CAMP AND OLD-TIME JERKY
You don’t have to use a kitchen oven or an electric dehydrator to make jerky. In fact, the best jerky might well be made out in the sun or in a dry, breezy open-air place. Open-air jerky, made without the aid of a little heat of some sort, works best when the humidity is quite low. So choose a dry climate, or watch your local weather report for the proper conditions, which will usually be during periods of high pressure.
I might add that most writers on the subject do not recommend the old ways of making jerky under any circumstances. I won’t go that far, but there are some precautions. First, do not hang jerky out in the open if flies are a problem. Second, do not attempt to air-dry jerky when the humidity is high. Third, proceed only with very, very fresh and uncontaminated meat. Fourth, use lots of salt. Fifth, hang the jerky in a breezy place, if possible. Sixth, do not allow the jerky to get wet during the drying process.
In addition to open-air drying, the complete outdoor cook may want to use large covered grills or various smokers to make jerky. Essentially, these are more or less closed systems, not unlike ovens or dehydrators in principle. Often a little smoke is used to flavor the jerky. In general, the big problem is keeping the temperature hot enough to generate smoke but low enough to prevent the jerky from cooking. Another problem is getting the water vapor from the meat out of the smoker or closed grill. Further instruction is provided in the recipes below.
If you want a long strip of jerky, making it easier to hang, you might try an old American Indian trick. Place a partially frozen round steak of buffalo or beef about ¾ inch thick on a flat surface. Start your cut around the edge of the meat. Cut carefully, working in a spiral, until you get to the center. This will give you a continuous strip of meat—easily hung from a clothesline. Dry in the sun for several days, depending on the heat and humidity. Take it into the tepee at night or during a rain, hanging it high above the fire.
I found this recipe in a booklet called Confederate Camp Cooking, by Patricia B. Mitchell. It calls for smoking the jerky for 6 hours in a covered grill, which I doubt was standard camp equipment. It also calls for a “dash” of liquid smoke, but I’m not sure that this stuff would have been readily available to a Confederate soldier. In any case, I don’t see the point in using both liquid smoke and real smoke. My guess is that a Confederate soldier would simply suspend the meat well above the campfire, using the heat to dry the meat and counting on the smoke to keep the insects away. On the other hand, maybe the seasoned Reb wouldn’t want to risk much of a fire, lest the smoke draw Yankees.
1 pound lean red meat
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
⅛ teaspoon liquid smoke
1 cup water
Trim the meat of fat and cut it into thin strips, then put these into a nonmetallic container. Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour over the meat. Toss about to coat all sides. Marinate in a cool place overnight. Smoke for 6 hours or longer “in a covered grill.” Modern practitioners can use a large covered grill, putting the fire and wood chips in one end and the meat in the other. Choke off the airflow, thereby reducing the heat.
Fresh lemongrass is becoming more readily available in American supermarkets as well as in Asian stores, and it can be grown in the home herb garden in mild climates. The outer leaves of the talk should be peeled away, down to the inner core, about ½ inch in diameter. This core is then thinly sliced and will impart a lemony flavor to food. The red meat (usually beef) for this recipe should be sliced very thin into pieces about 3 inches wide and 3 inches long, more or less.
2 small red chili peppers, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 pound lean red meat
2 stalks fresh lemongrass, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon Vietnamese fish sauce
1 pound lean red meat, sliced as described above
Using a mortar and pestle, pound together the red chili peppers and brown sugar. Add the lemongrass, soy sauce, and fish sauce, mixing well. Spread the paste over both sides of the meat slices. Marinate for 30 minutes. Spread the slices on drying racks and place in the sun for about 10 hours, until both sides are dry. Cover at night or during a rain. (I put my jerky on dehydrator trays and dry in the sun, or start in the sun and finish in the dehydrator on a low temperature, if necessary.) When dry, grill the strips of meat over charcoal for a few minutes, until nicely crisp. Serve as a snack with sticky rice. The grilled jerky can be stored for a week or two in the refrigerator.
This is the jerky of South Africa, made commercially as well as in the home, especially in rural areas. Biltong is eaten as a snack, sold at refreshment stands in movie theaters and at soccer games and wayside stands; it is also sometimes used as a flavoring or ingredient in recipes for home cooking. Coriander seeds, freshly ground, give it a special flavor. Note that the meat is cured in a cool, dry place, not in a warm oven. The ingredients list calls for beef or venison, but other meats can also be used. According to Best of Regional African Cooking, “You can buy biltong of beef or springbok (a South African antelope) or even ostrich. The latter, South Africans will tell you, is the best.”
