I just brought home 6+ lbs of top round and sliced it into 1/4" strips to make jerky. I made my usual recipe but altered it to replace the soy, teriyaki and worcestershire sauces with apple juice as suggested by d. merrell in a previous thread.
Here's my usual recipe before the substitution:
3/4 cup of soy sauce
3/4 cup Yoshida Teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of honey
1/4 cup of molasses
1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons of garlic powder
2 tablespoons of onion powder
2 tablespoons of canning salt
1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon of black pepper
3 teaspoons of Morton® Tender Quick®
1 teaspoon of powdered cayenne pepper
The recipe above is for 5 lbs, but I doubled it to handle about 6.5 lbs of jerky. I use Tenderquick as a precaution. Pour the mixture over the beef strips in a large bowl, using your hands turn and toss the meat to thoroughly coat them. Soak the meat for two days in the fridge, turning the meat twice daily. Dry or smoke at a low temperature, below 200 degrees, above 160. Again, use the GLH method described at the top of this forum.
The jerky is soaking in the marinade/cure right now, but I'll probably only marinade/cure for 24 hrs. The cure penetrates meat at about 1/8"/day. Since it penetrates from both sides, the strips should be thoroughly marinaded/cured by tomorrow. Then into the smoker.
I'll report on results shortly. Maybe even a picture or two. I'm hoping the apple juice will make the jerky a little sweet
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