Jerky, the stuff cartoon cowboys used to pull out of their saddlebag, rip up, and chew lazily before riding into town, is actually incredibly easy to make at home. This salty, meaty, easily customizable snack is often cast aside at gas stations as an unhealthy piece of rubber, but where some gas station brands fail, you can triumph. Using a high quality cut of meat, a subtle seasoning blend, and proper slicing techniques, you can churn out batch after batch of cowboy-worthy jerky in your own oven.
We recently invited Bryan Mayer, the director of butchery education at Fleisher’s Craft Butchery, into our test kitchen to run us through some at-home jerky making procedure, and he did not disappoint. Bryan clued us in on some insider tips, and being the generous people that we are, we decided to pass them along to you. Here are the 10 things you should be keeping in mind while you’re prepping and making your own batch of jerky:
When choosing jerky meat, you want lean cuts of beef; this makes leg cuts ideal. Top round and eye round will give you the most tender, easily preserved jerky. If you use fatty cuts, the fat will go rancid when storing. Stay away from super fatty cuts like tenderloin and rib eye.
Placing your meat in the freezer for 30 to 40 minutes before slicing makes it a bit easier to slice thinly. You want your jerky to be less than a quarter of an inch thick, and firming it up in the freezer will help you get that nice slice.
The way you slice meat before you dehydrate makes a big difference in the final product. Cutting with the grain will give you a traditional leathery chew and jerky snap. Cutting meat against the grain will give you a more brittle jerky that falls apart more easily. If you’re going to be crumbling it up (say, for this amazing fried rice), this is the way to go.
For the first time you decide to be a badass and make your own jerky, you should use a very nice piece of meat and stick to seasoning it with just salt, using ½-1 tbsp of salt for every pound of meat. As you get more experienced, you can develop your own spice blends, but make sure not to overdo it. It’s easy to overwhelm the flavor. Whatever blend you decide on, make sure to marinate your meat anywhere between 3 and 24 hours before dehydrating.
If you don’t have the luxury of a dehydrator, you can use your oven, but the most important thing here is airflow. You never want to seal air in and bake your meat, so a convection oven is key. If you don’t have a convection oven, you can prop your oven door open by sticking a wine cork in between the edge of the oven and the door, keeping it ajar.
The meat should dehydrate in the oven at no higher than 225 degrees for about 3 hours. You’ll know that it's finished when it’s bendable but holds it shape, like stiff leather. Check the jerky for wet spots. If you see any, throw that piece back in the oven until they disappear. This isn’t an exact science, so it’s important to check the jerky throughout the process.
Make sure to use a grate or rack on top of your baking tray (which will be catching the drippings from your meat and preventing your house from burning down). Using a rack makes sure that air surrounds the top and bottom of your slices of meat evenly. Lay slices of marinated beef as flat as possible on top of the oiled grate. You don’t want these guys to stick.
Making jerky is a learning experience. Your first or second or seventh batch can still be improved upon. Keep a log each time you make jerky. How much seasoning did you use? How long did it spend in the oven? How long did you marinate it? It will all improve your future batches.
Jerky keeps for a while, so making a bit more than you can eat in a single snacking is always a good idea. It can last up to a week in a cool dry space or up to six months in the fridge. With the right storage, you’ll be snacking long term.
Vegetables. Fruit Strips. Fish. Other meats besides beef. If you can dehydrate it, you can turn it into jerky. Just be sure to remember that it might take more or less time than beef. Once you master beef, it’s time to master something else, until everyone in your hometown forgets your name and refers to you solely as “The Jerky God.” Success.