I’ve always loved jerky… a friend of mine recently exposed me to Mingua Beef Jerky which is some pretty outstanding stuff. Or so we thought. That was until we found BestBeefJerky.org which has a ton of jerky reviews, including Mingua. Their review of Mingua jerky was *spot on* in terms of description… and they only gave it three stars (out of five)!!
So here, the best jerky I’d ever had was only getting three stars. That meant we had a mission: to try some five-star jerky. As it happens, the jerky they rated best was Ed’s Roadhouse Jerkly which happens to be made in the Chicago area (Buffalo Grove, to be precise).
Ed’s website looks like it was made with Geocities in 1998, but my god, can that man make some jerky. I tried the Black Pepper and the Sweet Black Pepper, and without a doubt, it was, hand’s down, the best jerky I’ve ever had. I still love the Mingua–it’s got a totally different style/taste thing going. But Ed’s is some incredible jerky. Still, it’s not cheap. And I wanted to be able to tweak the flavors. You know what that means… I decided to make my own.
I spent some time researching techniques and recipes online, but in the end, I decided to go with my man, Alton Brown.
Brown’s technique appeals to me on several levels. First, I don’t dehydrate a lot of food, so I didn’t really want to purchase a dehydrator. I also didn’t want to use the oven drying technique, because leaving an oven propped open for hours at a time with a toddler running around is too much work.
So, I made a trip to the hardware store, picked up a cheap box fan and some paper furnace filters. Then a trip to the butcher for some flank steak. All stocked up, it was marinade time.
I tried three different marinades for this batch. The first was Alton Brown’s recipe. The other two follow:
Dave’s Variation
2/3 c. Worcestershire Sauce
2/3 c. Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp. Honey
2 tsp. Fine Ground Black Pepper
2 tsp. Coarse Ground Black Pepper
2 Tbsp. Medium Ground Black Pepper
2 tsp. Onion Powder
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Liquid Smoke
1 tsp. Cayenne Powder
Teriyaki Style
2/3 c. Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 c. Teriyaki Sauce
1/4 c. Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp. Honey
3 tsp. Black Pepper
2 tsp. Onion Powder
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp. Liquid Smoke
1/2 tsp. Cayenne Powder
I also tried an experiment with cutting the flank steaks, and cut one with the grain (as Alton suggests) and one cross-grain, just to compare textures. I marinated each batch for about 5.5 hours, and then carefully laid out the marinated strips onto my furnace filters, one batch per filter. I then used bungee cords to secure the filters to the box fan, set it up in a cool, dry area, and let it sit.
It took about 16 hours for my jerky to be ready and then it was time for tasting!
My first batch of homemade beef jerky!
Texture wise, both jerky cuts were good. The cuts made with the meat grain were definitely more stringy and chewy. The cross-grain cuts were pretty good, and definitely my preference. They still had a nice “chew” factor, but didn’t take quite as much work. Going forward, I’m going to stick to the cross-grain cut, but if you’re trying it, you should do both at first to find your personal preference.
Flavor wise, the Alton Brown was a solid, damn good jerky. But no surprise, I think my variation was better. First, I like a little more pepper in the initial taste than Alton had, and second, I think the pure ground cayanne (as opposed to red pepper flakes) helped boost the flavors of the marinade, and gave a little more residual heat, which I really like. The most disappointing was the teriyaki, which wasn’t as “teriyaki” as I’d hoped. It was still tasty, but definitely the weakest of the three. I did a taste test among some other jerky aficionados and we were all pretty much in agreement: Alton good, Dave better, teriyaki weak.
This was definitely just the first batch, so there’s still room for tweaking. I’ve already planned some improvements:
1. I’m going to tweak the “Dave” recipe a little more. I’m going to add more pepper, a little teriyaki to the recipe, and boost the garlic a bit. I may play around with different kinds of peppers… not sure yet.
2. I’m definitely going to stick with the cross-grain cut.
3. I’m going to try a couple off different cuts of meat, some top round, and some bison. I like the flank steak, but want to see how the different cuts compare in texture.
4. My wife made cookies yesterday and had out her baking cooling racks when it hit me: they would be perfect for sandwiching jerky strips in! I’ll probably put the jerky strips between the racks, and then put one furnace filter on the front/back (to filter the air blowing through). But that will allow me to reuse the furnace filters.
I’ll be sure to post my future results here, on my quest for the perfect jerky!
Update (4/23/11):
I’m trying a new “sweet” recipe, based on some of the feedback I got on my previous batches. Here’s the new recipe…
Dave’s Sweet Jerk
3/4 c. Soy Sauce
1/2 c. Worcestershire
1 1/4 c. Teryaki Sauce
1 T. Honey
1 T. Dark Brown Sugar
1 T. Ginger
1 tsp. Fine-Ground Black Pepper
1 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
2 tsp. Garlic
2 tsp. Onion Powder
1 tsp. Each Paprika (Smoked Spanish, Hungarian Half-Sharp, California Sweet)
1.5 tsp. Ground Cumin
Glaze (Yes, glaze!)
1/4 c. Dark Brown Sugar
1 tsp Honey
1 tsp Maple Syrup