As I wrote a few weeks ago, I was able to harvest three deer from our farm property in Wadena, MN. This year I wanted to make jerky with forty pounds of the meat that I would normally process into sausage and the like. I am not really a jerky guy, I don’t really know what that means beyond that I never buy the stuff … even though I do enjoy eating it. Maybe it’s because of the price per ounce or maybe it’s because I don’t find the store-bought product to be that satisfying … too soft, lacking chew, and not enough jerk. The cure and seasonings are really easy and leave a lot of room for self-expression.

My first batch was pretty good, but not great. I only marinated the batch for 6 hours, which turned out to not be long enough. The result was tasty, just not salty or seasoned enough. For the second batch I cured the meat for 12 hours and the result was pretty much perfect. The curing times will vary depending on how much salt and salt derivatives (soy sauce, miso, sodium nitrate, etc.) you decide to use.

The act of drying jerky is a snap if you have a Wolf oven and perhaps it is the same with other high-end ranges. My Wolf range has a dehydrate feature which maintains a temperature of 160° whilst blowing the convection fans. Using a conventional oven will work just fine as long as you can maintain a temperature range of 160 to 170 degrees, it will just take a bit longer. For an oven with a dehydrate feature it will take four to five hours as opposed to about 12 to 14 hours in a conventional oven. Cabela’s and other outdoors stores have jerky seasoning kits for cheap and I have tasted some of them and they are good, you can add your own flavors to those packets as well. I am adverse to liquid smoke so to get a smoky flavor on my jerky I used smoked paprika with really nice results. Below is the recipe I used.

Smoky Teriyaki

5 lbs of trimmed, lean venison, beef or buffalo—sliced into 1/8 inch thick strips
1/2 c. of soy sauce
2 T. of kosher or sea salt
2 T. of medium grind black pepper
2 T. sri racha
1 T. of onion powder
1 T. smoked paprika
2 T. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. of Morton Tender Quick curing mix, which is available at many grocery stores

Enough water to make a loose paste of the above ingredients