Spicy Beef Jerky w/ cure

[T.G]

I was talking with Peter (pnoon) the other day and he asked me to post this recipe.


2 lbs lean beef, sliced thin, against the grain
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons sriracha sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
3-4 tablespoons fresh ginger juice (optional)
1 level tablespoon morton tender quick OR 0.04oz (1g) Insta-Cure / Prague #1 cure


Freeze the meat for a few hours to make it easier to slice, then cut against the grain into thin strips. Eye of round and top round aka: london broil steaks work well. As does cube steak, which is typically tenderized top round steaks. For cube steak, slice about 1/2" to 3/4" wide. Trim and discard any fat, connective tissue and silverskin.

Mix all remaining ingredients to form a marinade.

For the ginger juice, I just ran a big chunk of ginger through my Juiceman juicer. If you don't have a juicer, finely grated ginger will work, just up the quantity to about 6 tablespoons.

Place all ingredients into a zip lock bag and press out the excess air. Allow to marinate about 8-12 hours in the refrigerator, periodically flipping and massaging the bag to ensure all meat surfaces are exposed to the marinade.

After 8-12 hours, pull the meat out of the bag and lay the meat out in strips on a fine wire rack over a sheet pan (cookie sheet). Pat excess marinade away with a paper towel, but still leave a layer of it on the meat. Leave this pan, uncovered, in the refrigerator for about 12 hours (overnight). The meat will continue to cure during this time while it dries.

Place in smoker or dehydrator and run at low temp until dry and chewy. Place in zip lock bag and leave in refrigerator overnight or even 2 days, then eat.

Notes on temps: because of the cure, you can smoke or dehydrate at low temps. I run it in my pellet grill at 165 with smoke for about 5 hours.

Notes on cure: use one or the other, either TQ or Prague powder, not both. Prague powder is much more concentrated, so be precise with the measurements. We're dosing at half the normal rate because the meat is so thin and is better off being dosed at the ground meat rate of half of whole muscle cuts.

If you use TQ, it's massively salty, so if you need more volume on the marinade, only add a little water.



I'd post photos, but the last batch was made with cube steak so it kind of looks like a tray of dehydrated dog turds.

[T.G]

Asked a friend who is a food science major that deals with production about the nitrite dosing rates and the use of nitrides from the TQ (also found in Prague #2) and they said that
1) recommend using just Prague #1 as nitrides aren't necessary. TQ has a few uses, but it's not that great a product in their opinion (I have no love of the stuff either, I just have like 6 lbs of it leftover from when I switched over to Prague #1 that I want to do something with)
2) the information I had about the reduced dosing rate was is not correct. The thickness or thinness of the cut affects the length of time needed to cure, not the amount you use - at least with Prague #1 and #2. So, for prague #1, you would dose at 1:400 which is 0.04 oz per 1lb of meat.


Keeping all that in mind, I fixed the recipe and added some sweet mirin cooking wine because I felt a tiny hint of sweetness might help it out a bit.

2 lbs lean beef, sliced thin, against the grain
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons sriracha sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
3-4 tablespoons fresh ginger juice (optional)
2 tablespoons sweet mirin cooking wine
0.08oz Insta-Cure #1 / Prague #1 cure

[BigAsh]

Thanks Adam....looks damn tasty, I'm gonna try it...Curious, why the instruction "Place in zip lock bag and leave in refrigerator overnight or even 2 days, then eat."?

[T.G]

Originally Posted by BigAsh

Thanks Adam....looks damn tasty, I'm gonna try it...Curious, why the instruction "Place in zip lock bag and leave in refrigerator overnight or even 2 days, then eat."?

Thanks, I can't take credit for writing the recipe though, it was something I found.

You can eat the jerky right away if you wish. The bag in the refrigerator just gives it time to air a bit and develop a bit more flavor. Probably also helps the over dried parts absorb a bit of moisture back too.