10 pounds lean red meat
1 pound coarse salt
1 ounce saltpeter
3 tablespoons freshly ground coriander seeds
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
brine
Cut the meat with the grain into strips about ⅜ inch thick. Thoroughly mix the coarse salt, saltpeter, coriander, and black pepper, making sure that the saltpeter is evenly distributed. Rub most of the spice mixture into the strips of meat. Layer the strips in a crock or nonmetallic container and sprinkle the top with the rest of the spice mix. Refrigerate or keep in a cool place for 48 hours or longer. Mix a strong brine, using enough salt to float an egg. Rinse the meat in the brine and hang it in a cool, well-ventilated place until it dries thoroughly. This makes a superb chew.
Although South Africa is the biltong capital, the stuff is also widely eaten in most of eastern Africa, where it is sold by street vendors along with fruits and other snacks and delicacies, such as roasted termites. This recipe produces a thicker jerky than the South African version.
10 pounds lean red meat
1 pound salt
2 ounces sugar
1 ounce saltpeter
dried red chili peppers, ground finely, to taste
vinegar
Trim the fat off the meat and cut it into strips about 1 inch thick. Mix the rest of the ingredients thoroughly. Rub the mixture into the meat, covering all sides, and put it into a nonmetallic container. Sprinkle any leftover rub over the meat. Marinate for 2 days in a cool place, tossing the strips a time or two. Dip a clean cloth in vinegar, wring out the excess, and wipe the meat strips. Hang the strips in a cool, airy, dry place for several days, until the jerky is dry. In case rainy weather develops, this jerky can be finished in a kitchen oven on very low heat or in a dehydrator.
Knowing how to make this jerky might save the day in case of an atomic bomb attack, says George Leonard Herter in the book Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices, at which time our electric freezers and meat dehydrators wouldn’t help.
Rig for smoke-drying by building a log tower, Herter says, about 3 feet square and open at the top. Form a rack by placing 1-inch-diameter green branches over the top. Cut the meat into strips ½ inch thick, 1 inch wide, and 10 to 12 inches long. Place these strips on the rack. Keep a slow, smoldering fire going in the bottom, preferably using hickory, mesquite, or maple wood. Smoke for about 12 hours, or until the meat is dry. (If a log tower isn’t practical, Herter says use a hole in the ground with a rack on top.)
Before eating, soak the jerky in water for 4 to 5 hours, or, better, simmer the jerky in a stew along with vegetables. If no vegetables are available, Herter advises, use wild grape leaves, aspen leaves, laurel leaves, or the bark from small pine trees. (I might add that the inner bark of a pine tree is by far better than the outer scale.) Further recipes for using the jerky are found in chapter 11, Pemmican (page 80), and chapter 12, Cooking with Jerky (page 87).
Woodstoves are still being used for heat and cooking, especially in remote areas. The heat of the stove causes the air to rise, creating a sort of open dehydrator for making jerky and drying the long johns.
2 pounds lean red meat
¾ cup water
3 tablespoons salt
½ tablespoon onion powder
¼ tablespoon garlic powder
¼ tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Trim the meat and cut it into slices about 3⁄16 inch thick. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a jar, shaking well. Put the meat into a nonmetallic container and pour the contents of the jar over it, tossing about to coat all sides. Let sit in a cool place for several hours. Dry the meat strips with paper towels and place them on racks in the oven on low heat for 30 minutes or so. The purpose of the stay in the oven is to dry the meat a little to reduce the drip; do not cook the meat in a hot oven. Hang the meat strips on the clothesline above the stove for a day or two. If there’s any jerky left hanging after 2 days, store it in a jar or a clean pillowcase.
Many ranch houses have screened porches on the front or back, or both. Some even have porches all the way around. In dry climates with a good wind, these screened porches can be used to make excellent jerky. String some barbed wire across the top and hang the strips of meat from the barbs. In some parts of the West, small wild peppers are free for the picking. Any dried hot red chili pepper can be used, ground to a powder. Cayenne from the supermarket also will do, or use a commercial chili powder, if you like the taste of cumin and other spices.
