Jerky

Rob Keeble

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Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Ok North America is this really what your ancestors called Jerky , how can you guys eat this stuff ????:crazy::huh::dunno:


http://www.jacklinks.com/#-/products.aspx


I stopped in at a tool store the other night and in a moment of extreme weakness bought a pack. REALLY I thought, how can these guys get away with calling this Jerky. SERIOUSLY , for those of you that don't know what real Jerky is find someone that makes the real stuff and give it a try.

I don't mean ground meat rolled out and flattened like Masonite and then colored and coated and dipped in whatever flavoring you desire chopped up and dehydrated and sold as Jerky. I don't mean shaved beef treated the same or turned from leather into colored bits and sold in a vacuum packed bag.

I do mean strips of wild game meat properly prepared to hang and dry and sold in strips you can cut off and enjoy. And yes i have been able to buy this in the USA not often but if you keep your eyes open in small towns its there if you not looking for fancy packaging and colored hardboard.:D

There should be a law like the EU has for sausages that defines what Jerky is because Jack Links gives good Jerky a bad rap. :) Sorry for the rant but man you guys need to get back to your roots.
 
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I don't think its proper jerky unless its strips cut with the grain and dried hard enough that you could stab someone with it. You don't so much eat it as let it slowly dissolve. You can use beef but it needs to be lean beef (eye of round works, although its better used to make brasiola.. flank is probably the "best" although its now expensive because people decided lean was healthy).

Can't even begin to explain things like this: http://www.amazon.com/Nesco-BJX-5-American-Harvest-Jumbo/dp/B001795P3K Nope Nope Nope.

The plains indian variant would be pemmican which was dried and then pounded to a powder and mixed with fat and (optional) berries. Dried at less than 120F you keep the vitamin C in the meat, I think FDA regs require jerky to be cooked at 150F or above which ruins a lot of the nutrition (but lowers the nominal disease risk somewhat - home prepared meat scares me less).

Since we're talking dried meats I would be seriously remiss if I didn't mention another favorite machaca which is air dried (unsalted) meat that is lightly pounded and then partially rehydrated with broth. Brent you are in the perfect climate to make this and it makes the best burritos ever! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machaca (yes I'm enabling again, sorry Sharon :D)
 
Carne asada cuts of round make a fantastic slab...or if one likes...strip of jerky. We'd flatten it out a tad, marinade to our taste and drop it on the dehydrater in either strips or discs. So much better than the commercial stuff!!
 
Agree with premise. Jerky can be tasty to eat and great trail/survival food. The 'other' stuff is awful. Part I don't agree with is the more regulations thing. America hates regulations, we have way too much now. The market will determine if the 'other' stuff stays or dies a deserved death.
 
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