Ground beef jerky rounds - an experiment

[dward51]

I've seen this in a couple of other forums and figured I would give it a try. Actually this is a double experiment as both the method and spice mix are something I have not done before. The plan is to make ground beef jerky rounds instead of strips of sticks. Credit to the idea for both goes to Ragweed.

No ground venison and no ground round in the house, but I did pick up some of the 90% lean ground beef from Sam's Club. The primary ingredient in the seasoning a a liquid marinade called "Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade". No one locally carried this, so I had to pay dang near as much in shipping as I did for the gallon of marinade I ordered. But the reviews I found online were good, so I figured might as well get a gallon and pay shipping only once. This stuff smells like a great marinade and has just enough of the hickory smoke aroma.



Ragweed's method used from 8 to 10 ounces (depending on which of his posts I was looking at) in 5 pounds of lean ground meat. The company said to use 3 ounces per pound with ground meat. I split the difference and went with 12 ounces for the 5 pounds.

Here is the rest of what I used:

• 5 pounds of 90% lean ground beef
• 12 ounces of Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade
• 2 tsp of black pepper
• 2 tsp of red pepper flakes (crushed up a little more in my mortar).
• 1 level tsp of cure #1

I mixed the cure in 1/4 cup of water to get it mostly dissolved and then mixed all the ingredients with the marinade. Poured over the meat and mixed by hand. Then into the fridge overnight to let the cure work and the flavors meld. The next day I divided the meat into two portions and made it into tubes. This is were I vary from Ragweed's version a little. He used 3" casings, but I just formed a rough log on clear food wrap and then rolled it up and spun the ends to form a round tightly packed log a little bigger than 3" in diameter. Into the freezer to firm up for slicing (about 3 to 4 hours).

Something came up and I did not get it slice it as planned so it spent the night in the fridge. Of course it was froze solid the next morning. Tried slicing that and figured I need to let it thaw in the fridge a little to soften up to a soft freeze instead of the rock hard freeze it currently was. So before I went to bed, I moved the logs to the fridge. Next morning, it was ready for slicing.

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I tried to keep them about 1/4" thick, but there is some variance. I will probably have some done earlier than others, but I can deal with that.

Going into my 10 tray LEM dehydrator. Starting at 135* and will check after 5 hours. More to follow......

[driedstick]

Sounds good so far,,, waiting on the results

DS

[PitRow]

sounds like a good plan! Following.

[curious aardvark]

interesting.

with ground jerky I usually make a flat square the size of the dehydrator tray. Do it on clingfilm on a tray, use a pizza cutter to mark out strips and then put another tray on top, flip, rempve clingfilm and flip again.

And while typing this it occured to me that the best way to make rounds would be to simply use a burger press :-)

No hassle, no freezing. weigh the amount you put into the press and you'll be able to make any thickness disc you like, time after time.
http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-507-Ham...s=burger+press

Interesting to see how these turn out.

[Richtee]

A method I have had success with..a rolling pin with electrical tape “rings” on either end..as thick as the jerky you want. Then just roll it out on parchment or wax paper.

[dward51]

I appears to be somewhat difficult to make a lot of hand made slices all the same thickness. A few of the thinner ones are done, but most were thicker and are still in the dehydrator.

I think next time I will go the route of a sheet of meat rolled out with some sort of spacer and cut with the pizza cutter into strips.

I'll post photos once the rest are done.

[Richtee]

I think next time I will go the route of a sheet of meat rolled out with some sort of spacer and cut with the pizza cutter into strips.

See my previous post :{)

[dward51]

See my previous post :{)

Yep, I've done them that way before in the smoker. Just wanted to try the puck/round way.

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I have discovered that slicing frozen ground meat into uniformly thick slices seems deceivingly simple, but is not so much. The thinner slices are done and taste great. I cranked the heat up to 150* as some of the slices are thicker than I though. Here is a photos of some of the ones that are done. Others are still drying.



Excellent flavor. I will be making these again. Adding the crushed red pepper gives just a slight touch of heat. I think next time I will abandon the rounds idea and go back to rolling out on a cutting board over waxed paper with thickness spacers on each side. Then I can use a pizza cutter to cut into strips and place the wax paper with strips in the freezer to firm up. They crack apart easily when frozen and can be spaced on the dehydrator rack. I think the correct starting thickness is more in the 1/8 to 3/16" range. Some of the one still in the dehydrator are 1/4" and better. Using the spacer method they should all be uniform in thickness and done at the same time (subject to possibly moving racks around).

I also made some grilled burgers with the marinade. Used 1 ounce per pound of meat for that. Those also came out great.

[dward51]

Final tally - started with 6.6 pounds of meat and marinade as a wet mix. Ended with 2.2 pounds of dried jerky rounds (34% of original wet weight). Taste is very good.

[Fishawn]

Nicely done. I bet they taste awesome

[PitRow]

if you really really want rounds, I think the most efficient way (other than the burger press) would be to roll it out in sheets and use a biscuit or cookie cutter to cut the rounds.

[Richtee]

if you really really want rounds, I think the most efficient way (other than the burger press) would be to roll it out in sheets and use a biscuit or cookie cutter to cut the rounds.

And round is such an inefficient shape. Use yer meat, man!

Roll it out and pizza cutter...easy-peasy.

[siege]

If you can find 2 thick wooden yardsticks at the hardware store, buy them and keep them in the kitchen. Just put the ground meat between them as they lay flat on the counter top, parallel to each other. Put them close enough to each other to be able to act as supports for your rolling pin. Pat the meat fairly flat with your hands, then "steamroller" the meat flat with the rolling pin until it is the thickness of the yardsticks. Cut to shape and smoke. If you put some waxed paper down first, it's easier to pick up the meat rounds without having to use a spatula.

This technique works well to make noodles for chicken and dumplings, too. Roll out the dough between the yardsticks, cut into 2" strips, and hang to air dry for an hour. Then cut across the strip to form 2" squares. Drop each square one at a time into hot chicken stew and cook for a few minutes until tender.