How Many Pounds of Top Round Do I Need for Beef Jerky

Smokey, salty, and just the right amount of sweet, beef jerky is a perfect snack for hiking, camping ground, and road-tripping. Learn how to brand your own flavorful and tender beef hasty using either a dehydrator or an oven!

Making your own beef hasty at home is not but incredibly simple, just it is also much much cheaper than ownership store-bought jerky. Plus, y'all'll be able to control all the ingredients that get into making it; no weird stabilizers or unpronounceable additives.

And then if y'all're ready to start making your own beef jerky, you've come up to the right place. In this article, we share everything we know most making tender homemade beef jerky.

Why We Love It:

• Versatile hiking, camping, travel snack
• WAAY cheaper than buying store-bought hasty
• Great way to make use of cheaper cuts of meat
• Lots of opportunities to develop your own customize flavors

Quick Tips for Making Beefiness Hasty

• Chewy = cut with the grain. Tender = against the grain.
• Partially freeze your beef earlier slicing it. Business firm beef is much easier to cut.
• Tenderizing your beefiness with a mallet is definitely worth the effort
• Utilize a Ziploc purse or reusable culling for the marinade, which allows you to glaze each strip of beef by massaging the outside of the bag.
• Preheat your dehydrator, and dehydrate at 160 F to ensure beefiness remains at nutrient-safe temperature.
• Set a timer! Beefiness jerky can become over dehydrated if left in for as well long, so y'all will desire to pull information technology earlier 100% of the water has evaporated.

Eye of Round is i of our favorite cuts of beef for hasty

All-time Cuts of Meat for Beef Hasty

Any lean cut of beef will piece of work dandy for making jerky. In fact, when you're selecting a cut for your jerky, the leaner the improve.

The reason is that fat doesn't dehydrate. H2o moisture volition evaporate out of the beef during the dehydration process, but the fat will remain. And excessive amounts of fat tin can lead to your hasty going rancid.

And then while a nicely marbled ribeye steak might be bully for searing, all that intermuscular fat will be no practiced for making jerky.

By going with a lean cut of beef, you reduce the amount of fat you need to cutting out. Plus, these are often the cheaper cuts of meat!

These are our get-to cuts for making beef jerky:

• Acme Circular
• Centre of Circular
• Top Sirloin
• London Broil

Still, if you're looking for a really "primo" cut of beef to utilise for hasty, we'd suggest using flank steak. It'southward past far the priciest choice, but it has a actually great flavor and can exist cut into long thin strips.

What Do With Fat?

Nearly all cuts of beefiness come with some amount of fat, but not all of information technology needs to be removed.

You lot will want to cut away any large caps of fat gristle. This tin be accomplished past running your knife underneath it, lifting upwardly a tab of fat, and shaving away at a shallow bending with your knife.

You may as well find some thin "veins" of intermuscular fat running through the meat. Whether you want to cut these out is entirely up to you.

If you are really trying to maximize storage life, you lot can go ahead and advisedly cut these out. But if you're planning on eating in your hasty relatively shortly, it is fine to leave them. We only e'er cut out the really big line of fat and leave the rest.

How to Cut the Beef

Afterwards you've selected the cutting of beef, the next stride is to decide which direction you desire to slice it.

There are two schools of thought on this:

• If y'all want your hasty to be chewy then you will want to cut with the grain.
• If you want your jerky to tender, y'all will desire to cut against the grain.

Nosotros tend to favor slicing against the grain, but information technology's totally up to you.

In terms of thickness, you lot desire to slice the beef as thin as you can. Possibly not cardboard (which is kind of impossible with beef), but somewhere in the ⅛ to ¼ of an inch zone. If the jerky is too thick it will be harder to dehydrate and volition finish up existence much tougher to chew.

If you lot are buying your meat from a butcher counter, the easiest way to slice your beef is to ask the butcher to slice it for y'all!

This is unremarkably a gratuitous service, plus they have these amazing industrial meat slicing machines, and so each piece will come up out perfectly uniform.

No butcher around? No worries! It'southward easy to slice the beef with a pocketknife at home IF yous follow this one trick!

To make the beef easier to slice, identify it in the freezer for 1-2 hours beforehand or until it becomes semi-frozen. (not frozen like a rock, just firm) Beef is so much easier to slice when it's semi-frozen.

Besides, information technology might seem obvious, simply employ a sharp knife! Dull knives cause all sorts of kitchen accidents, and, in this particular instance, makes cutting the beef absolutely excruciating. A recently sharpened knife will brand this process so much easier (and safer!) We own this Chef Choice Model 15XV and it works cracking.

The Importance of Tenderizing

One of the most common complaints almost beefiness jerky (whether homemade or store-bought) is that it feels like chewing tree bawl. Nosotros get it, nobody wants to gnaw abroad on a beef-flavored woodchip. And so what'due south to exist done?

The starting time thing you can do is cull the right direction to slice your beef, which we covered in a higher place. Confronting the grain = more tender.

The next affair is to brand sure you properly tenderize your meat. There are ii ways to get about this: manually or with a pulverisation.

Pounding the beef with a meat tenderizing mallet will physically break down the musculus fibers, resulting in a more tender texture. While a niggling labor-intensive this method is very effective (sometimes a little too effective). Make sure non to over tenderize! The beefiness slices demand to retain some structure! Yous don't want to pound them into mush. This method also has the added benefit of helping to ensure the slices are all pounded to an even thickness.

