Dried beef for chipped beef

[mrobisr]

Never made this, so here we go. Goal is a shelf stable canned/jarred dried chipped beef suitable for SOS.
1 Eye of round
10% salt
Vacuum packed for 2 weeks for curing then I plan on removing and washing salt off the meat then vacuum sealing for 5 days to equilibrate the salt content. Sous vide to IT of 160f per USDA current guidance for jerky then slice and dehydrate to complete dry. Then sealing up in glass jar and pressure canning @10lbs for 75 minutes.

[kyle]

mrobisr sounds interesting. Cant wait to see the results

[Dave in AZ]

mrobisr sounds like a great plan. I used to love that armour dried beef and would snack it all up before my mom could make the SOS!

Your 160f is definitely the way to go, and combined with your 10% salt and dry, that stuff should be totally shelf stable even without canning. The canning puts you over the top as Best Friend For the Zombie Apocalypse though! You’ve thought it thru great.
Looks like you already salted it and bagged, so maybe your thoughts on this would just be for me, or next time–you’ve got me excited to try this too! If 10% isn’t your final salt content desired, what about an equilibrium cure at your final desired saltiness without a salt reduction rinse? I’m just throwing this out there for your reply, and wondering what final dried beef saltiness should be?

You might like this salted meat heat treament thing too: Dr Greg Blonder did that salt diffusion study where he showed that by heating the meat to 160, the salt is quickly driven completely thru the meat during that heat, rapidly equalizing any difference bands. That might change your 2 step brining process, dunno. Cool article though.
Salt diffusion and 160f lethality heat step

2nd thing is, you didn’t mention cure#1. Not needed for safety as you’re quick SV cooking, but I would think that the flavor and color of dried beef would be improved with a nitrate cure1 treatment? Is nitrate used in the store stuff? You probably looked at that, I’m interested in your thoughts there.

I’m excited to hear how it goes! Thx for posting your project!

[processhead]

mrobisr
Sounds like an interesting project. Will be interested in hearing your final impressions on how it goes.
Just thinking out loud here, the sous vide step might be redundant if you are hot canning the meat, which by itself will give you a safe, shelf-stable product.
Also, I think I would be inclined to leave the beef in whole chunks that fit in the jars. After pressure canning for 75 minutes , it should be fall-apart tender and pre-slicing would not really be necessary.
Keep us posted on how it all goes. It sounds really tasty.

[samspade]

If your looking for the ARMOR texture then I think your on point with the SV, slice dehydrate then seal plan. The ARMOR slices were thin and flexible. You could tear or cut them but they held the shape of a thin flat piece. If you did not SV first, going straight to the dehydrator step might make a microbe party. And if you did not dehydrate you wont get the hold together aspect your looking for. JMO.

[YooperDog]

mrobisr looks like an interesting project. I am looking forward to seeing the results and hearing your thoughts.

[mrobisr]

Dave in AZ I went with 10% because I knew that once dried it would be totally inhospitable to bacteria. The rinse is not really for reduction of salt, but to start the equilibration of the meat. The article you posted makes a very good point and I think I’m probably going to try and skip the equilibration step. The commercial product does have nitrite and SE, but it is also a ground and formed product and mine is not, so I felt that I would try just the salt first and see if I like the taste. I have several more rounds in the freezer, so I’m prepared to do the nitrite cure next if the taste is not according to my taste. Thank you for the article it was very informative.

[mrobisr]

processhead said in Dried beef for chipped beef:

the sous vide step might be redundant if you are hot canning the meat

I’m betting you are spot on with that observation and my first thought was the same, but I went with the additional step as a safety precaution, insurance. As far as the meat falling apart my only clue is the commercial product, so that will have to be experimented with to see, thank you for the very sound advice.

[Dave in AZ]

mrobisr I like your 160f lethality treatment pre-drying, as that is how the FSIS jerky i.e. dried meat recommends, so you don’t make the bacteria or spores resistant to heat by drying first. Thx for your reply re salt levels, and I hope you post and say how you like it when done. Since dried beef is often added to gravy for sos, it probably can be as salty as you want if you just let that be the salt for the whole gravy.

You mentioned the sliceability of the dried meat, whether it will stay together. I don’t know at all, but this is something I recently read that may be helpful to you later, if you find issues. They add Kappa carageenan to meat to help it form a nice strong interstitial gel for when they want to slice cooked deli meat thin. From Marianski book, “Kappa - meat products, very strong gel. It is currently the most used type of carrageenan in meat products. It improves sliceability of thinly cut meat[…]Kappa carrageenan gels better in the presence of alkali agents such as potassium chloride (KCL). Enough potassium chloride is usually added to the carrageenan blend to create a strong gel. Potassium chloride is the same salt that is added to Morton’s Low Salt, at 50% level, thus the salt itself promotes the development of strong gel. In addition milk protein is a strong promoter of carrageenan gels. Adding caseinate (milk protein) or non-fat dry milk will assist in the development of strong carrageenan gel. Kappa and Iota carrageenan are only partially cold water soluble and need to be heated for full activation.”

Anyways, when I read about carageenan I wasn’t sure when I might use it, but my Dad was in charge of his chemical company carageenan product line, so Im always thinking about it Maybe if your meat is hard to slice nicely, the info could be useful but really, I don’t think you will have any problems, your plan sounds great!

[processhead]

mrobisr

I re-read your processing steps and realized I completely missed the part about dehydrating the cured beef prior to hot-canning.

Since much of the moisture will be removed from the meat, hot-canning will probably do very little to make it " fall apart tender" as I said in my earlier comment.

The moist heat from the sous vide will probably make it pretty darned tender though.

[mrobisr]

Dave in AZ said in Dried beef for chipped beef:

Since dried beef is often added to gravy for sos, it probably can be as salty as you want if you just let that be the salt for the whole gravy.

That was my thought exactly and you bring up some very good points that might be very useful depending on how this first experiment turns out, thank you so much for your very detailed evidence based info.

[mrobisr]

Update, the sous vide really equilibrated the meat way beyond what I could have ever imaged. The meat dried to the crumble level in two hours and no I was not expecting that at all. While without the cure the meat is basically white/grey in color and over drying the taste is actually very good. I put it in the fridge for now, but I’m wondering now about rancidity due to no antioxidant being present. My current thought is to can one jar for experimental purposes and freeze the rest just to make sure.

[YooperDog]

mrobisr looks like the learning/experimenting process continues. I am betting an answer will bring more questions.

[kyle]

mrobisr I have no doubt you will figure it out

[Dave in AZ]

mrobisr great update. How was the saltiness? This seems like a pretty tough project. I wonder if it is just dried with salt, uncooked, like biltong or prosciutto, then sliced?

[samspade]

As long as it tastes good, SOS wont last long enough to get rancid or frozen for that matter.

[mrobisr]

Dave in AZ The saltiness was a little more than you just want to sit down and eat, but it was not as bad as I was expecting and to put it in sos it would be perfect. I do believe the commercial product is cooked or to me it seems to be by the color, texture, and taste.