Tender Jerky

[wvhunter1965]

Good morning guy’s,

I have an interest in making tender jerky. After watching Johns video on the subject, I am wondering what changes I would need to make to use a different seasoning. I am specifically interested in the Sweet Teriyaki flavor.

Should I follow the same recipe and add 18% extra brown sugar as with the Waltons Bold seasoning in the video? All else should be the same but I just was curious about the sugar level.

Thanks for any help

[Jonathon]

wvhunter1965 I’m glad you are going to give it a shot, I am sure you won’t be disappointed! We chose the Walton’s Bold Jerky because we are very familiar with it and it’s a great tasting seasoning. If you want to use another seasoning, like the Sweet Teriyaki, I would still use the same 18% extra brown sugar and 20% water. Now, I don’t know what your set-up but an important part is how much of the water and seasonings your meat will pick up. We used a vacuum tumbler so our meat picked up a high amount of the solution, if you don’t have a vacuum tumbler then I might not add the full 20% of water. And I would probably leave it in the fridge a little longer until it looks like there very little water left in your bag or whatever you use to marinate your meat in.

Let us know how it turns out!

[21cedar]

Has anyone ever tried adding some glycerin/glycerol (instead of extra sugar) to provide a more tender texture? It’s sweet like sugar, but it doesn’t evaporate like water (so it should increase the residual “moisture” without increasing the water activity), and isn’t sticky either.

(Note that if you look up information on glycerin online, you’ll see all sorts of stuff about it being a laxative, but that’s when it’s administered as, uh, suppositories. And it is indeed an alcohol sweetener, like sorbitol and mannitol – but unlike those sugar alcohols, your body can actually absorb and metabolize glycerol, so it doesn’t give you the nasty GI side effects of sorbitol and its siblings.)

[Joe Hell]

21cedar I haven’t used it in sausage but I’ve taken plenty glycerin/glycol based herbal tinctures orally with no ill side effects. Heck, that might be a way to introduce an herbal element to the final product. I’ve been curious if lactose or dry malt extract could be also be substituted for dextrose…mainly due to having excess brewing ingredients.

[wvhunter1965]

Jonathon

It’s a funny thing as I am on my stand hunting while I post this but thanks for the info. Will certainly let you guys know how this turns out. I am planning most of my processing after season ends so I have more time to hunt!

Saw a really nice shooter 8 this morning but couldn’t get him to stop long enough for a shot. Hopefully, he comes back and supplies me with a wall mount but most importantly, jerky and snack sticks! We

[Jonathon]

wvhunter1965 How crazy is it that you are in your stand and have Wifi connections? Think back 10 years, that would have seemed like magic, right? Good luck and make sure you give us a picture of anything you get!

[wvhunter1965]

Jonathon, I am going to work on the tender jerky we discussed above very soon. I do not yet have a dehydrator or smoker but am thinking about using my oven which has a minimum temp of 175. Can I use this method to make this jerky successfully or will starting at that high temp be a problem?

[Jonathon]

wvhunter1965 It won’t be as good as being able to start at lower temps, especially since we are trying to make/keep this jerky tender, but it won’t be the end of the world. The water should mostly be bound with the sugar so it shouldn’t cook out as quickly. We are going some remodeling at meatgistics/waltons this year and we will start testing some things in an oven so we will have better information on this.

[wvhunter1965]

Thanks Jonathon. I made the jerky today and it turned out very acceptable in the oven. Can’t compare to doing it slow in the smoker since I do not yet have one but I can certainly live with my results!

[Jonathon]

wvhunter1965 Awesome, I’m glad you were happy with the results!

[John Belvedere]

anyone know why there is a different smoke schedule between tender jerky at home and tender venison jerky?

Home tender jerky schedule
Stage 1 - 20 Minutes at 110° (dampers wide open)
Stage 2 - 30 Minutes at 135° (begin adding smoke)
Stage 3 - 10 Minutes at 140° (dampers wide open again for drying)
Stage 4 - 30 Minutes at 150°
Stage 5 - 175° until internal temperature is 160°

ADVANCED THERMAL PROCESSING & SMOKING

Stage 1 - 20 Minutes Dry at 110° 0 Relative Humidity(RH)
Stage 2 - 30 Minutes Dry at 135° 0 (RH)
Stage 3 - 10 Minutes Dry at 140° 0 (RH)
Stage 4 - 30 Minutes Dry at 150° Wet at 126° 50 RH
Stage 5 - 30 Minutes Dry at 155° Wet at 130° 50 RH
Stage 6 - Dry at 175° Wet at 155 RH 60 until internal temperature is 160°

Tender venison jerky schedule
20 minutes @ 140 drying phase (no humidity and open vents)
30 minutes @ 150 (add smoke and humidity)
30 minutes @ 155 (add smoke and humidity)
Smoke @ 165 until internal temp is 155 and make sure it stays there for 5 minutes (add smoke and humidity)
15 minutes @ 160 with no humidity and vents wide open.

[Jonathon]

John Belvedere We have made changes to the process, specifically we recommend using soy sauce (light), rice wine vinegar, and lemon concentrate and then holding it overnight. We think the smoke schedule works better with this process. We could be wrong but we did a lot of testing for smoke schedules on this. If you try something else and it works let us know!