Meat tenderizing powders are made from enzymes. They are almost ordinarily derived either from papain, which comes from papayas, or from bromelain, which comes from pineapples. These can be sprinkled onto the beef and volition start working to break down the fibers equally soon as it gets placed into the dehydrator (activated past oestrus).

The other essential function of tenderizing is using a well-salted beef hasty marinade. Common salt will naturally start to pause down the muscle fibers, yielding a more tender jerky.

Beef Jerky Marinade

But like with BBQ sauces, the marinade is the secret X factor in every beefiness jerky recipe. The exact ingredients and proportions are ofttimes highly coveted trade secrets.

Thankfully you won't take to twist our arm to get our recipe (information technology's in the recipe carte below!) Our recipe does a dandy job recreating that classic "original" jerky season, just you tin totally adjust the spices to make this recipe your own.

Just remember not to add together any fats/oils to your jerky marinade (lots of grilling marinades call for fats) if you programme on storing it for any length of time.

Which is Better: Oven or Dehydrator?

You tin make delicious tasting beefiness jerky using either. However, you will get better and more consistent results if you employ a dehydrator.

Dehydrators offer much better temperature control (especially at the lower temperatures needed for dehydrating) and they provide vastly amend airflow.

Nosotros will give instructions for both methods, but if you lot want to become serious about making jerky and then you volition desire to consider picking up a dehydrator. They tin can be very affordable and have a ton of other not bad uses.

Equipment Spotlight: Dehydrators

If y'all're in the marketplace for a dehydrator, we recommend buying one that has an adjustable temperature, which volition allow you to dial in the drying temp to give you the all-time results for individual ingredients. The dehydrator nosotros use and recommend most often is the COSORI Premium. You lot tin discover our other favorite dehydrators here.

Beef jerky before and later dehydrating

How to Dehydrate Beefiness Hasty

To dehydrate your jerky, preheat your dehydrator to 160F. If yous're using your oven, preheat to 160F or as low as you tin set it.

Load the trays, making sure no pieces of meat are overlapping, and then place them into the dehydrator or oven.

The drying time will depend on how thick the beefiness was sliced, total load, humidity in your space, and your particular motorcar–double check your dehydrator'southward manual. We find that hasty usually takes between 4-six hours. Every so often, use a paper towel to blot any fatty, and shuffle or rotate the trays if needed to promote even drying.

Properly dried hasty should fissure when bent, merely not intermission. Be certain to test using a cooled piece.

We personally like to store our beef jerky in reusable mason jars which are closed.

Best Ways to Store Beefiness Jerky

How you store your beef jerky volition frequently depend on when you intend on eating it. The longer yous want to store it, the more than specific the storing process needs to become.

Up to a week: Beef jerky will be fine for up to a week in a non-closed reusable or plastic baggie. The less exposure to air the better, and it's a practiced idea to keep out of direct low-cal.

Up to a month: Yous volition desire to use an airtight container (Bricklayer jar, resealable container with gasket lid). It can be stored at room temperature just should exist kept away from straight lite.

3-six months: For anything over a month, beef jerky should be vacuum-sealed in an closed container. FoodSaver makes a variety of ways of vacuum-sealing food either in plastic pouches or reusable Mason jars. You lot volition want to store information technology in the refrigerator.

Upwards to a year: To maximize the storage time of your beefiness jerky, you will want to vacuum-seal it in an closed container and store it in the freezer. You may also consider using a moisture-absorbing packet.

Other recipes y'all'll enjoy

↠ Teriyaki Beef Jerky
↠ How To Make Fruit Leathers
↠ Trail Mix Recipes
↠ Backpacking Food Ideas

• 2 pounds beefiness, (lean cuts are all-time & will keep longer)
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons chocolate-brown sugar
• ii teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ane teaspoon onion powder
• ane teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon meat tenderizer, *optional

Cook Style Forestall your screen from going night

• Thinly slice the meat* and cut off all visible fat.

• Pound slices with a meat tenderizer mallet until pieces are compatible thickness (aprox nickel width).

• Place the beefiness strips in a zero-summit bag. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over beef.

• Embrace & marinate for 12-36 hours. Shake the purse a few times as it's marinating to make sure the beef is evenly coated.

• Spread the meat in a unmarried layer, shaking off whatever excess marinade, on the dehydrator trays.

• Dry at 165F/74C for 4-half-dozen hours, occasionally blotting off any fat droplets that appear on the surface. Test using a cooled piece. Properly dried jerky, when bent, should crack only not suspension.

• Package jerky in and air-tight container or vacuum seal (*encounter storage notes below). Shop in a cool, dark & dry identify.

*Partially freezing the meat makes it easier to slice. Cutting with the grain for chewier jerky & cut against the grain for tender but more breakable pieces.

Storage Notes:
Properly stale and packaged jerky will keep for a week at room temp in a regular cipher-acme bag, up to a month at room temp in an air-tight container, 3-6 months in an air-tight container in the fridge, and up to a year if vacuum sealed and stored in the freezer.

Calories: 163 kcal | Carbohydrates: 4 one thousand | Protein: 28 k | Fatty: 4 one thousand | Potassium: 395 mg

*Diet is an guess based on information provided by a third-party nutrition calculator

This recipe was originally contributed by Kira and Brendon of Adventurehaks.com and was updated 11/21 with additional data | Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Fresh Off The Grid is a culinary resource for the outdoor community. Nosotros offer a collection of recipes, how-to guides, and camp cooking gear to help you enjoy great food in the peachy outdoors!

yoderafteptelle1936.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.freshoffthegrid.com/simple-beef-jerky-recipe/

Share this post