Wild Game Jerky

by Jeff Peterson

Ingredients

• 2 lbs of meat
• 2 table spoons of pepper
• 2 table spoons of soy sauce
• 2 table spoons of brown sugar
• 1 table spoon of Worcestershires
• 1 teaspoon of cure (This can be purchased at your local meat locker)

Preparation

This recipe is recommended for any kind of wild game. Slice meat into strips no thicker than 1/4 inches. Place meat into a plastic ziplock bag that contains all other ingredients. Knead bag well, then refrigerate. Recommended soak for fresh meat 3-5 days, aged meat for 2-3 days. Knead bag every 48 hours.

Cooking

Dehydrators can be purchased at most grocery or sporting good stores and usually start at $35. I have had many dehydrators and the cheap ones seem to work just as well as the more expensive. If you pay more you will likely get a machine with more space and more even heating.

Place Jerky on dehydrator racks. Cooking the Jerky to your preference is tricky. The key is to check the jerky hourly when it is close to cooked. At times you must rotate shelving units do to uneven heat. Recommended time for 2 lbs of meat on an average dehydrator is 6 hrs. If you double the batch, assume that the time will need to be doubled.

The Science

Cure is the compound sodium nitrate. Cure is used over salt to give cooked meat its pink color versus brown color. During the curing process Nitrite combine with oxygen to form nitric oxide. This nitric oxide then combines with myoglobin, the pigment responsible for meats red color, to form nitric oxide myoglobin. When cooked the meat will turn a pink color. Without nitrite, iron in myoglobin will oxidize and form metamyoglobin which gives cooked meat a brown color.

The nitrite and Salt (contained in Soy Sauce) both function to add flavor, transport flavor, and destruct harmful bacteria. Flavor is transported through osmosis. The cure solution is hypertonic(contains more solute) in comparison to the concentration of solute in the meat cells. Therefore, the cure transports into the meat and water leaves the meat until equilibrium is reached. This creates an inhospitable environment for bacteria, and many bacteria likely lysis. Bacteria that are not destroyed will be dried out completely and lysis during the heating process.

Sugar, pepper, and Worcestershires sauce all function to add flavor to the meat.