Deer jerky recepies, please

[Oleg Volk]

1. Catch a deer.
2. Butcher that deer.
3. Pay the rancher for the cow deer.
4. Now what? Real recepies, preferably not too spicy.

[Sisco]

The way I make mine is with ground venison and a dehydrator. I use an American Harvest jerky gun (available at WallyWorld). It comes with spices and curing salts, looks like a caulking gun and lays out strips about 1/2" wide. Usually add to the spices with some of my own to get it a little warmer.
Here's a couple of web sites with game recipes, maybe you'll find something to suit your tatses.

http://www.justgamerecipes.com/index.htm
http://www.cookwildgame.com/

Thought I'd add; If you go the jerky gun route, the instructions for the cure & seasonings don't say so, but let the mixture marinate overnight.

[Buford Boone]

Here is the one I like to use:

JERKY RECIPE:
2 Cups Wochestire Sauce
1 Cup Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Terryaki Sauce
1 Teaspoon Liquid Smoke (Hickory or Mesqite)
Teaspoon of Garlic Salt
Black Peppers
2 tablespoons of white vinegar

Mix everything together and put in tupperware bowl and marinate meat for approx 24 hours.

Lightly blot meat with paper towel before putting in dehydrator. Set dehydrator for meat and run for approx 6-8 hours.

Meat is ready when no pink is left and it does not break when bent. If it breaks when bent, it is overdone.

[Cain R]

Bufords is a lot like mine, but I add brown sugar and lots of lemon juice and do it in the oven at 150 for about 6 hours.

[Zorro]

Kikoman Soy Sauce and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce


Try Soy Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce in a 2/1 ratio with whatever spice you like thrown in.

Dry in an Oven in the lowest possible setting till done. About 5 or so hours.

I REALLY suggest the use of this..... http://www.lea-perrins.com/

Garlic and Black Pepper are reccomended!

[labgrade]

Depending on mood, I'll throw together some terriaki sauce, a bit of soy (Kikoman, please for both), some honey, some salt, some spice-mixed pepper (course ground) & whatthehelleverelse .... mix it up real good.

Garlic paste, smokey sauce, etc. or whatever else you like. Just make some kind of a marinade that you think will taste good on a hunk 'o dried meat.

I'll cut the meat across the grain, rather than with grain as most recipes recommend - makes it easier to break smaller chunks off rather than tearing long(er) strips - eats just as well.

'Bout 1/2 cross section & 6" or so long - whatever.

Pitch it all in one of those gallon frezzer zip locks, squeeze out the air, seal up & mush around real good. Toss in the meat compartment of the refrig.

Mush it around once a day for a week.

Foil-line the bottom of your oven & lay the strips over the racks & cook till done to your taste at about as low as it'll go. You don't want to cook it, only dry it out.

Make double what you want, 'cause when checking for doneness, you'll eat quite a bit.

[Bush baby]

Just thought that you might be interested in trying some Biltong when you make up your next batch of Jerky.
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If you are interested, you will need the following:

Only good cuts of venison (preferably from the two back strap fillets and the back leg muscles). Don’t skimp here, remember you will lose up to half the weight and size in drying.
2½ cups coarse salt.
½ cup ground black pepper.
1 cup FRESHLY ground coriander seeds, husks and all.
1 bottle of brown grape vinegar (1 pint is plenty).
1 large plastic bucket, something wide and shallow as opposed to deep - an old baby bath is ideal. Do not use a metal container.
1 smaller plastic bowl – about 8’’ in diameter.
Wire hooks (‘s’ shaped like miniature butcher’s hooks) – folding out paper clips works quite well.
A wire chicken mesh screen fixed to the roof or ceiling, or anything suitable to hang meat from, lengths of string or wire are not suitable.

When working the back leg, separate the individual muscles, and trim as required - sinew is to be avoided. Cut the meat into thick slices about ¾ to 1’’ thick, and as wide and long as the muscle will allow. Add some small cuts too……for testers (nibbles) while you wait.
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Mix all the dry ingredients together in the plastic bowl.
Punch a small hole or two into the top of the vinegar bottle top.
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Sprinkle a little vinegar onto the bottom of the big plastic bowl – just enough to wet the bottom.
Then take a handful of dry ingredients and sprinkle them over the bottom so that they completely cover the base of the bowl.
Now lay the strips of meat down on the mixture, packing them together side by side.
Sprinkle the same amount of vinegar and dry ingredients again onto the exposed top layer of the meat and add another layer of meat on, keep repeating this process until all the meat is used.
Allow the meat to sit in this brine marinade for 12-24 hrs.
Then take each piece of meat and push through one end of a hook into the thinnest part, (the salt will gravitate down to the end – that’s why the bottom should be the thickest part) and hang it up from the wire mesh, making sure the pieces do not touch each other – which is why a wire mesh is better than string, all the pieces will slide together if you use string.
Put newspaper under the meat because it will drip a vinegar/salt liquid for about half a day, that will corrode most things.
You can begin to eat the meat after about one week – depending on thickness and weather conditions. I like it so that the outside layer has a thick black skin, but the inside is still a little moist. The longer it dries the saltier it will get. A small fan will speed things up.
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You cannot make Biltong if the air has moisture in it, so if you have a dryer then use it, otherwise wait until the air is dry. In South Africa the winter (hunting season) is cold and dry – no rain in winter – so it’s perfect time to make Biltong. I put the wire screen under the roof extensions of my house, that way I can see the Biltong at a glance (to count them), it is open to the breeze, in the shade and too high for dogs and little children to steal – at biltong time my whole family turn into hunger craved Jackals.
The quantities given here are approximates only you can adjust to suit, just don’t under do the salt.
Best enjoyed while drinking a cold beer and watching something……..some sport, a log fire, TV, pretty girls…….anything will do!
Thanks for the Jerky recipes I am going to try it this coming season.

Bush baby