The Best Teriyaki Beef Jerky Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to good jerky? ›

Top tips for making jerky

The instructions are really quite simple, but here are a few tips to ensure you have the best possible jerky results: use the freshest meat possible. use lean cuts like top or eye of round. pat the jerky dry from any marinade before dehydrating to accelerate the process.

The ideal time to marinate jerky is 16 hours, but an acceptable range is 8 to 24 hours. This time frame allows the marinade to saturate the outside of the meat and the salt to penetrate beyond the surface, seasoning the entire piece of meat.

The Best Wood to Smoke Beef Jerky

Woods commonly used include hickory, with its strong, traditional smoky flavor, mesquite, which offers an intense earthiness, applewood, known for its sweet, fruity notes, and cherrywood, with a mild and slightly sweet profile.

The best cuts of meat for beef jerky are Top Round, Bottom Round, Lifter and Pectoral, but a variety of cuts can be used such as Flank Steak and Skirt Steak. These cuts of beef check all the boxes for beef jerky—economical, lean, and full of flavor. Selecting a lean cut of meat that has very little fat is key.

Sodium Nitrates in Beef Jerky

Beef jerky is also typically high in sodium nitrates. These compounds are often added to processed foods to help preserve them and give them a salty flavor. Because of this, most experts recommend limiting eating processed foods like beef jerky, hot dogs, and lunch meats.

The acidic properties of vinegar work to weaken the meat's collagen tissue, making it less tough. Collagen is what gives meat its structure, but it's also responsible for making it chewy. By breaking down some of this connective tissue, vinegar makes your jerky easier to bite into.

Dehydrating beef jerky for too long can lead to over-drying. While this may not pose as immediate a health risk as undercooking, the implications for your taste buds are dire.

The jerky should bend and eventually break, but not snap off. If you're unable to break the jerky into two pieces, and it's still rubbery, that means it needs more time. If the jerky snaps into two pieces with bending, it's most likely over-dried. Pro Tip: Finished jerky should be like a green tree branch.

Remove Excess Moisture

To decrease drying time, pat jerky strips, fruits, and veggies dry with a paper towel, or use a pretreatment process or product.

Hickory is often considered the king of smoke woods due to its strong, hearty flavor profile. Known for its pungent, smoky aroma and rich, bacon-like flavor, hickory is a traditional choice that's well-suited to robust meats like elk.

Is jerky better in a smoker or dehydrator? ›

Longer preservation: Compared to smoking meat, dehydration allows you to keep the jerky much longer. Ease of use: Just like with smoking, dehydrating is simple. Many dehydrators can operate on autopilot once the meat strips are inside. Just step away and let the appliance do its magic.

Slightly sweet and slightly smoky — the flavor of Applewood Smoked Beef Jerky is like nothing else, and it's a flavor you will keep craving after your first taste. When you enjoy a piece of our beef jerky you can appreciate the sweet and aromatic smoky flavor that keep you going back for more.

Consistent thickness is the name of the game when it comes to jerky slicing. Slicing your jerky evenly will ensure that each piece cooks and dries at the same rate. This prevents over-drying and under-drying. We recommend slicing meat for jerky at a thickness between 1/8" and 1/4" with the perfect thickness at 3/16”.

Pectoral meat, also known as special trim, is often used for beef jerky. This is an affordable choice, but it is also tender.

To make beef jerky taste more like steak, you can try marinating the beef in a steak-flavored marinade before dehydrating. Use ingredients like soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper to impart a steak-like flavor.

Beef jerky is an easy, on-the-go snack that packs high protein, zinc, and iron concentrations. Those nutrients are essential for overall health. Consuming beef jerky in moderation is key since processed and red meats can increase the risk of health complications.