Have you ever seen white stuff on your jerky?

Sometimes you’ll see white powdery stuff on the surface of beef jerky, and sometimes it’s small white spots.

So, what is that?

It could be one of three things…

1. Salt deposits
2. Fatty deposits
3. Mold

99% of the time, it’s one of the first two.

Salt deposits occurs when moisture on the surface of jerky evaporates and leaves the salt behind. It will look like a cloudy white color, almost like powder, except it won’t rub off. It’s also a common occurence with vacuum sealed jerky packages, where the vacuum draws the oil up to the surface of the meat, giving it a wet appearance. Once the package is opened, and the vacuum pressure is lost, the oil recedes back into the meat, and leaves the salt deposits on the surface.

Fatty deposits, or otherwise known as “lard”, is just fat that had been heated up during the dehydration process, and then cooled down, turning to a white color. The lard usually rests in the cracks and folds of jerky. The color will vary from white to yellow.

Mold can certainly form on jerky. You’ll know it’s mold by that all too familiar bitter taste. It will occur when the package has been compromised. During the package sealing process, sometimes a tiny piece of jerky gets stuck to the package, right where the seal is supposed to be, and prevents that portion of the seal from bonding. Some companies normally vacuum seal their packages, while others fill the package with nitrogen to kill the pathogens. Either way, with a compromised seal, it allows oxygen to enter. Mold will have that familiar fuzzy appearance, and will have a slightly blue tinge.

What is the difference between biltong and jerky?

Biltong originates from South Africa. Jerky is the more general term used for dried, seasoned meats, whereas biltong is a specific type of jerky.

Making jerky typically starts with cutting the meat into strips or slabs, then marinating the meat anywhere from 4 to 24 hours, then seasoning the meat, and finally dehydrating the meat. Dehydration can be done in any method, as long as the meat is dehydrated, but not cooked. Typically, most jerky is dehydrated in dehydrators specifically made for jerky. They incorporate low heat to kill pathogens, and help expedite the drying process without actually cooking the meat.

Making biltong also starts with cutting the meat, but most biltong is cut into long thick strips. Biltong is not marinated. Rather it’s salted. Typically, salt is rubbed into the meat. You can use table salt, sea salt, or rock salt. However, some people pour heavy amounts of salt on to the meat, and then let it sit for several hours. Salting is what kills most of the pathogens, and adds flavor. Afterwards, most all of the salt is brushed off the meat, and the meat is then dunked into vinegar, for no more than 2 seconds. The vinegar helps remove some of the salt, kills a few more pathogens, and adds flavor. The meat is then seasoned. Perhaps 99% of all biltong uses coriander as a seasoning, but any seasoning can be used. Finally, the meat is dehydrated by hanging them on hooks suspended in air, in a dark cool room for about 3-4 days, with some means of air movement, usually a fan blowing.

If you compare jerky with biltong, you’ll find the following common elements…

• Both jerky and biltong requires cutting the meat, where jerky can be cut in any way, but biltong specifically cut into long thick strips.
• Both jerky and biltong uses salt as a primary flavor ingredient. However, jerky is typically marinated, while biltong is salted, either by rubbing salt into the meat, or pouring copious amounts of salt on to the meat and letting it sit for several hours.
• Many jerky marinades use vinegar as an ingredient, though not always required to meet the definition of jerky. Biltong, however, is typically dunked into vinegar, but only for about 2 seconds, just enough to wash some of the excess salt, and provide some additional flavor.
• Both jerky and biltong is seasoned. Most jerky uses either black pepper or garlic or both. Biltong almost always uses coriander, but can also incorporate other seasoning as well.
• Both jerky and biltong is dehydrated. Jerky typically uses some kind of heat source to help kill pathogens, and to expedite the drying, and takes between 4-12 hours. Biltong is always air dried by hanging them in air, in a dark cool room, with some kind of air flow, usually from a fan, for 3-4 days.

In order to be sold in the United States, jerky must have been dehydrated utilizing a heat source of at least 160 degrees F, which is the lowest heat necessary to kill bacteria. But because biltong is dehydrated in cool air, it cannot be sold as a prepared meat. Rather, it has to be sold as raw meat, and labeled as such. If you purchase biltong, the label will often come with USDA required instructions to cook the meat. But obviously, you don’t want to cook it.

Some US-based companies are selling biltong that is not really biltong. Rather, they’re selling jerky. Often times you’ll see ostrich jerky sold as “biltong”, when in fact it’s actually just American-style jerky made from ostrich. But because South Africans often use ostrich meat for biltong, American companies will make ostrich jerky, and label it “biltong”.

In its purest form, jerky is simply dehydrated meat, that doesn’t have to be marinated, seasoned, or anything. Just dried, in any way possible. But biltong is a specific type of jerky, that’s prepared, flavored, and dehydrated in a specific way.

