Meat Selection
October 2nd, 2008The secret to making good jerky is starting with good meat. Quality meat means quality jerky. When headed to the supermarket to buy your meat, keep in mind the following 3 tips:
* LEAN MEAT. An easy and common cut is flank steak. If beef flank steak is unavailable, other good candidates would include: round steak, rump roast and brisket flats. London broil cuts are good as well and organic is always great! Remember, the less marbling and fat, the better because fat will turn rancid very quickly and ruin your jerky in a matter of days!
* FRESH MEAT. Fresh beef should be a nice ruddy red. Pork should be a healthy light pink (that is, if you’re wanting bacon) and chicken should be a flesh tone shade. Dark spots or old smells are bad so make sure the meat you pick is fresh.
* QUANTITY. It requires about 3 to 5 pounds of meat to produce one 1 pound of jerky. Therefore, to get more for your money, range fed, 100% premium, visually lean, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspected, flank steak is your best buy. There is no waste with this type of meat because it is all lean, pure red meat with consistent straight grain making it easy to prepare. If you do happen to get meat that you have to trim, use those trimmings to make ground beef!
** Note: Have the butcher cut long, ¼” strips either across or with the grain. If you are trimming your own, put the meat in the freezer for no more than 30 minutes to firm up but DO NOT LET HARDEN.
BUYING ON A BUDGET
Just a quick tip to keep in mind when headed to the supermarket:
* Check first what type of meat it is. Learn cuts of meat and which are cheaper and of coarse which have a higher fat content. (80% lean ground beef is obviously a better choice and lower in fat than meat that is only 60% lean.)
* Check the weight, the price per pound, total price and sell date. Make sure the package of meat has not passed that date and plan to use or freeze the meat within two days of purchase, sooner if the sell-by date is up.
* If your meat is packaged in white butcher paper, be sure to repackage the meat for the freezer in plastic wrap, foil or plastic bags and label.
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Here is my two cents…jerky that is made from meat that is sliced across the grain is easier to chew than meat that is sliced with the grain. You should try different slicing methods to find the texture that is just right for you.
Flank steak is selling for about $1.48 a pound at our local wholesaler (Cash & Carry). They usually package 6 flanksteaks to a pack and it’s always excellent meat and easy to slice. I’m heading over tomorrow to pick up a pack, marinate 2 in Mojito sauce* for the grill, and make jerky out of the rest…probably with a Cajun rub.
Mojito is easy:
5 pounds limes
3-4 sweet oranges
too much garlic
Juice the fruit, chop as much garlic as you can stand, and marinate your flank steak in it. Either grill it or jerky it, but the flavor is just amazing!
human heat tends to be wayy to salty. Not to mention how gamey it is, never a good candidate. I’ll stick with beef and turky thanx.
If making human jerky, be sure and use a liberal. Conservatives have tough spots in them and they’re chewy.
I usually use “Top roud” or sometimes called just “beef round”, it makes big sided pieces and it’stexture is just right. I’m gonna start tryin flank steak or aka “fajita meat”. It sounds like it is cheaper (hence more of it) and I guess it comes out not to tough, if it there #1 meat recomended to use. I have used trimmed half or whole briskets in the past and I found it to be pretty tough and gets packed down in my teeth (which hurts like hell after chewin on it for awhile). But I’m glad I found this site, good tips!
Also as far as marinade, Lime are great for fajitas but I’m from Texas and I like the basics for marinade.
Soy sauce
Teriyake sauce
Salt to taste
Liquid smoke (wood flavors don’t matter there all good)
Garlic/onion Powder/salt (optional)
Marinate 12-24 hrs and after I lay it out on the dehydrator I put fresh ground black pepper on the pieces.
If you wanna spice it up, I de-stem and wash about 7 Jalapenos and then whisk in blender and spoon on top then dehydrate. DELICIOUS!
I go through about 75 lbs of jerky meat per week, and I use USDA Grade A eye of round roast that my butcher slices up for me. He removes most of the fat. I cut it into strips and remove any other marbling/fat that needs to be removed. I marinate in my own recipe for at least 12 hrs and then dehydrate on 2 Excaliber 9 tray dehydrators for 6-7 hours. I get my meat for $3.00 per pound. I might try the flank steak if it’s that cheap as long as it still makes good jerky. As far as using human meat………I think liberal hunman meat would be too tender and giving. I like consertative meat that is tough and makes you work at it!!!
I have found in my 10 years of jerky making that marinating your beef tends to produce a jerky that is way to salty. I prepare my marinade and dip my beef only briefly before drying……Perfect,every time!
It doesn’t take 3-5 pounds of beef to make 1 pound of jerky. I just did this experiment with an electronic cooking scale. 5 pounds of beef will dehydrate to just over 2 pounds of jerky. That’s 5 pounds of *trimmed* beef, *prior* to marinating.
i don’t know about you guys but terrorist meat is pretty good. Orphan meat is much better though, the tears make it tasty.(just kidding)
Anyone have a good Soylent Green recipe?
I make my jerky with pork tenderloin. It’s easy to slice and after marinating and dehydrating it taste as good as beef. Try using store bought cajun spice.
I tend to prefer Cannibal Meat! Cannibals are absolutely the best meat for making jerky from. And it looks like I’m going to have an easy time finding it.
I agree. the best cut is a “Girello” also called “Eye of Round”. It is usually of similar weight [1.3-1.7kg] and size so you can be consistent with marinade amounts. Always Fresh from a butcher, marinated overnight before dehydrating. Never frozen. It is not that expensive [here in Australia anyway]
I use mostly London broil for my jerky when I can find it on sale…and sometimes I pay regular price. It seams to absorb the marinade better and it tends to have less fat in the middle. I also find that 12 hours is long enough to marinade. When I marinaded for more than 12 hours recently, the jerky didn’t taste as flavorful as the 12 hour jerky.