A real male beer snack is jerky. It is called jerk. The spicy and spicy taste is liked by everyone, without exception. Great is jerky and hiking. It is lightweight and perfectly stored without a refrigerator. Well-cooked jerks do not crumble in your hands, you can cook quick soup with them or simply use them instead of snacks. Today we are learning to cook jerks. Recipes were carefully selected, they comply with the recommendations of technologists and can be used at home.
Briefly about the main thing
Surely you saw such an appetizer in the store, and you may have tried it several times. Jerks are thin slices of dried jerky. They are prepared by the method of dehydration, that is, the removal of moisture from tissues by cooking it in the oven. In production, special furnaces are used for this. It turns out a product dried with a low temperature with the addition of salt.
Original taste, rich color and a long shelf life are the hallmarks of Jerky. There are different recipes, but almost every one of them you can repeat at home.
Snack History
This dish is very difficult to call a new-fangled invention. Its creation dates back to ancient tribes living in hot countries. To preserve the caught prey, it was cut into plates and hung in the shade. The sun and the wind quickly turned them into dry slices that could be eaten in pure form or to prepare broths on their basis.
This uncomplicated way of cooking jerky was enjoyed by the Spaniards who arrived on a new continent. They appreciated the simplicity and reliability of Jerky's recipe and their indispensability in long sea voyages. They brought this appetizer with them to Europe. But it was especially popular with travelers, naturalists, scientists and immigrants, who began to move to the New World. Thin pieces of meat could be laid out on an awning of a cart. After 2-3 days it was ready.
Cooking rules
Before proceeding to Jerky's recipes, you must first consider some of the subtleties and nuances of cooking. First of all, determine the amount of feedstock. About 200 grams of a snack is obtained from a kilogram of pulp. Of course, the shrinkage is very decent, so you need to calculate the cost of the final product and decide whether it makes sense to start the cooking process.
A very important point is the choice of meat. In principle, anyone is suitable for this purpose, beef or turkey, moose or deer. Use for these purposes and fish. But you need to choose only lean slices. That is why there is not a single recipe for Jerky pork. The smallest fat prevents the dehydration process.
Air temperature
This is another important point. We have prepared meat slices that are completely devoid of the slightest fat. Now you can move on to creating the conditions for high-quality drying of meat. This requires a furnace with good air circulation, which at low temperatures promotes the release of moisture and uniform drying. You can dry the meat on the balcony, doing it in spring or autumn, when it is not hot and there are no insects. But in this case it is impossible to establish a uniform temperature. Therefore, the drying process may be delayed when the rainy season.
Salt
It plays a very important role in the process of making jerks with your own hands. It helps to slow down the development of bacteria in meat, which allows you to dry the product without loss of quality. In addition, salt accelerates the process of moisture release. But today no one is drying meat in a natural way - in the breeze. In an industrial oven, snacks have no chance of deteriorating, so salt can be replaced with salted soy sauce. In combination with Worcester sauce, dry garlic and onions, the taste is unusual and spicy.
Product Preparation
The jerky recipe is quite simple, anyone can master it. If you take your time, put the meat in the freezer for several hours. This will make it harder and easier to cut. You can quickly and easily grind it into batch pieces. There are a few more things to consider:
- Cut the meat into strips across the fibers. Cutting along it seems easier, but at the same time you keep layers and the product will be tough.
- When you cut a piece as described above, the fibers are short. That is, chewing meat is easier.
- The thickness of the strips is 3-4 mm. The thinner - the faster they will be ready. But the thicker Jerks taste more interesting.
Marinade
To make beef jerks fragrant, it is recommended to marinate them first. Basically, you can use any composition you are used to. A standard mixture of black pepper and salt, which we use during cooking, is suitable. But today we will offer an original marinade recipe, which is perfect in this case. You will need:
- Lean beef - 2 kg.
- Soy and Worcester sauce, as well as teriyaki - 470 ml each.
- Liquid smoke - 240 ml.
- Corn syrup - 120 ml.
- Cayenne pepper - 1 tbsp. l
- Garlic and onion seasoning - 3 tbsp. l
- Brown sugar - 3 tbsp. l
- Sesame - 3 tbsp. l
Preparing the marinade is quite simple. To do this, mix all the ingredients, add chopped meat and put everything in a container. All pieces must be completely covered with marinade. Leave overnight in the refrigerator.
Jerky in the oven
You do not need to buy a special installation, an ordinary stove is quite enough. The first step is to line the oven with foil. This does not affect the quality of meat preparation, but eliminates the need to scrape burnt juice from the walls. After that, take out the grill and lay strips of meat on it. You can do this in many ways. Some housewives cut wire hooks, for which pieces of meat are hooked to the grate. And so, in limbo, they will be dried.
Temperature and cooking time
This is not just a snack, but healthy and tasty food. Jerks are a great source of protein. 30 g contains 116 kcal, 7 g of fat and almost 10 g of protein. That is, this dish is very interesting, if we consider its nutritional value. Cured meat can be taken with you for a snack on the road. But this is a digression, let's get back to the recipe.
Cured meat should be cooked at a temperature of 70-80 ˚. It is very important to ensure good air circulation for uniform drying of meat. To do this, it is recommended to keep the oven slightly ajar. A matchbox or a broken Chinese wand will help with this.
Cook meat for 3 hours. After that, it is recommended to turn the pieces over and continue cooking for another 3 hours. Willingness to determine is pretty easy. The pieces break at the slightest pressure, but slightly bend. After cooling, they are put in a clean jar and closed with a lid. Such food has been stored for at least four months. Jerky will be very useful if guests come to drink beer.
Save time
If you want to reduce the stage of pickling the product, then you can twist the meat. Stuffing is much quicker spiced, and you can proceed directly to cooking. After about four hours, the mass will need to be transferred to a bag, cut off a corner and put on pastry paper, then put in the oven. You need to dry for six hours, be sure to turn it over on the other side after three hours.