Ground beef jerky rounds - an experiment

[DWard51]

I've seen this in a couple of other forums and figured I would give it a try. Actually this is a double experiment as both the method and spice mix are something I have not done before.   The plan is to make ground beef jerky rounds instead of strips of sticks.  Credit to the idea for both goes to Ragweed.

No ground venison and no ground round in the house, but I did pick up some of the 90% lean ground beef from Sam's Club.  The primary ingredient in the seasoning a a liquid marinade called "Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade".  No one locally carried this, so I had to pay dang near as much in shipping as I did for the gallon of marinade I ordered.  But the reviews I found online were good, so I figured might as well get a gallon and pay shipping only once.  This stuff smells like a great marinade and has just enough of the hickory smoke aroma.



Ragweed's method used from 8 to 10 ounces (depending on which of his posts I was looking at) in 5 pounds of lean ground meat.  The company said to use 3 ounces per pound with ground meat.  I split the difference and went with 12 ounces for the 5 pounds.

Here is the rest of what I used:

• 5 pounds of 90% lean ground beef
• 12 ounces of Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade
• 2 tsp of black pepper
• 2 tsp of red pepper flakes (crushed up a little more in my mortar).
• 1 level tsp of cure #1

I mixed the cure in 1/4 cup of water to get it mostly dissolved and then mixed all the ingredients with the marinade.  Poured over the meat and mixed by hand.  Then into the fridge overnight to let the cure work and the flavors meld.  The next day I divided the meat into two portions and made it into tubes.  This is were I vary from Ragweed's version a little.  He used 3" casings, but I just formed a rough log on clear food wrap and then rolled it up and spun the ends to form a round tightly packed log a little bigger than 3" in diameter.  Into the freezer to firm up for slicing (about 3 to 4 hours).

Something came up and I did not get it slice it as planned so it spent the night in the fridge.  Of course it was froze solid the next morning.  Tried slicing that and figured I need to let it thaw in the fridge a little to soften up to a soft freeze instead of the rock hard freeze it currently was.  So before I went to bed, I moved the logs to the fridge. Next morning, it was ready for slicing.

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I tried to keep them about 1/4" thick, but there is some variance.  I will probably have some done earlier than others, but I can deal with that.

Going into my 10 tray LEM dehydrator.  Starting at 135* and will check after 5 hours.  More to follow......

[Smokerjunky]

Can't wait to see and hear about the results!

[TMB]

Looking forward to the results

[DWard51]

I have discovered that slicing frozen ground meat into uniformly thick slices seems deceivingly simple, but is not so much.  The thinner slices are done and taste great.  I cranked the heat up to 150* as some of the slices are thicker than I though.  Here is a photos of some of the ones that are done.  Others are still drying.



Excellent flavor.  I will be making these again.  Adding the crushed red pepper gives just a slight touch of heat but not as much as cayenne (which was in the original recipe).  I think next time I will abandon the rounds idea and go back to rolling out on a cutting board over waxed paper with thickness spacers on each side.  Then I can use a pizza cutter to cut into strips and place the wax paper with strips in the freezer to firm up.  They crack apart easily when frozen and can be spaced on the dehydrator rack.  I think the correct starting thickness is more in the 1/8 to 3/16" range.  Some of the one still in the dehydrator are 1/4" and better. Using the spacer method they should all be uniform in thickness and done at the same time (subject to possibly moving racks around).

I also made some grilled burgers with the marinade.  Used 1 ounce per pound of meat for that.  Those also came out great.  So for me the "Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade" is a thumbs up products.  If you can get it locally, give it a try (or be like me and pay dang near as much in shipping as the gallon of marinade cost - but it was worth it).

[Savannahsmoker]

I like your idea.

[Saber 4]

I've used this method and the smoking gun marinade for a couple of years, since Ragweed first introduced me to it. The first couple of times I also rolled logs as I didn't have a stuffer at the time. Now with my stuffer and meat slicer I can get exact thickness wafers every time and I have gone down to a 2" casing which gives me a size I like and they dehydrate faster.

You might try reducing the smoking gun just enough to add about half a bottle of your favorite hot sauce, we like Marvin Rodak's Chipotle Mustard Fusion hot sauce for ours.

[DWard51]

I had some 1 1/2" fibrous casings but thought that would be too small.  In retrospect, the smaller casing would probably work while frozen in my old Rival deli slicer just like slicing pepperoni.  I may have to give the rounds one more try. Those would be bite-sized!

Some of the thicker ones are still in the dehydrator.  With the cure, they are safe, but I don't know if they will all dry to what I would call "done" like the thinner ones did.  Like most experiments, there is a learning curve involved. Either way they will get eaten (I've been snacking on the thinner ones all afternoon). As these are for a mixed audience, and not everyone would like the hot, I substituted the crushed red pepper for 2 tsp of cayenne in Ragweed's original recipe.

[Saber 4]

I have used the 1 1/2" casings when I didn't have 2" and they work great. I have started putting the dehydrator in a closed off room that has an exhaust fan and putting a dehumidifier in the room. I figured if I could reduce the amount of moisture in the room being circulated back into the dehydrator I could speed up drying time and it has cut drying time by a third to a half of normal time with no adverse effect on the product.

I played with the hot sauce amount until I got the flavor and just a slight bite to it so most everyone enjoys it. Just keep playing with it till you find what you like.

[DWard51]

Ok, thanks.  I'll have to give the smaller casings a try next time.

[DWard51]

Final tally - started with 6.6 pounds of meat and marinade as a wet mix.  Ended with 2.2 pounds of dried jerky rounds (34% of original wet weight).  Taste is very good so i will do this again (with minor tweaking)