ground jerky

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  • Archeryrob

    Undecided on a great many things
    Mar 7, 2013
    3,064
    Washington Co. - Fairplay
    Anyone making any and have homemade recipes? I never made it because I did not like it compared to whole, sliced jerky.

    My daughter decided to get her deer processed instead of butcher it ourselves and she just said steaks and ground and they ground a lot of that buck!! I can't make enough bologna, snack sticks and venison bacon to get rid of all this. I don't like kits because I can add to, or change them. Might try my wife's pepper jerky, but too much spices gets inside the meat and makes the recipe seem weaker.
     

    gwchem

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 18, 2014
    3,434
    SoMD
    I make ground jerky and meat sticks exclusively.

    Backwoods spicy/jalapeno mix is pretty good.
     

    akalma

    Active Member
    MDS Supporter
    Nov 24, 2008
    718
    МоКо
    If you have a good working marinade recipe for sliced jerky why can you use it for ground one?
     

    Archeryrob

    Undecided on a great many things
    Mar 7, 2013
    3,064
    Washington Co. - Fairplay
    Wont the ground suck up all the marinade and become soup? I add water to bologna and it disappears.

    Like my wifes black pepper recipe all the pepper doesn't stick to the meat. It will all mix in the meat and probably make it hot. It was hot already on sliced meat
     

    akalma

    Active Member
    MDS Supporter
    Nov 24, 2008
    718
    МоКо
    Yep, you're right, the recipe needs to be reworked to significantly lower the liquid parts (like Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce).
    I found https://heygrillhey.com/ground-beef-jerky/ pretty close to my set of ingredients and I think its proportions can be used as a base.
    But indeed it will be interesting to see some proven recipes here!
     

    StantonCree

    Watch your beer
    Jan 23, 2011
    23,932
    5 lbs venison

    7 table spoons backwoods seasoning
    1/2 cup of liquid per lb (beer, truff sauce, pickle juice, water, teriyaki sauce, worschestire sauce)
    Little of a tsp of Morton’s quick cure per lb

    Add black pepper and red pepper flake to your liking.

    Dehydrate on 160 for 3 hours at least. Depending on your machine it might take more and you may need to rotate trays


    Oh year the mixture/cure has to sit for at 24 hours. At minimum 12
     

    outrider58

    Eats Bacon Raw
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 29, 2014
    49,815
    I'm a whole meet jerky guy too, although I just bought a jerky gun for making snack sticks, maybe I'll try a little. I like my jerky chewy though. :shrug:
     

    CaptainAwesome

    Active Member
    Jun 1, 2013
    355
    Pikesville MD
    Anyone making any and have homemade recipes? I never made it because I did not like it compared to whole, sliced jerky.

    My daughter decided to get her deer processed instead of butcher it ourselves and she just said steaks and ground and they ground a lot of that buck!! I can't make enough bologna, snack sticks and venison bacon to get rid of all this. I don't like kits because I can add to, or change them. Might try my wife's pepper jerky, but too much spices gets inside the meat and makes the recipe seem weaker.

    The following is my homemade base - dry mix for ground jerky in an oven rack at the lowest temp, I usually make a few pounds at a time:

    Dry cure jerky 1LB GROUND
    1tbls MTQ
    1TBLS BRWN SUGAR
    1/2 TSP BLACK PEPPER
    1/2 TSP GARLIC POWDER
    1/2 TSP ONION POWDER
    1/4 TSP CHILLI FLAKE
    1/4 TSP MUSTARD SEED
    1/4 TSP PAPRIKA
    1Tsp liquid smoke +
    4 tsp water
    Refrigerate overnight.

    Focus on getting a consistent thickness, use a rolling pin and wax paper. I use a pair of new paint stirring sticks as a thickness guide under the rolling pin.

    The best venison jerky in my opinion is real smoked jerky, however, it is time consuming, lots of handling, and it takes practice. SquareGrouper is knowledgeable on this effort, when you get it right the entire batch is normally gone within an hour.
     

    StantonCree

    Watch your beer
    Jan 23, 2011
    23,932
    I'm a whole meet jerky guy too, although I just bought a jerky gun for making snack sticks, maybe I'll try a little. I like my jerky chewy though. :shrug:

    I do too. Ground jerky doesn’t have to be hard. It can still be chewy and cooked. The only thing is the chewy only lasts on the counter top for like a week and a half. The overly dried lasts much longer.
     

    outrider58

    Eats Bacon Raw
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 29, 2014
    49,815
    Snack sticks?