Certainly beef jerky is good for you. It’s healthy for everyone.

But what most people want to know is if it’s still healthy to eat on a daily basis.

The answer to that, at least in general, is still “yes”.

However, the body still needs its full lot of vitamins and nutrients. You can’t live on beef jerky alone, you still need fruits and vegetables. But you knew that already.

Perhaps the reason why you might ask if you can eat so much beef jerky on a daily basis, is because you’re interested in losing weight. After all, beef jerky is one of the few foods that’s both very low in fat, and very low in carbs. On top of that, it’s meat-based proteins cause the body to increase its metabolism, burning even more calories. It’s a perfect food in terms of burning calories.

However, beef jerky is also high in sodium, and beef is high in cholesterol. If you plan to eat beef jerky daily, as a dieting plan, make sure you check with your physician to see if you can handle the additional sodium and cholesterol intake.

Beef jerky is also very low in fiber. If you’re going to eat lots of jerky, you’ll need to supplement the fiber, perhaps in the form of fiber pills, or fiber drink mix. Otherwise, you could experience constipation.

If you plan to diet with beef jerky, I suggest about 9-12 ounces per day, which equates to about 3 average sized bags. Eat one in the morning, perhaps as you’re driving to work. It’s important to get your metabolism started right away. Instead of going out for lunch, eat the second bag of jerky. Then have the last bag of jerky for dinner.

In between these bags of jerky, drink vegetable juice, such as V8. Find low sodium vegetable juice. The reason is because it contains the vitamins and fiber you’ll need to keep a balanced diet, and also because vegetable juice is much lower in carbs than most fruit juices.

Three bags of jerky, and three cans of vegetable juice, and you’re looking at a 1,200 calorie day. Compare that to a 2,000 calorie day most nutritionists recommend. In the evening, take a brisk walk around the neighborhood, about 1-2 miles, to help burn off those calories. If you can manage to do this diet about 20 days a month, with the other 10 days eating a normal diet, you’ll be able to lose about 5-8 pounds per month.

Despite the fact that beef jerky is often thought of as a snack, or even a junk food snack, in reality it’s just beef, and beef is very much a healthy, nutritional food. But like with any other food, the real key is to keep your body replenished with the nutrients and vitamins it needs. You can still do that on a beef jerky diet, so long as you pair it with certain other foods and dietary supplements.

Recently, the Discovery Channel reported that scientists discovered evidence of Neanderthals making jerky from Mammoth meat…

Animal bones and stone tools indicate Neanderthals hunted away from home. In order to transport meat, Sorensen thinks they must have dried it. “I do not know of any evidence for [them] using salt,” he explains.

“Carrying dried meat from a mammoth home could now be done by seven to eight round trips [over] 14 to 16 days,” he added.

Neanderthals appeared on the planet as early as 600,000 years ago, and died out about 50,000 years ago. So, jerky is perhaps the world’s oldest snack food.

But you gotta figure with an animal as big as a mammoth, you’re bound to have left overs. You gotta do something with all that meat.

Ok, so we all know how good beef jerky is to eat as a snack, but have you ever thought about cooking with beef jerky?

Beef jerky is actually a pretty good ingredient for soups, particularly the really soft jerky, loaded with lots of flavor.

Jerky in Ramen

I’d recommend using Jed’s Private Reserve Spicy Teriyaki when making ramen. Just prepare the ramen according to the instructions on the package, but slip in about 5 or 6 pieces of jerky, and let it boil with the ramen. The spicy flavors of the jerky will leach into the soup base, and give it a spicy burst.

Crumbled Jerky on Macaroni & Cheese

If you can chop up some jerky into fine pieces, sprinkled it on macaroni & cheese. If you’re preparing “boxed macaroni & cheese” I suggest adding a handful of shredded cheese to the mixture, and then sprinkling the crumbled jerky. Mix it thoroughly, and either let it sit for awhile, or bake it for a few minutes, or microwave it. Either way, allow for the spicy jerky crumbles to spread it’s flavor into the macaroni & cheese.

I’d recommend using Jed’s Premium Black Pepper jerky for this.

Salad Topping

We’ve all heard of using bacon bits as a salad topping, but you can also use jerky. Chop it up into bits, and allow it dry. The nice thing about using jerky is that you have a wide variety of flavors to choose from.

Beef Jerky Omelettes

A soft, moist, thinly sliced jerky makes a great ingredient for omelettes. I’d recommend any of Jed’s Private Reserve line, but use it sparingly. Just lay about 2 to 3 pieces into a typical 3-egg omelette, add your favorite cheese, and I’d recommend tossing in some onions. Jed’s Private Reserve jerky will add a fair amount of saltiness, smokiness, and some sweetness.

