"Rustic" casing-less sticks (AKA "Dog Turd Jerky")

[DWard51]

Well, I'm out of snack sticks so it's time to make some more.  Some of the gang at the office asked about the "rustic" jerky rounds, so I figured that meat recipe is what I'm using.  But I'm going to change things up this time.  Instead of taking balls of the marinaded meat and pressing them flat before dehydrating, I'm going to put the marinaded meat into the stuffer and make dehydrated casing-less sticks.

This mix uses the Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade as a base and is "doctored" up a little.  Recipe is for 5 pounds, and I had a 10 pound log of 90% lean beef from Sam's Club so I made it in two batches.  It is also easier to mix a 5 pound batch in my large stainless bowl instead of dealing with all 10 pounds at once.

• 5 pounds of 90% lean ground beef (you can use leaner or venison if you have it)
• 12 liquid ounces of Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade
• 2 tsp crushed black pepper
• 2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp liquid hickory smoke
• 1 tsp of Cure #1 (pink salt)

I ran the crushed red pepper through my spice grinder to break it up a little finer. Not into a powder, just a lot finer than as it normally is (CRP is the same as pizza peppers).

Mixed each 5 pound batch by hand and then stored overnight in the fridge in a 6 liter food container.  Two days later (got side tracked the next day), I loaded the manual stuffer and used a 1/2" tube to extrude casing-less sticks which were laid one at a time on the dehydrator trays.  The 10 pounds of meat filled about 7 1/2 of my LEM 10 tray dehydrator trays.





Dehydrated at 125* for 1 1/2 hours to set the outer layer of meat, then cranked it to 145* for about 4 hours, then to 155* to finish.  Total dryer time was about 8 1/2 hours.  This is a very wet meat mix so it took longer than some of my other recipes.

Final verdict.  Yep, they are rustic looking.  It's sort of funny, but the wife said the short pieces looked like "dog turds" and anyone who has had a smaller dog will know what I mean.  They were a hit at the office, and yes, the name "dog turd jerky" has now officially stuck.

[teesquare]

Really...? "dog turd"...Never going in my mouth with a name like that!


But I can see calling them Cigar Jerky...Cheroot Jerky.... Tree Branches...any of those would make them taste better to me!

[DWard51]

Hey, I just had a thought.  I make a label with that name and put it on the container.  Then I don't have to worry about the jerky all being gone in 2 days at the office.  I would be there are some folks who would never even open the container or smell it with a name like that.  I had 3 pounds of my recipe using Leggs #116, dissapear in a single day once.  I think I got 2 sticks about 6" long out of that batch.

[teesquare]

Now...that is a way to turn negative name into a positive behavior....

[TMB]

Bookmark this one thanks

[DWard51]

I used Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade, which is a commercial liquid product.  You can use any liquid or other jerky or stick mix.  I did add liquid hickory smoke flavor as I was not going to put these in the smoker.  I would imagine a jerky gun would make this a little easier as transferring the sticks from the extrusion tube to the tray was done by hand.  This was a very wet and loose mix.  A stiffer mix would be much easier to handle (or the gun would eliminate handling as you would extrude directly onto the tray if dehydrating).



I started with about 11.5 pounds of mixed wet meat & marinade/spice.  Ended up with about 3 1/2 pounds of dried product.  I figure I took about a half pound to the office before this photo was taken when I was packing them with the foodsaver. I let them bloom in the brown paper bag for at least 2 days for the remaining moisture to equalize throughout the stick.  Then I vacuum pack them in smaller batches and store them in the fridge.  I use pre-cut 1 pint bags.  So figure the dehydrator took this from 11.5 pounds of meat/mix to 3.5 pounds finished product.



Oh and as to the predicted Snow-poclapyse they were predicting for my area, it fizzled. 24 hours ago we were in the 5 to 6" of snow zone.  But we ended up with about 1/16" of freezing rain and maybe a Big Gulp cup of snow on top of that.  Ice was deceiving and nearly invisible.  Slick, slick slick, so basically this is a stay the heck inside day. So for us, once the ice melted in the sun, this storm was a nothing burger.  Not so much for other areas of north GA.  Yeah, I know.... 2 snowflakes and we southerners freak out, buy all the bread and milk in a 2 state area and totally forget how to drive.   But it's only for about 2 days a year.