    Question. Since ground jerky and snack sticks are basically made of the same mixture, how long do snack sticks keep? Must they always be refrigerated? Will they keep un-refrigerated if vacuum sealed?
     

    Batt816

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 1, 2018
    4,087
    Eastern Shore
    Question. Since ground jerky and snack sticks are basically made of the same mixture, how long do snack sticks keep? Must they always be refrigerated? Will they keep un-refrigerated if vacuum sealed?

    My understanding is, if it’s mixed with curing salt, it doesn’t have to be refrigerated.
     

    outrider58

    Eats Bacon Raw
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 29, 2014
    49,815
    My understanding is, if it’s mixed with curing salt, it doesn’t have to be refrigerated.

    Thanks Batt. That's what I'm thinking, but I'm just getting into this and I don't want to spend the night on the sh!tter if it's avoidable...:innocent0
     

    CaptainAwesome

    Active Member
    Jun 1, 2013
    355
    Pikesville MD
    :lol::lol::lol2::lol2: I’m with you! Can never be too careful!!:)

    Per Morton's website:
    "Morton Tender Quick mix contains salt, the main preserving agent; sugar, both sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite" - This should keep you off the pot, however, the jury is still out of the damage that nitrate/nitrite do to your system long term.

    I suggest you wash down any ground jerky with beer and to be safe, wait ten minutes and do another wash down.
     

    GSuders

    Active Member
    Dec 13, 2017
    148
    Keymar
    I've been using https://www.pacificmountainfarms.com/ jerky mix (Hickory) for the last several years. Typically Giant foods sells it, but can be hard to find. I usually just end up ordering a bunch direct from them. I've tired multiple brands and flavors until I found this one. It's by far the best jerky I've had. We never cut jerky, we've always used ground meat for that. Just what we prefer.
     

    geda

    Active Member
    Dec 24, 2017
    550
    cowcounty
    My family is big on the jerky, we make around 100lbs of ground jerky a year and another 100lbs of sliced jerky. The 25lb LEM Backwoods seasoning bags go on sale on amazon for $12 all the time, this cheaper then I can buy spices and it works reasonably well. I always leave out most or all pink salt and just keep it frozen. It is also a good base to doctor up with hot peppers. The only thing I dont use LEM for is teriyaki jerky, I just do 98% soy and brown sugar with some garlic and ginger powder mixed in.

    The LEM jerky cannon is the easiest but it kills my hands when doing 9 dehydrator trays. The wet jerky mix will not feed well in the #8 grinder. Maybe this year I will buy one of the mechanical sausage suffers for jerkey, The only hunting expenditures so far were 6 bullets purchased at pre-covid prices.
     

    trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,598
    Glen Burnie
    A buddy of mine makes a deer jerky from ground - it's basically like a big meat caulking gun where he squeezes it out, spreads it thin, and then puts it in the dehydrator - it's pretty danged tasty, and when he brings some by our house, it never lasts long.
     

    gwchem

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 18, 2014
    3,434
    SoMD
    A buddy of mine makes a deer jerky from ground - it's basically like a big meat caulking gun where he squeezes it out, spreads it thin, and then puts it in the dehydrator - it's pretty danged tasty, and when he brings some by our house, it never lasts long.

    That's what I use too. The LEM jerky cannon. It'll do snack sticks too, but I had to get a smaller tip for the thin casing.
     

    outrider58

    Eats Bacon Raw
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 29, 2014
    49,815
    That's what I use too. The LEM jerky cannon. It'll do snack sticks too, but I had to get a smaller tip for the thin casing.

    I just tried High Mountain snack sticks and am very disappointed both in taste and texture.

    I really don't like the toughness of collegan casings and the size that the HM kit comes with are pretty wide. I'm looking for a diameter closer to that of a Slim Jim along with the tender texture of a Slim Jim.

    I'm looking for suggestions/recommendations.
     

    Batt816

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Dec 1, 2018
    4,087
    Eastern Shore
    I just tried High Mountain snack sticks and am very disappointed both in taste and texture.

    I really don't like the toughness of collegan casings and the size that the HM kit comes with are pretty wide. I'm looking for a diameter closer to that of a Slim Jim along with the tender texture of a Slim Jim.

    I'm looking for suggestions/recommendations.

    I have a “jerky blaster”, similar to the one in the picture. You can do flat or round (about the size of a slim Jim). No casings needed. I’m pretty sure I got it from cabellas.

    9B1F4D9F-E1EC-4E35-9DD2-95556C1853AE.jpg
     

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