Best beef jerky recipe

The best beef jerky recipe is a good alternative to having a snack at home, on a trip, or on a hike. The noble dark red color and rich taste of beef are absolutely incomparable! And to cook it, you will need absolutely nothing but patience. The longer the meat is dried, the richer it will taste. But don’t overdry!

Ingredients:

• 500-600 g beef tenderloin

For salting:

• 2 tbsp. l. medium ground sea salt
• 1 tsp Sahara

Marinade:

• 1-2 tbsp. l. cognac or dry red wine
• 0.5 tsp black peppercorns
• 0.5 tsp white peppercorns
• 0.5 tsp pink peppercorns
• 0.3 tsp coriander kernels
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp provencal herbs

Preparation:

Remove the veins from the beef tenderloin so that the surface of the meat is flat and smooth. Rub a piece with a mixture of salt and sugar, place in an enamel or glass container and refrigerate (4–7 ° C) for two days. You can put wooden sticks or a plastic strainer under the meat so that the meat juice that stands outflows down. Turn meat periodically and drain off the juice.

Rinse the meat with cold water and pat dry with paper towels.

Break the bay leaf into small pieces. Grind the peppers and coriander in a mortar until large pieces remain. Mix spices with cognac or wine and brush over the meat. Wrap a piece of gauze tightly in several layers and tie it with twine so that it retains its shape. Make a loop of twine from above.

Hang the meat to dry for 8-15 days at a temperature of 10-15 ° C, a humidity of about 75%, and regular air movement. Do not expose it to direct sunlight. From autumn to spring, meat can be dried on a closed balcony. If you are sure that there are no insects around, after 5 days you can remove the gauze and leave the meat to dry without it.

The meat is ready when it has lost 25–35% in weight, that is, about a quarter to a third of its weight. How much exactly? Try it and choose as you like best.

Advice:

In addition to beef, you can cook pork (loin) and other meat in the same way. For greater safety of the finished product, especially if you are drying pork, it is better to replace some of the salt with nitrite.

To do this, weigh the meat prepared for salting and take salt, nitrite salt, and sugar at the rate of 10 g of nitrite salt with a sodium nitrite content of 0.5–0.6%, 15 g of medium-ground sea salt, and 5 g of sugar per 1 kg of meat. If you have salted meat with nitrate salt, it can be kept in the refrigerator for 5-7 days instead of two days, which will benefit the taste.

Spice options for coating – fresh garlic, caraway seeds, mustard seeds, dried paprika pieces, surely hops, juniper berries, allspice.