Recipe Beef Jerky

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I used an offset smoker, but there are a various other ways to make beef jerky. If using your oven to dry out the beef strips, add liquid smoke to the marinade.

The cocoa powder doesn’t make the jerky taste like a meaty chocolate bar. Instead, it adds a richness, much as it does in mole and chili.

Ingredients

1-1/2 pounds top round beef, trimmed of fat
3/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
4 teaspoons black pepper, freshly ground
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon honey
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

Directions

1. Trim any bits of fat off the beef. Place beef in a plastic zipper bag. Freeze for about 2 hours or until flesh is firm, but not rock hard. Allow to thaw in refrigerator if it’s too frozen.

2. Slice in thin, uniform pieces, around 1/8” (3 mm) thick. I used a deli meat slicer.

3. Mix remaining ingredients together thoroughly, ensuring cocoa powder is fully dissolved. Pour into a sealable container.

4. Place beef slices in marinade a few pieces at a time, making sure that marinade coats all sides. If pieces are dropped into the marinade in clumps, some pieces won’t be fully marinated. Seal container.

5. Refrigerate beef for at least 12 hours.

6. Discard marinade. Place meat in a single layer on baking sheets lined with paper towels, patting dry to absorb excess liquid and remove any coriander seeds. Rest at room temperature while you do the next step.

7. Start heating your smoker. I used a 50/50 blend of apple wood and maple wood chips, along with charcoal briquettes. NOTE: the briquettes provide the heat, while the wood chips provide the flavor.

8. Arrange the meat so it hangs over the rails of the smoking rack. Make sure there is space between the pieces of meat.

9. Every smoker is somewhat different, but the basics involve waiting until the fire in the firebox is reduced such that the briquettes are grey around the edges and the smoke is a steady blueish color (not a billowing white). The temperature of the smoking compartment should be around 165°F (74°C).

10. Make sure to check the firebox periodically to make sure it's still going. Add wood chips and stoke the fire if needed.

11. Cook until the beef is leathery in texture, taking care to not let it get too dry and crumbly. Mine took about 5 hours from the time I started the smoker. Note the pieces on the left side look burned, because they are: they are closest to the heat box. I actually also removed another row that was even closer, and you can imagine how blackened they were. Next time, I am going to leave more space on the side where the heat comes out. NOTE: the really dark ones in the lower right side were perfect...that's just shadow.

 

[JAS_OH1]

Fabulous!

May I ask how/why you have a deli meat slicer in your kitchen? I mean, wow. It looks like one that would be in a grocery store. And how do you have room for it?

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Fabulous!

May I ask how/why you have a deli meat slicer in your kitchen? I mean, wow. It looks like one that would be in a grocery store. And how do you have room for it?

I got my deli meat slicer when they were cleaning out my father-in-law's garage after he passed. I never knew he had it until that day. I never used it for anything serious until just now. The lack of any safety features makes it risky to use...I did most of the slicing while holding the meat in the zipper bag. When it got too hard to hold onto that way, I used the holder from my mandolin. It worked incredibly well.

And, I avoided hurting myself until I cleaned it later. Simply touching the blade for a brief moment opened a cut on my thumb. NOTE TO SELF: Do not clean sharp things with your thumb!

 

[JAS_OH1]

I got my deli meat slicer when they were cleaning out my father-in-law's garage after he passed. I never knew he had it until that day. I never used it for anything serious until just now. The lack of any safety features makes it risky to use...I did most of the slicing while holding the meat in the zipper bag. When it got too hard to hold onto that way, I used the holder from my mandolin. It worked incredibly well.

And, I avoided hurting myself until I cleaned it later. Simply touching the blade for a brief moment opened a cut on my thumb. NOTE TO SELF: Do not clean sharp things with your thumb!

You could get one of those cut-resistant gloves that the deli employees use. But that's a pretty cool find.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

You could get one of those cut-resistant gloves that the deli employees use. But that's a pretty cool find.

I have one of those, and I used to have two...the other got cut up because I used to be overly confident while using my mandolin. I stopped using it because it created bad habits. But, next time I use the slicer, I will use it.