Where's The Beef - Jerky?

Jerky on a GM Daniel Boone

This recipe is gluten free.

This recipe is a variant of several I've read.  I reviewed many and they had ingredients and flavors that I wasn't really interested in using.  The basic content of most was similar.  I was really interested in a flavor that wasn't dominated by soy sauce.  What I came up with worked really well and tastes very nice.

The Recipe

• 1/2 cup Aloha brand gluten free soy sauce (1)
• 2 tbsp table grind black pepper
• 1/2 cup kosher salt
• 1 2/3 cups dark brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1 cup water

All of the ingredients were mixed together in a bowl and whisked together until the salt and brown sugar were dissolved.  

The Meat

For this recipe I used a 3.8 lb sirloin roast from a Pinzgauer cow.   This specific cow was grass fed most of the year - receiving grain/hay during part of the winter.  The meat is very lean.  I don't think a retail sirloin roast would be a good choice for this recipe.  Something a bit more lean, such as a chuck roast, would be a better choice.  

The meat was sliced across the grain to reduce chewiness of the finished result.  The meat was placedin our deep freezer for about 8 months at -20 degrees Fahrenheit.  It was still very cold and had some ice crystals when the sauce preparation started.  During that time the roast was placed in the freezer again to firm it up for slicing.  The meet slices were approximately 1/4in to 5/16in thick.  Slices were cut by hand.  It would have been more consistent to use the electric slicer.

The meat slices were placed in a gallon freezer storage bag with all of the seasoning/salt mixture.  This placed inside of an additional gallon freezer storage bag to prevent any leakage in the refrigerator where it was kept for about 20 hours prior to smoking.

Gluten Free Aloha Soy Products

The Smoke

The jerky was processed in our Green Mountain Grill Daniel Boone pellet grill.  The meat was placed on a few inexpensive grate liners to keep the the pieces more flat.  The grill was set to its minimum temperature - 150 degrees Farenheit.  It took approximately 4-1/2 hours to get the meat to a dry and tender state.

Nearly Done On the Green Mountain Grill

The meat tastes very good.  The saltiness is modest and the sweetness is definitely noticeable.  The black pepper and cayenne pepper seem to really add a nice soft kick.

Product Done

(1) - We recently found a gallon container of GF Aloha brand soy sauce at H-Mart in Tigard, Oregon.  The price was very amazing and the product tastes great.  My son made a GF Yoshida style sauce using this sauce and it was fantastic.  We used it for chicken and sockeye salmon on the pellet grill - 350 degrees.