5 pounds lean red meat
salt
wild chili peppers, dried and powdered
Trim the meat and cut it into strips about ¼ inch thick. Sprinkle the meat strips liberally with salt and sparsely with powdered chili peppers, put them into a nonmetallic container, and keep in a cool place overnight, tossing a time or two if convenient. Drain the meat, pat the strips dry, and impale each strip by the end on the barbs of the wire. Let it hang for 2 to 3 days, or longer, depending on the heat, wind, and humidity. Good stuff, weather permitting.
If you have a suitable climate—dry, warm, and breezy—you can make jerky by simply hanging it on the clothesline. It’s best to punch a hole in the end of each jerky strip, insert a short length of cotton twine, and tie each strip to the main line with a loop. To separate one strip from another, the loop can be kept in place with a clothespin. If you don’t have any string at hand, use strips of fiber from the blades of bear grass or other suitable yucca. You can also string the jerky strips onto strong line, such as the fine-diameter Kevlar thread used in fly tying, with the aid of a large needle. Still another possibility is to string up sticker vines (such as catbrier) in a suitable place, open to the sun and a light wind, and merely hang the strips on the spurs. Don’t be tempted to hang the jerky strips on fishhooks, as when setting a trotline. If you do, you might catch a neighborhood dog.
long meat strips,
3⁄16 inch thick and 1 inch wide
hickory-smoked salt (or regular salt)
black pepper
Sprinkle both sides of the meat heavily with hickory-smoked salt and black pepper. Hang on the line as described above for 2 days or longer, depending on the climate and how dry you want the jerky. Lots of pepper will discourage flies and insects. Transfer the strips to a dry place during rain and at night.
Here’s a good recipe for making smoked jerky, using both a brine and a rub.
5 pounds lean red meat
THE BRINE
2 quarts spring water
1 cup salt
½ cup unsulfured molasses
¼ cup freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon bottled garlic juice
THE RUB
½ cup fine sea salt
1 tablespoon dried lemon zest, powdered
½ tablespoon cayenne pepper
Trim and cut the meat into strips about ⅜ inch thick. Mix the brine ingredients in a nonmetallic container. Add the meat strips, tossing about to coat all sides. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or longer. Rinse the meat and pat it dry with absorbent paper. Air-dry the meat for about an hour.
While waiting, mix all the rub ingredients and then rub into both sides of the jerky strips. Arrange the strips in a smoker. Smoke the meat for an hour or so at 140°F or less. Continue drying without smoke until the strips are stiff but bendable. Cool and store until needed.
Several kinds of water smokers, some shaped like a small silo, can be used to make jerky. These are usually rigged with a wood-chip pan above a heat source (gas, charcoal, or electric) and a pan for holding water or other liquid. Most of these have two circular trays spaced far apart, which limits the amount of jerky that can be handled at one time. The temperature inside the smoker can also be a problem. The best jerky will be produced with the temperature at 140°F or lower. Also remember to keep any top vents open to promote airflow across the jerky.
2 pounds lean red meat
salt
hardwood chips
black pepper
Cut the meat into strips about ¼ inch thick. Sprinkle the strips heavily on both sides with salt. Put into a nonmetallic container overnight, tossing a time or two. Rinse the strips in running water to remove some of the salt. Rig for smoking, heating some hardwood chips. Dry the meat strips with paper towels, sprinkle lightly with black pepper, and arrange on the racks. Smoke for several hours, then finish without smoke until the jerky is dry to your liking.
Portable electric smokers will make good jerky if they are well ventilated to encourage a fresh airflow from the bottom to the top, along with the smoke. Temperature can be a problem. Check it with an oven thermometer, shooting for about 140°F or less. Most of these units have two pullout racks for holding large chunks of meat, which limits their capacity. Check for availability of additional racks, or perhaps hang the jerky from the top by using toothpicks or some other method.
hardwood chunks
2 pounds lean red meat
bacon drippings (optional)
salt
freshly ground black pepper or cayenne pepper
Rig for smoking, putting the hardwood chunks into the pan. Cut the meat into strips about 3⁄16 inch thick. Brush the strips lightly with bacon drippings, then sprinkle with salt and lightly with black pepper or very lightly with cayenne. Place the strips over the racks, or hang them from the top rack. Smoke for several hours, then finish drying without adding more wood to the tray.
