Beef Brisket Is Not Just For Barbecue
No one knows exactly when the first piece of meat was laid out too long in the sun and dried into a leathery texture. Most likely, this was the accidental discovery of hunters coming back to a village with fresh meat and the women preparing the meat for cooking. When the meat was left out in the sun for too long, it became dry, but was still edible. Over decades and with lots of experimentation, beef jerky was born.
The invention of beef jerky made it possible wagyu wholesale for people to carry supplies of precious meat with them for much longer periods of time. Preserved meat was often a staple of early tribal people who depended on its nourishment to get them through the harsh winters. Today, fresh meat is plentiful and instead of laying cuts of beef outside and waiting for the sun to do the work, you can purchase a beef jerky dehydrator that creates delicious homemade beef jerky in a matter of hours.
If you’ve had packaged jerky that is filled with preservatives, you will be thrilled with the type of rich, hearty flavor that comes with creating homemade jerky. Fresh is always best, and there’s simply no comparison to biting into your own version of jerky that you made using a recipe. Now most top-quality food dehydrators are going to be able to make a batch of good beef jerky, so you really just want to pick a food dehydrator that has versatility.
A beef jerky dehydrator works by using an electric motor to suck air into the unit, warm it to a certain temperature and then blow it across the meat. All meat has water inside of it and this water needs to be evaporated by the warm air in order for it to dry out. Once the evaporation happens, the meat shrivels and turns dark. This dried meat may not look good to the eye, but it sure tastes great.
When looking at the various beef jerky dehydrators on the market, you want to keep in mind how much homemade beef jerky you wish to make with each batch. Some dehydrators have 5 trays, while others have 10 or 12 trays. The larger the machine, the higher the cost. But, you can look at it as an investment into your quest to make the perfect jerky for many years to come.
When it comes to selecting cuts of meat to for making beef jerky, cuts that work best are top round, eye of the round, rib eye, sirloin and tender loin. There shouldn’t be a lot of fat or gristle on the cut of beef. You need to be able to slice it very thin. If you have access to a good butcher, they can probably slice up these cuts for you. Anyway, you’ll need to create slices that can fit easily into the dehydrator.
You can find recipes online for making jerky that has specific flavorings. A basic beef jerky recipe uses salt, pepper and maybe some liquid smoke to enhance the flavor. You’ll probably end up experimenting and tweaking various recipes to come up with your own version. You may even want to expand into making jerky out of chicken or turkey. Once you taste your homemade fresh jerky, you’ll never settle for that pre-packaged kind again.