Roasted Jerky

What’s also good is to stick a piece of jerky on a long skewer, and hold it over an open fire. Allow the meat to get hot, but don’t allow it to cook. Hold it higher over the flame so that it heats up nicely, and gets some extra smokiness to it.

The heat unleashes the juices still trapped in the meat, and mixes into the spices.

I’d recommend using Jed’s Premium line of jerky, because it’s thicker sliced.

Making simple beef jerky is a four step process…

1. Selecting and slicing beef
2. Marinating
3. Seasoning
4. Dehydrating

Selecting and Slicing Beef

You can use any cut of beef you’d like, but typically most people use the Round, which comes from the hind quarters of the cow/steer. You can use either the top round, or bottom round, it doesn’t really matter. The Round is often used because it contains the least amount of fat. And that’s a key towards making your own jerky, make sure you remove as much fat as you can. Excess fat can spoil the flavor.

You can slice the meat any way you’d like. Just consider that about 16oz of raw beef usually ends up at about 4oz of jerky. If you like thin, crispy jerky, by all means slice it thin. I happen to prefer thick strips, cut against the grain. Cutting against the grain makes it easier to bite off chunks.

A good tip when slicing, is to freeze the meat partially, so that it slices easier.

Marinating

Marinating has two primary purposes, one is to provide the bulk of the flavor, and two is to kill pathogens. All marinades should incorporate salt and/or vinegar to kill pathogens. After that, the sky’s the limit. The marinade can be as simple as salt water, or something complex as a bottle of name brand marinade from the grocery store. Many people use apple cider vinegar because it helps soften the meat and adds a bit of tanginess. If you like really salty jerky, go ahead and pour on the salt. I’ve used the pickling juice from a jar of pepperoncinis one time, because it has both salt and vinegar, and adds a bit of spiciness.

How long to marinate is a personal preference. You’ll have to experiment with a few batches before you develop what you think is the perfect process. You should marinate for at least four hours, up to as long as 24 hours.

I prefer to dump the meat and marinade into a plastic ziploc bag. You can store it in a refrigerator, but I’ve successfuly marinated meat keeping it on a kitchen counter at room temperature for 24 hours.

Using a vacuum to marinate helps draw the flavors deep into meat in shorter time. You can find ziploc bags at the grocery store that come with a handpump to create a vacuum. If you want to spend some money, get a vacuum tumbler.

Seasoning

After marinating has finished, sprinkle your favorite seasoning. But use seasoning sparingly. Most of your flavor is going to come from the marinade. The seasoning is only to add a little punch. A popular seasoning blend is to take some black pepper and garlic powder. There are some steak seasoning blends that work really well on steaks, but often don’t work to well on jerky. Cayenne pepper is another favorite jerky seasoning. Whatever hits your fancy, give it try. Just use it sparingly.

Dehydrating

Jerky is never cooked, rather it’s dehydrated. Any heat used in dehydrating jerky is merely to help remove water from the meat. Dehydration can be done in one of three ways…

1. Oven, BBQ, Smoker
2. Food dehydrator
3. Air dried

If using an oven, BBQ, or smoker, make sure the heat does not exceed 160 degrees F. Any higher than that, and you’ll risk cooking the meat. You do not want the meat to cook, or else it end up tasting similar to pot roast.

Food dehydrators are popular because you can keep them in the kitchen, and regulate the heat, and they’re not that expensive.

Air drying works very well, particularly if you can do it under the full sun. Just make sure you keep the flies away. If you’re concerned about food poisoning, the marinating process should protect against that. Biltong, a South African version of jerky, is dehydrated exclusively in air, but usually in a dark cool area, and relies on salting, with a vinegar dunk, to kill pathogens.

The amount of time to dehydrate varies on how thick the pieces of meat are. I’d suggest at least four hours. Check the meat by chewing on a piece. If it tears off with some ease, it’s probably done. You’ll know if it’s still somewhat raw by how chewy it is. It should tear apart with your fingers fairly easily.

I use my BBQ grill to dehydrate. I lay the pieces on the upper rack, and turn on only one of the burners. I set the flame down to it lowest level, and then I keep the BBQ lid wide open to let all the heat escape. My BBQ is placed under direct sunlight. I usually slice the meat into thick strips, and it usually takes about 6-8 hours to dehydrate. In a way, I’m utilizing a combination of air drying, and low heat.

Summary

Jerky is actually very easy to make. The beauty of it is that it allows for a lot of artistic expression, since each of the four basic steps provides for a lot of variation. It’ll take several attempts before you find that perfect recipe and process, so be creative.

Of course if you lose patience, you can always rely on ol’ Jed, he still makes some good jerky…

http://www.jedsjerky.com/

If you live in a household where other family members, or roommates, have a love for jerky, what do you have to do to protect it from getting commandeered?

Jerky is quickly becoming the favorite snack among Americans, so what will you need to do to protect your stash of dried meat?