Note: Don’t go too heavy on the bacon drippings, especially if the strips are to be hung. The purpose of the drippings is to help the beef take on a smoke flavor. They can be omitted, however.
Very good jerky can be made in a cold-smoker at 100°F or even lower. The problem here is getting enough heat for a fire to generate smoke while at the same time keeping the smoke chamber cool. Often the smoke chamber is removed from the fire, as in the familiar barrel placed uphill from a small fire and connected by a conduit of some sort. Several designs, as well as advice on woods and techniques for smoking, have been set forth in part three, Cold-Smoking and Salt-Curing Meat. In any case, for cold-smoking I insist that the meat be salt-cured in one way or another. The recipe below has been adapted from an old Scottish recipe for corned beef. You can, in fact, use the chunks of meat for corned beef (simmered in fresh water for 5 to 6 hours, or until tender), or you can cut the meat, after curing, into strips, rinse them in fresh water, and cold-smoke them for a couple of days, until dry to your liking. You can also cut the meat into strips before curing, in which case the curing time would be shortened to 8 hours or so, or overnight.
Many of the old-time recipes call for saltpeter, which is no longer used in commercially cured meats such as sausage. It is, however, still available over the counter in some pharmacies.
1 gallon spring water
1 pound salt
⅓ pound brown sugar
½ ounce saltpeter
lean red-meat roast, about 5 pounds
Put all the ingredients except the meat into a large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain the brine into a crock or other suitable nonmetallic container. Let cool. Trim the roast nicely and add it to the crock. Weight the roast with a clean block of wood or plate to keep it submerged. Cover the crock and put it in a cool place for 2 weeks. Turn the meat every day or two.
After 2 weeks, rinse the roast in cold water and soak it in fresh water for several hours. (To cook it like corned beef, put the meat into a pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes per pound, or until tender. The emphasis is on a simmer, not a hard boil. Serve the corned meat hot or cold, or use it in recipes that call for corned beef. When slicing the roast, it’s best to cut against the grain.)
For jerky, rinse the roast in cold water, cut it into strips about 3⁄16 inch thick, rinse the strips in fresh water, pat dry, and arrange on the trays of a cold-smoker, or hang if necessary. Cold-smoke until the strips are dry to your liking. The exact time will, of course, depend on the temperature, the humidity, and the thickness of the meat. Note also that the smoke doesn’t have to be continuous during the drying process, unless perhaps insects would be a problem without the smoke.
Variations: Many recipes call for adding a long list of spices to the brine. I prefer to leave them out, but anyone who feels the need to alter the flavor might want to add 2 tablespoons mixed pickling spices, available in the spice or canning sections of supermarkets, and perhaps 1 tablespoon black pepper. About 2 heaping tablespoons allspice berries and a few bay leaves also work.
If you like the flavor of the jerky or corned beef made by the recipe above, remember that the process is quite suitable for larger quantities of meat and won’t require quite as much brine per pound. Corning and smoking are good ways to deal with the sheer bulk of a steer, moose, or elk when your freezer is already full. The biggest problem with corning a big batch of meat will be finding a large crock and having a cool place to keep it. A clean wooden barrel can be used, if you have one.
100 pounds lean meat
5 gallons clean water
2 pounds brown sugar or honey
8 pounds salt
2 ounces saltpeter
Bone the meat and cut it into rather large chunks about 5 pounds each. Boil the water. Add all the ingredients except the meat and bring to a new boil. Turn off the heat and let the water cool to 40°F or lower. Pack the meat loosely in the crock. Pour the brine into the crock and top the meat with a clean wooden block or platter, weighted with a clean stone (preferably flint) if necessary. The idea is to keep all the meat submerged. After several days, repack the meat, reversing the order; repeat this step every few days. Cure for about 2 weeks for 5-pound chunks of meat. Smaller pieces will require less time and should be eaten first. As a general rule, judge each piece of meat separately, allowing at least 3 days for each pound.
The fully corned meat will keep for a couple of months in the brine, depending partly on the storage temperature, but the brine should perhaps be drained off after about 20 days and replaced with a freshly made solution. For jerky, the meat can be cut into strips and cold-smoked or air-dried after the cure is complete, using the technique on page 30 for the small batch. Start jerking the smaller pieces of meat first, leaving the large chunks in the brine longer.