How to Maje Beef Jerky in a Smoker
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Learn how to make beef hasty in a smoker. This easy, footstep-past-footstep recipe has all the data, AND a video, you'll need to make the best beef jerky you've always made!
It's 2:thirty pm, y'all've been decorated all day and in that location it is.
The brick wall.
We all know it. We all loathe it.
You know what kicks the mid-afternoon slump to the curb? A tasty snack!
This recipe is dedicated to the mid-afternoon struggle.
Jump to:
- What cut is best for beef hasty?
- How to piece
- Marinating
- How to smoke
- How To Tell When Beef Jerky Is Done
- Recommended tools
- Flavour ideas
- If yous dear this mail service
- 📖 Printable Recipe
- Pin this beefiness hasty recipe!
What cut is best for beef jerky?
Beef hasty is made from lean meats. The bacteria the ameliorate, because when we make beef hasty, we are smoking and dehydrating the beef which is essentially preserving and making shelf-stable.
Fat doesn't translate to shelf-stable! Any fat left on the roast has the potential to become rancid. If you watch my handsome hand model in the video, you'll see how Kevy trims his roast. He's using a little boning pocketknife to piece off the fat.
We tend to cull cuts from the circular portion of the beef. Centre of round is a nice shape and size, and one of our favourites. Top round is like, and perchance a chip more tender. Either of those would be a neat choice for beef jerky.
How to slice
There are ii options when information technology comes to slicing your beef:
- With the grain - this gives you a chewier jerky. That can exist split and pulled in long strips.
- Against the grain - this gives a more than tender, less chewy jerky. It tin can still be pulled autonomously in chunks, only because the meat is cut against the grain, the muscle fibres are shorter and easier to chew.
We adopt to slice our beef against the grain. If y'all sentinel my video, you can meet examples of both.
Once you've decided how to slice it, it's time to really slice your beefiness roast!
Actually slicing the beef:
Information technology's of import to cut your beef jerky slices evenly - this volition ensure an fifty-fifty cook and even texture in the finished product. In my opinion, the perfect slice is betwixt 1/8" and 1/4"!
There are a couple of ways to help get a good clean cutting on your jerky:
- Freeze your meat! Beef comes from a living animal - it'southward filled with wet, and that makes information technology squishy and malleable. It'due south hard to piece something that's squirming all over the cutting board.
- Use a meat slicer if you take one, or invest in ane if yous plan on making a lot of jerky! Information technology will make your life a lot easier, your slices consequent, and the prep-time shortened big time.
Marinating
What's In the Marinade?
Every marinade is different, and truly, the heaven is the limit on what you can add to your marinade.
At that place are a few things we ever like to add:
- something sugariness
- something salty
- something spicy
- herbs and spices
How Long To Marinate Jerky
Marinate your jerky for 18-24 hours. It takes a while to go all that delicious flavourness upwards in the beef.
Generally, what we do is piece and mix up the marinade on Saturday morn, then smoke Sunday afternoon.
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How to smoke
Once your jerky has been sliced and sufficiently marinated, it's kickoff!
- Fire up the Traeger to 180f.
- Utilise newspaper towel to dry out your jerky.
- Spread the jerky in a unmarried layer on the racks in your smoker.
- Fume at 180f for 2-3 hours - flipping halfway through.
- Remove from smoker and place in a ziplock bag - permit information technology to cool slightly then seal. The beef will reabsorb the condensation
- Store in an airtight bag in the refrigerator.
How To Tell When Beefiness Jerky Is Done
The rule of thumb is to melt information technology until it bends simply doesn't cleft. The best mode I've found is to pull your jerky off of the smoker and let it to come to room temperature, then fold it right in one-half.
If information technology's pliable and the meat fibres starting time to crack it's pretty much perfect! If it'southward too floppy - back to the smoker.
Now for the good stuff:
This recipe can be fabricated a lot easier with a nutrient slicer. It's 1 of those random appliances you don't think you'd need or use, then once you get it, you use it more than you ever thought imaginable.
There are a few things to wait for in a meat slicer - you desire a strong motor - you'll exist cut through frozen meat. Y'all want something that's like shooting fish in a barrel to disassemble and make clean - you'll be cleaning raw meat off of information technology!
You'll find yourself using your slicer to slice homemade staff of life, leftover roasts for sandwiches, or fifty-fifty your home smoked cheese. It's a really handy tool!
Flavour ideas
I've included both of our favourites in the recipe menu beneath!
Both of these have been tested and tweaked past Kevin, the one with the patience to relieve some from each of a few batches and try them against another!
The sugariness ginger hasty has merely the right remainder of sweetness and ginger bite. Root beer sriracha is fantastic - its got srirachy null, and the sugariness depth of flavour that root beer provides.
Both are a huge striking in our house, I don't think you can go incorrect either fashion!
📖 Printable Recipe
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: iii hours
Additional Fourth dimension: 18 hours
Total Time: 21 hours 20 minutes
Use your smoker to fume beef jerky and you'll never go back to shop-bought. This step past pace guide volition walk you lot through the whole process. There are ii unlike marinade recipes included, sweet ginger and root beer sriracha.
Ingredients
- Beefiness roast - heart of round
Sweetness Ginger Beef Jerky:
- 1/ii cup soy sauce
- 2 cans (~3 cups) ginger ale
- 1/2 cup dark-brown sugar
- ane tsp common salt
- 1 tsp ground pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2-3" knob of ginger, sliced
Root Beer Sriracha Jerky:
- 2 cans (~iii cups) root beer
- one/ii cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 loving cup brown sugar
- 1/iv cup sriracha
- 1 tsp salt
- ane tsp pepper
- ane tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Freeze roast for 1-two hours - until meat is firm, but not completely frozen though.
- Using a very abrupt knife, or a meat slicer (we apply a meat slicer) slice beef into approximately 1/eight" - i/4" slices.
- Mix desired marinade (from i of the options in a higher place, or one of your ain cosmos) in a large bowl.
- Transfer sliced beef to a large ziplock handbag, and pour marinade into the bag.
- Remove as much air from the bag as possible., then seal. (Optional, double bag to avoid leaks.)
- Massage the bag, and really mix it up, to ensure all the beef is coated with the marinade.
- Place the marinating bag in the fridge overnight - for xviii-24 hours. Flip the purse twice during the marinading time. Our flim-flam is to do information technology one time at bedtime and once in the morning time.
- Preheat smoker to 180f.
- Remove beef from the bag, and dry with paper towels.
- Spread on smoker racks in a single layer. Smoke at 180f for 2-3 hours or until jerky is pliable but doesn't crack.
- Transfer to a fresh ziplock handbag and let to cool for 10-fifteen minutes before sealing the bag. There will be built upwardly condensation, that'south ok, seal it in the bag, the jerky will reabsorb information technology.
- Store your beef jerky in an closed container in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to a year.
Notes
* Each marinade batch volition marinade upwards to a 4lb roast. Experience gratuitous to halve, or double equally required.
* Lean cuts of beef piece of work best for this recipe. Beef jerky needs to be very lean, and accept very fiddling fat marbling.
Nutrition Data:
Yield:
40 Serving Size:
1
Corporeality Per Serving: Calories: 10 Total Fatty: 1g Saturated Fat: 0g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 0g Cholesterol: 4mg Sodium: 3mg Carbohydrates: 0g Cobweb: 0g Sugar: 0g Poly peptide: 1g
Pivot this beef hasty recipe!
Source: https://www.cravethegood.com/beef-jerky/