My next door neighbor has a gun cabinet, with a lock, which he uses to store more than just his guns. He keeps his best liquor in there, along with all of his favorite snacks, including jerky. He has four kids living in the house, along with his wife. Any yummy treats sitting in a kitchen cabinet or refrigerator won’t last long there.

Years ago, when I worked in an office, you couldn’t keep your lunch in the office refrigerator. Co-workers with mid-morning hunger pains would open the refrigerator, and eat your own lunch! Forget about keeping snacks there.

Instead, at my office cubicle, I had a locking cabinet where I kept my jerky, sodas, and other snacks. I’d keep it locked when I left, because I couldn’t keep an open bag of jerky laying on my desk, without someone walking by and sneaking a piece out.

On camping trips, I’d go out with a bunch of buddies to the mountains, and we’d bring along food, drinks, and snacks, and I’d always haul up a couple bags of jerky. I don’t mind sharing it with my friends, but I at least want to be able to enjoy one or two pieces. So, to ensure that I always some pieces of jerky available to me, I’d keep a “secret bag” of jerky in my pack of clothes. I kept the pack in my tent. Then later on in the evening, while we’re all gathered around the campfire, I’d retrieve the “secret bag” from my tent, and bring it back to the campfire.

If you live in a apartment that you share with roommates, and your roommates have no respect, where can you hide your bags of jerky? Try wrapping a pair of dirty underwear around the bags. Or, make sure you room up with vegetarians.

Teriyaki is perhaps one of the most popular flavors in beef jerky, and yet it’s so varied from one brand to another.

So what makes really good teriyaki beef jerky?

There’s four primary ingredients in Teriyaki, each providing a unique quality to the overall taste…

• Sweet – teriyaki should have a thick sweetness
• Soy Sauce – you should be able to taste enough of it to notice.
• Sake or Mirin Wine – provides a tangy quality, similar to vinegar
• Ginger – gives teriyaki a pungent contrast to the sweet

Most mass-market brands throw in the first two, sweet and soy sauce, and then call it teriyaki. In fact, some brands are worse than that, adding in the sugar, but relying on hydrolyzed soy protein for the soy sauce.

If you’ve ever had teriyaki beef or chicken at a japanese restaurant, you should be able to taste the same kind of sauce in teriyaki beef jerky.

I’ve tried all of the mass-market brands of teriyaki beef jerky and none of them provided that true japanese restaurant style teriyaki. Good teriyaki beef jerky is something largely relegated to the small gourmet brands.

But I have found a few brands that did a good job of replacing some ingredients with others. Some replace the ginger with onion, and still manage to create that pungent contrast quite well. Others use plain grape-based wine instead of rice wine to give it that tangy punch.

I’ve even found a brand that used a vinegar similar to that from a can of pickled red cabbage. It didn’t quite taste like traditional teriyaki sauce, it had a totally different flavor, but still had all the components of good teriyaki sauce.

Teriyaki is such a popular beef jerky flavor largely due to America’s love affair with sweet & salty snacks, and because Japanese cuisine has an exotic appeal to American snackers. Good teriyaki sauce should have an even balance between sweet and salty; neither should overpower the other.

If you found this blog post looking for some good teriyaki beef jerky, you can start with Jedidiah’s Teriyaki Beef Jerky, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Best Beef Jerky…

http://www.jedsjerky.com/

By Jerky Jed

Now by nature I have always been the ‘better safe than sorry’ type of guy.

“What if” games play in my head. And why not? Is it better to be safe than sorry? I think most people think this way. If you live in an earthquake prone area, well you would be good to have an earthquake kit. The same idea if you live in hurricane prone areas, or tornados areas, or anywhere in fact. Now as far what belongs in the kit, please go to more appropriate disaster preparedness websites or government agencies for the best information. As far as food stuff, well you guessed, what about Jerky? Wow, what a great idea! But first let’s compare other food items that might not be the best to be in your survival kit. Well anything perishable would be a problem for long term storage or items requiring say, refrigeration. But is not beef jerky perishable? Well by term it is semi-perishable, which means that it does not last forever, it does have a shelf life. But let’s examine the Term “semi-perishable” or let’s look a the word “semi”.

Perhaps a dictionary would be handy about now, but let’s wing it! Usual shelf life of most treated meat like beef jerky have a shelf life of or usually a year after production, there are exceptions, this is only a rule of thumb and not every company cures meat the same way, most have different ways of production so every company could be different. But most manufactures have an expire code on each package, usually imbedded in the label or package or in the back of the package, be sure to check the dates always to make sure you are getting the freshest jerky! So as one part of your disaster preparedness kit as regards to food stuff consider the advantages that beef jerky offer, besides being compact the food has a longer than average food storage capacity.

My hope is we never have to use an emergency kit, but if we have a need remember, it’s better to be prepared, than not.

Please take care,

Jerky Jed.