All types of jerky are significantly superior in taste to more purchased sausages. However, they are also superior in price to the same extent. Therefore, lovers of yummy sadly pass by enticing showcases, allowing themselves this luxury only on major holidays. But gourmets in vain limit themselves in their favorite dish, since making jerked meat at home is not so difficult. Of course, you have to wait - the process is quite lengthy. However, you will be able to adjust the gustatory subtleties by adding spices that you like and removing those that you don’t like. In addition, jerked meat, made at home and with love, will certainly be of high quality sources and with an expired shelf life.
Just wither raw beef, poultry or pork can only be one who has special equipment. The rest must marinate the meat first.
"Wet" drying
Home cooking of dried meat begins with its salting. Consider first a traditional method using brine. It will need about a liter for every half a kilo of meat. Water boils, salt dissolves in it (two with a hill of spoons per liter), a little sugar is added, a tablespoon full of red and black pepper, peppercorns and bay leaf - like pickled cucumbers. Boil for three minutes - turn off and cool. The bay leaf should be thrown away - it will give bitterness and not too pleasant smell. The meat is medium-cut, dipped in brine and left in it for five hours right in the kitchen. Then put in cool for three days. Then the liquid is decanted, and the meat is put under the press until the moisture ceases to appear, after which a mixture of red and black pepper is rubbed into it (you can introduce other spices). Chunks are wrapped in clean cheesecloth, put in a lockable dish and refrigerated for a week. During this time, they are quality marinated. The meat is rubbed again with spices, wrapped in a clean cut and hung out in a dry place where it will not interfere. After a week, jerky meat (at home that has reached the right condition) is served on the table. In the refrigerator, it will not spoil for three months.
Dry method
This option, how to make dried meat at home, is usually chosen by those who believe that beef (pork / poultry) is too saturated in brine with unnecessary moisture. A whole piece is taken and very carefully rubbed with a mixture of spices from two tablespoons of salt, one - sugar, half - coarsely ground black pepper, the same amount of ground juniper berries and chopped seven bay leaves (everything is designed for a kilo of raw materials). Future jerky meat is tightly wrapped in cling film, a heavy load is placed on it, and the whole structure is put into the refrigerator for at least a week. Regularly have to drain the meat juice, otherwise the product may deteriorate. Then the chunk is dried, rubbed with the same composition of seasonings, laid out on a wire rack and hidden back for two weeks. Turn over at least once every two days! Ready-made jerky is wrapped in paper or put away in a paper bag. Please note: cooked by this method, it will "live" in the refrigerator for no longer than a month.
Spiced beef jerky
So far, we have been considering the basics, so to speak. Using them you can cook any jerky at home. However, there are many clarifications, applying which, you can get a more delicious treat. For example, with beef you can do differently - the result will be much more aromatic and "ripen" faster. A large piece of meat is taken, cleaned of excess veins and cut along the entire slice into thin strips - 5 centimeters in length, not thicker. 10 large large leaves of blackcurrant, two horseradish burdocks, a couple of cinnamon sticks, a full spoon of chopped ginger, 400 grams of salt, bay leaf and peppercorns are placed in boiling water (2 liters). This amount of brine is enough for as much as 10 kilos of beef. The trick is that pieces of meat are dipped for three minutes in brine, then cooled, filtered and hung in gauze bags for 10 days in a dry and dark place. Temperature is not so much important as good ventilation and lack of light.
Quick drying
You can use the oven to get jerky. The recipe involves cutting the beef into very small pieces (somewhere 5 x 5 cm). Moreover, before the main processing, the washed and dried meat is put into the freezer to make it easier and smoother to cut. A sprinkling of salt (60 g), ground black pepper (10 g) and red hot (5 g) is made. In it, beef cubes are rolled in, left for 10 minutes to soak in spices and laid out on a wire rack so that they do not touch. The oven is heated to 40 degrees, a grate is placed in it and left to dry for half a day.
Grilled vyalim
For this method, beef will have to be cut even thinner - two centimeters wide, and shorter stripes - along the length of the grill. Spices (cinnamon, black pepper, red pepper, salt) are mixed in a ratio of 2: 5: 5: 60. The mixture rubbed all the pieces, laid out at intervals on a wire rack and dried for about seven hours. The disadvantage that such a dried meat possesses is its short shelf life. Two weeks, no more. However, it is eaten much faster. In the same way, pork can be dried, only caraway seeds are taken instead of red pepper, and meat is selected more sparsely.
Cured pork
Most people are convinced that pork is not recommended to be dried: they say that it is oily, it is not completely saturated and quickly disappears. You just don’t know how to cook it! In our opinion, the only drawback that pork (dried meat) has at home cooked is that it cannot be made in a large piece. But if you cut it into small slices, a jumble will come out! Pieces should be no larger than 4 centimeters. Each is crumbled in a mixture of coriander, a set of Italian or other herbs, white and black pepper (their number is left to your discretion), a tablespoon of coarse salt and a teaspoon of sugar. All this is enough for a pound of pork. The pieces are folded into a tray, moderately sprinkled with vodka (half a stack is enough) and 14 hours stand on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. Juice must be drained! Then the excess liquid is removed, and the pickled meat in a gauze bag is suspended on a cornice in the kitchen for one and a half to two weeks. Enjoy your health!
Dried chickens
You can also make jerky from poultry. The recipe, again, should not cause any particular difficulties. The simplest option: take a carcass of any size, carefully rub it with salt inside and out, wrap it in parchment (for lack of it, you can put it in cellophane, but have to ventilate it), it is tightly pulled by twine and suspended in the pantry (or in the garage if it doesn’t stink) gasoline. Actually, anywhere, if only it were dark and cool). After a couple of months you can eat. And it can be stored up to three years.
Jerky chicken with garlic
It is clear that the method described above is, rather, a method of preparation, rather than preparation of goodies. If you want a tasty one, you have to try, because you can cook dried chicken meat only separately from its skeleton. That is, the carcass will have to be thoroughly washed and all meat parts from bony should be separated. The pulp is cut into thin strips, the garlic is finely chopped and ground in a mortar with salt at the rate of half a cup of the latter on the head of garlic. Such a mixture is rubbed into strips, laid out in bags (our people recommend old, but clean nylon socks) and hang out in the heat, but in a draft for 10 days.
Juniper chicken legs
Many in childhood dreamed that scientists brought ten hens out of chickens - then children would have more tasty body parts. For those who have remained faithful to children's ideas and have not exchanged them for the rules of diet, our recipe.
Take a leg, wash and rub it abundantly with salt (10 kg of legs - 300 g of salt) mixed with cinnamon (teaspoon) and sugar (5 tablespoons). All wealth is displayed in a voluminous bowl, sprinkled with juniper berries (1/5 kilogram). Another 300 g of salt is dissolved in hot water (10 l) and boiled with cloves and peas. The legs are poured with a filtered solution, a weighty press is placed on them for 3 hours. At the end of the salting, the legs are filtered off, soaked and dried for a month in a fairly cool (about 10 degrees) room. That's when happiness comes!