Like Tom has said, it's good to get to know your butcher. I ordered a 6 lb eye of round on sale for the jerky. Butcher sliced it with the grain 1/4" thick so all I did was come home and hit the slices with the big Forschner to make the strips. The butcher sliced the meat, trimmed nearly a 3/4 lb of fat off for me, and then charged me the sales price on the net not the gross. Shook my hand with a smile and said, "Please come back." Think I'll take him some jerky later this week.
I made up half the jerky in the "Hot and Spicey" brine/cure shown above using TenerQuick, and made the other half in the following recipe:
2.5 lbs jerky strips
2 cups apple juice
1/4 cup garlic granules + TBL
2 TBL onion powder
1 TBL Pepper-coarse
1.3 TBL TenderQuick
Once I had the jerky meat, I couldn't wait on the "Hot and Spicey" Vicki. So we can compare notes. Will also report on the experimental garlic jerky recipe.
I'm smoking cheese now. Mozerella for a friend...requested (she's cute. I couldn't say no). Jerky in the 2 brine cures. Brining the turkey in a couple days. Smoking chicken wings tomorrow night. Tonight's Cod dinner sitting in olive oil and spices. Think I'll head out, have a cigar/Sierra Nevada, and watch the cheese smoke. Life is good.
