Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 381 kcal | 108 kcal |
| Protein | 48.6 g | 13.8 g |
| Fat | 12 g | 3.4 g |
| saturated | 4.4 g | 1.2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 16.7 g | 4.7 g |
| sugars | 11.1 g | 3.1 g |
| Fibre | 1.3 g | 0.4 g |
| Sodium | 818 mg | 232 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 1.3 kg beef top round steak
- 3/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) liquid smoke
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, fresh or bottled
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons lemon pepper seasoning
Instructions
- Put the top round in the freezer for an hour before slicing. Top round is lean and firm to begin with, and half-frozen it will take a clean 3 mm cut that you cannot get by hand otherwise.
- Slice it across the grain at 3 mm and take off every trace of fat. Across the grain gives a strip that breaks apart in the mouth rather than pulling into strings.
- Heat the Worcestershire, soy and liquid smoke to a simmer, take it off, and stir the brown sugar in until it has fully dissolved. Sugar will not dissolve in a cold marinade, and undissolved sugar sits in the bottom of the bag doing nothing.
- Let the mixture go completely cold, then stir in the lemon juice, lemon pepper and garlic powder. Added while hot the lemon loses its brightness, which is the entire character of this jerky.
- Marinate the strips for a full day in the fridge, turning the bag over once. Any longer and the lemon juice starts to break down the surface of the meat and the strips go grey.
- Drain the strips and blot them, then lay them out with air reaching both sides and dehydrate at 71 °C for 7 hours. Blot them again halfway through if beads of fat have come to the surface.
- Bend a cooled strip to a right angle: it should crack and show white fibres along the fold without breaking in two. This one is meant to stay on the chewy side, so stop as soon as it does that rather than pushing on.
- Keep it in a sealed jar or a vacuum bag and eat it within two weeks at room temperature, a month refrigerated, or six months frozen. Check it each time you open the jar, because a jerky left deliberately moist is one that will spoil if it was under-dried.
