Venison Whole Muscle Jerky

[processhead]

I have always preferred whole muscle jerky for some reason. Call me traditional, I guess.

A few years ago, I found a meat slicer and I really had no excuses not to make whole muscle jerky because now it goes really fast once you get past the hand slicing.
This morning I prepped some venison hind quarter roasts from a deer I shot this fall. Handling the meat is much easier if you slice it while still partly frozen. No those are not giant venison roast slices. They are 2 or 3 roasts that I packed in a bag and were frozen so they can be sliced like one giant roast. Once sliced, the time window for handling is short, because they thaw pretty quickly.

A second processing challenge is getting even application of the cure/seasonings on all the sliced meat. My method is definitely low-tech. First, you need to know the right amount of cure/seasoning to apply for the number of lbs of raw meat you are starting with. Second, you need to get that seasoning applies evenly to all the meat.

I built an Excel spread sheet to simplify the math for the ingredients. You just enter in the weight of the meat and it calculates weight of cure and seasoning to use. I use the Hi Mountain seasonings, and they were kind enough to give me the weight of cure and seasoning to use rather than using volume measurements.

I start by spreading all the frozen slices on baking sheets. After all the meat is out in the open, I use a shaker to apply the pre-weighed amount of seasoning.

The way I get fairly even application is to shake out several light coats on all the meat slices. By applying up to 6 light dustings of seasoning, I think I get pretty even application by the time the shaker is empty. If you try to put it on in a single application, I can almost guarantee problems with getting the seasoning on uniformly.

Another thing you ideally want is for the underside of each slice to have contact with seasoning and cure. By stacking the slices in a container, the unseasoned side of the slice will always be in contact with the seasoned slice below it. After 24 hours in the refrigerator, the slices are ready to go on smoker racks.

[Chef]

processhead Very nice job

[YooperDog]

processhead nice operation.

[kyle]

processhead looks like a professional kitchen, I’m jealous.

[processhead]

Meat on the racks and into the Kid Killer.

[Chef]

processhead Very nice job, thanks for sharing the pictures

[Ozgrams]

hell of an operation… never seen that brand of smoker… and you must have some great recipes in that safe…

Whats the benefit of dusting the seasoning and stacking vs adding water and marinating in Fridge

[processhead]

Ozgrams said in Venison Whole Muscle Jerky:

hell of an operation… never seen that brand of smoker… and you must have some great recipes in that safe…

Whats the benefit of dusting the seasoning and stacking vs adding water and marinating in Fridge

The short answer on dusting is, that’s how the instructions say to do it. The stacking just makes it easier to get them apart again when they are ready to go on the rack and also ensures that the un-dusted side is in contact with a dusted piece underneath it.
With a marinate, the amount of cure and seasoning to use gets a little iffy. With some trial and error, you could probably figure out a system that would work with a marinade, but ultimately, not all the dry ingredients in the marinade are going to stick to the meat, and some drips off somewhere you don’t want it to go. I like the meat to have the minimum amount of moisture to shorten dry time and just minimize the mess while preparing. Its just my method and I am sure other methods work just as well for others.

You have never seen a smoker like that one because it was a limited edition of one. In it’s previous life, it was a hospital blanket warmer.

After adding vents, a larger heating element, home-made pellet auger/smoke generator, and temperature controls, it is now a smoker.
Originally, I built electric smokers for my friends, mostly made from vintage refrigerators, the kind with the latching handles that kids would play in and…you know.
A buddy coined the name, cooked up a logo, and built some badges for the smokers I was making. Yes, kind of sick/dark. But easy to remember.