise as Paleo friendly options.

Coconut Aminos is a kokosnoot based sauce made from the sap of coconuts. Information technology is a gluten-gratis alternative to soy sauce however it can be expensive. It can be found in specialty grocers or ordered online. If yous cannot locate Coconut Aminos, Tamari can be used every bit a substitute for soy sauce however cheque the labeling every bit not all brands are gluten-free. And, depending on who you ask, Tamari sauce is not paleo-friendly.

What is water activity?

Water activity relates to the pressure level of water in a substance. Water activity is extremely of import when information technology comes to cooking jerky. A level <0.85_awmust be obtained to deem jerky safety for consumption. Failure to practice then can result in a liveable environment for pathogens such equally salmonella, listeria, etc, to live on the jerky and make the consumer sick.

At KOOEE! nosotros test every single batch with expensive equipment to ensure information technology is safe for consumption. Do not even consider making jerky commercially if y'all don't have a way to measure out h2o activity. At dwelling, the best ways to ensure your jerky is safe are:

dry information technology to 1/3 of its original weight
Do a post-drying heat step (detailed in a higher place)

If you are considering making jerky commercially we would be happy to recommend a water activity meter for yous.

What does "with or confronting the grain" mean?

Meat, like to wood, has a grain. This grain is fabricated upward of the muscle fibres of the animals. A great backyard barbeque master knows that the management of cut tin make or break an crawly cook up. Slicing with the grain results in a very chewy steak that will go out yous with lock jaw! Slicing against the grain results in the tender steak you know and honey.

With jerky, there is ongoing debate about whether to cut with or against the grain. Many friendships have been destoyed after arguments on this important topic. What you lot need to know is:

Jerky cut with the grain will be hard to chew
Jerky cutting against the grain volition be easier to chew

At KOOEE we cutting our jerky against the grain, which makes it much easier to chew. Our rationale is that our hasty is fabricated for active people to consume on the go.

Which dehydrator should I buy?

A 9 tray Excalibur. Read about it here.

How to make beef jerky at home

Jerky is an crawly snack food that can be merely as healthy as it is delicious. If you brand beef jerky at home then yous'll easily brand ameliorate hasty than what you can purchase in Australian supermarkets. Pocket-size-batch jerkies are normally made with excellent ingredients and a lot of care, and so it can be very satisfying to get a great finished production. Just be warned, this is an addictive hobby than can spin wildly out of control – if y'all're annihilation like united states of america you lot could end up with a Tasmanian jerky mill! If yous view this as a risk, y'all might want to visit our online store instead.

First: why make beefiness jerky at abode?

This is the starting time question you should exist asking yourself! Making hasty is at minimum a large investment of fourth dimension, and to get the best results y'all'll need to invest ~$500 into a hobby dehydrator. To become into this hobby you'll ideally love beef hasty, but the important thing is to really enjoy the process of making it too. Information technology can exist a lot of work, so it's really a labour of love. Just think how much hasty you need to make to pay off a $500 dehydrator… We liken it homebrewing beer. Information technology'due south a lot of fun the first time, but few people stay motivated in the hobby.

Afterward all that negativity we promise you're still slap-up. Making jerky is an awesome hobby, and you'll be able to brand products far superior to what is available in store. One day you might even be described as the "jerky guy/girl" (or worse – it happens to us all the time).

Read on, and think us when you make an awesome batch (send some to 15a Legana Park Drive, Legana, TAS, 7277 – seriously, we'll return the favour).

How much jerky should I make?

If you're using an Excalibur 9-tray oven and so y'all should do a 5kg batch. Otherwise, attempt a 3kg batch. It's a lot of work to make jerky, so if you lot're going to do it, practise it properly and Get BIG!

As a full general rule of thumb 3kg of "wet" meat will make 1kg of "dry" hasty. Your dehydrator will only agree then much meat, so here's a rule of thumb: 1 square metre of oven area will concord 3kg of meat.

Example: What is the capacity of a 5 Tray Excalibur Dehydrator

Each tray is 0.43 x 0.485m = 0.21 sq m
0.21 x 5 trays = ane.05 sqm
1.05 x 3kg/sqm= 3.15kg of meat

Time required to brand hasty at home

Slicing: Forever! Avoid this at all costs (come across "method" below for details)
Preparation: 30-twoscore minutes
Marination: 24 hours
Cooking time: eight hours (This stride requires loose monitoring)

Equipment required to make jerky at home

A Large mixing bowl
Dehydrator (If you don't have a dehydrator you tin be a filthy coincidental by using a fan forced oven).
Forty zip lock bags
Toothpicks
Aluminium foil
Knife
Chopping lath
Measuring cup
Scale

Beef Hasty recipe

This is an "original" recipe that y'all tin can add flavours to. For every kilo of meat you will need:

Soy Sauce– 180ml
- Contains a LOT of salt (important for nutrient rubber)
- Gives jerky a dark colour, and improves texture
Apple Cider Vinegar – 35ml
- Acids tin be helpful for food rubber. They inhibit microbial growth and keep your jerky safety.
- They besides taste good. Acidity often is the first affair you'll taste in a food, so it can be a lot of fun to pair acids with spicy (which typically take a bit longer to get going)
Water – 35ml
- This is just to create plenty marinade to completely embrace your meat.
Ground Blackness Pepper – 2g
- It'southward an oldy, but a goodie. This is but enough to take a hint of pepper in the background.

A practiced jerky starts with a good base

We've since written a whole page on beef hasty recipes that you can find here.