Homemade Beef Jerky

This past weekend was the all church camp-out! My church has a lot of land, including a wooded area, which is where the campground is located. The campground is somewhat rural with only one hand pump for water, but there are electrical posts scattered throughout the campsite.

My family left on Thursday for a long weekend there, even though it did not officially start until Friday. There were a few other families who also decided to show up early, including my mom and step-dad and my younger brothers.

Earlier in the week Nick (my youngest brother) and I made home-made beef jerky. Typically I tend to make it spicy but this time I decided to make it sweet instead so I used honey. Now that I thought about it I could have added some brown sugar.

Here is the basic recipe

3 lbs of meat (I typically get some sort of butt roast- but London Boil, brisket, and flank steaks work well also)

2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

2/3 cup soy sauce (I always get the reduced sodium type because it reduces the saltiness)

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 1/2 tsp liquid smoke

Optional

2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp Hot Sauce

3 Tb honey

Now you may need to double the recipe depending on the amount of meat you brought.

I have learned that it is so much easier to cut the meat into slices when it is slightly frozen. You don't want the meat too thin because it increases the chances of burning it and you don't want it too thick because it will not dehydrate as well. I tend to cut my pieces about a little less than 1/4 in thick. Make sure that you cut away all the fat that you can.

I mix my marinade up in a freezer bag (I taste a bit before I add the meat too determine if I need to add something else) and then shake the meat up in it. Let it set overnight in the refrigerator.

Place one oven rake at the highest level and the other oven rack (wrapped in tin foil to catch drippings to avoid a mess in you oven) on the lowest shelf.

Then you poke toothpicks through the top of the meat and hang them from the oven racks so that the pieces of meat are hanging down (see picture above)

When all pieces are done turn your oven on to the lowest setting and leave the oven door open ajar. You do not want to shut the door because then it would bake the meat. Leaving the door ajar allows moisture to escape.

You know that the jerky is done when the meat is still flexible but mainly dry. If it breaks in two then it was overdone.

*Warning*

Because this can take any where from 4 to 7 hrs until it is done "cooking" I tend to get up WAY early in the morning to get it in the oven. I then go back to bed to get more sleep. by doing that the beef jerky should be done before noon

This is so much cheaper than store brought beef jerky. It will last probably about a week and a half (I am not sure exactly how long because it is always gone within days). It will not last as long as the store brought kind, but it will not have all the preservatives, artificial flavors, or MSG'S.