Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 373 kcal | 106 kcal |
| Protein | 51.8 g | 14.7 g |
| Fat | 13 g | 3.7 g |
| saturated | 4.7 g | 1.3 g |
| Carbohydrate | 9.1 g | 2.6 g |
| sugars | 6.8 g | 1.9 g |
| Fibre | 0.6 g | 0.2 g |
| Sodium | 2067 mg | 586 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
- 2.2 kg lean minced beef
- 2 teaspoons Adobo seasoning
- 1 1/4 tablespoons (19 ml) salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons meat tenderizer
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 cup tomato passata
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup liquid smoke
Instructions
- Ask for mince at ninety-five per cent lean or better. Fat is the whole argument with jerky: it will not dry, and every speck of it is a place the batch starts to go off.
- Leave the meat tenderiser out if you like a firm chew. It is an enzyme, it goes on working while the meat cures, and too much gives a strip that crumbles to paste in the mouth.
- Add the liquid smoke to the tomato passata and Worcestershire before any of it meets the meat. Dropped straight onto mince it stains one patch dark, and that patch tastes of ash.
- Fold the wet and dry seasonings through in two goes, checking the colour is even before the second. Adobo and cayenne are both red, which makes an unmixed patch hard to see once the sauce is in.
- Chill the seasoned mixture for an hour before it goes near the gun. Cold meat holds the shape the nozzle gives it; warm meat slumps and the strip thins out at its edges.
- Press the strips onto mesh trays all at the same width. A narrow strip finishes well ahead of a wide one and overdries while it waits.
- Run the machine at 65 °C for 9 hours and leave the door shut for the first stretch. The beef is raw and the opening hours are when it has to reach a temperature that matters.
- Test by bending a cooled strip to a right angle. Fibres should split along the outside of the bend while the strip stays whole — anything that flexes without cracking goes back on.
- Blot, cool completely, then seal. A fortnight in the pantry, several months vacuum-packed; the tomato passata in this one adds sugar and moisture, so do not push that pantry figure.
