Porky Jerky
A Recipe/Experience by Tom Roeder
This recipe turns out to be a soy sauce-based taste with just a touch of sweetness. You can add more brown sugar and/or honey if you want more sweetness, or less if you want less. Since this is cooked at 180, no specific curing additive is needed.
Remove as much fat as humanly possible from the meat. Cut roast into thin slices, roughly 1/8 inch or so. I prefer the chew of the jerky when slicing *with* the grain of the meat, but others prefer it when cutting against the grain. You decide. The meat is much easier to slice consistently if slightly frozen. Put the roast in the freezer for an hour before trying to slice. A good sharp slicing knife helps a lot.
Marinade slices overnight. Add to smoker on 180 setting. Depending on thickness and size of slices it will take 1.5 to 2 hours. Flip the slices over after an hour and monitor closely for the remainder of the time. The thinner/smaller slices will go from "ok" to "overdone"
fairly quickly. There are lots of recipes on the internet that describe how to tell when the jerky is done. I'm still working on that skill, but for me if you can easily bend the slice without it "breaking", it isn't done. Also, if you can poke the slices with your finger and feel the slight bounce back of the meat, it isn't done. If it "breaks" when folded it is done. It will take some time to figure out what is "done" for you.
Hint: If you get some pieces that end up too soft/underdone, you can put them in a low oven (200 degrees) (or back on the smoker) for a while until they are the desired done-ness. I've done the oven thing the next day and it works out fine.
Marinade:
- 3/4 C soy sauce (or equivalent)
- 3/4 C water
- 4T brown sugar
- 1 t apple cider vinegar
- 1.5 t garlic powder
- 1.5 t onion powder
- 1 t Worcestershire sauce
- 1 t honey
- Add ground pepper to taste
Leave a comment if you try the recipe or have questions, or email Tom Roeder
