A Beer Accompaniment

[Mercs Own]

Picked up some pickled pork today and will trim it up and then freeze it ready for my next sojourn into jerky making. Thinking of a satay/fruity/chilli type marinade any one done one?

 

[Mercs Own]

2 tbs peanut butter
1/2 cup of tamari
2 tsp sambal olek
1/2 mango pulped
2 tsp castor sugar
1ts garlic powder

Put all the ingredients in a pan and heated it over a stove so as to make sure all the ingredients were well combined.

Sliced up my trimmed pickled pork (it had been in the freezer since the day I trimmed it) and put it in the marindae and gave it a real good mix then put it in a sealed container and in the fridge for three days.

Took it out this morning gave it a dry down and put it in the oven at 80 degrees. It has been going for 2 hours and my wife just tried a bit and said that she is going to find it hard to stop eating it! I guess she likes the sweet aspect of it.

Another hour or so and it will be done. I will try and take a picture and post it - I say try because my wife may have eaten it all before I can get a shot.

 

[Barramundi]

2 tbs peanut butter
1/2 cup of tamari
2 tsp sambal olek
1/2 mango pulped
2 tsp castor sugar
1ts garlic powder

Put all the ingredients in a pan and heated it over a stove so as to make sure all the ingredients were well combined.

Sliced up my trimmed pickled pork (it had been in the freezer since the day I trimmed it) and put it in the marindae and gave it a real good mix then put it in a sealed container and in the fridge for three days.

Took it out this morning gave it a dry down and put it in the oven at 80 degrees. It has been going for 2 hours and my wife just tried a bit and said that she is going to find it hard to stop eating it! I guess she likes the sweet aspect of it.

Another hour or so and it will be done. I will try and take a picture and post it - I say try because my wife may have eaten it all before I can get a shot.

put me down for a bag of it when its done merc ...

i seriously gotta get motivated and build my biltong box ...

 

[Mercs Own]

Yes yes yes this jerky is good! I thought at first the peanut butter was a little strong but after a couple of days it has evened out anicely - the nuttiness combined with the sweetness from the mango, the salt from the tamari and the chilli from the sambal is all working together in a very enjoyable and subtle way.

A little more chilli would have been good for my taste how ever my wife is loving this jerky also and it has just the right amount of heat for her.

Key word is balance - it is balanced as it is more chilli would push it into the out of balance big chilli hit side of things.

 

[Jye]

After 2 yrs of thinking about making a dryer I finally did Ended up going for a 50L storage container over wood as I dont like the idea of not being able to clean the surface well. The lid is sealed with foam strip made for door jams and the holes on the bottom and fan are covered with SS mesh from an oil splatter thingy. The fan actually blows air in instead of out due to be gluing it on and then finding out I couldnt just reverse the wires to change the directions The hanging rack is an old fridge rack cut down to size.

Went with some corned silver side cut into 10-15mm strips. Covered it with rock salt for 30min and then dipped in brown vinigar for 3-4min, dried off with a paper towel and covered with 50% corriander seeds, 40% gara masala and 10% chilli powder (QldKev's recipe and the gara masala smells freckin awesome :super: ).

Cant wait to try it and keep looking to see how its progressing.

 

[Mercs Own]

some pictures of my pork jerky - all gone now - but I have 2 kilos of pickled pork in the freezer and ready to go in the next week or two.

 

[I like beer]

That looks great Paul.
I have never heard of pork jerky before.

When I made my (one and only) batch, I made the mistake of having the oven a little too high.
It still disappeared fast so it wasn't too bad.

There are some great flavouring ideas here.

(Mrs) I like beer

 

[Fermented]

I've seen pork jerky in the Asian supermarkets around here, but haven't given it a try.

Merc's recipe looks great! I have a couple of questions as I think I would like to try this out as I have a nice new oven that's raring to go:

* 80C, understood. Fan forced, fan assisted (ie bottom element and fan) or conventional (top and bottom element)?
* Why tamari? Could standard Chinese dark soy sauce be used (saltier, maltier)?
* How did the mango flavour come up? Was it there as mango or did it move to a generic tropical pulpy fruity flavour?
* Did you use garlic powder for a different taste or beacuse it's easier to get into solution than finely smashing fresh garlic?

Apologies for all the questions, but you've enthused my tastebuds.

Cheers - Fermented.

 

[Mercs Own]

I've seen pork jerky in the Asian supermarkets around here, but haven't given it a try.

Merc's recipe looks great! I have a couple of questions as I think I would like to try this out as I have a nice new oven that's raring to go:

* 80C, understood. Fan forced, fan assisted (ie bottom element and fan) or conventional (top and bottom element)?
* Why tamari? Could standard Chinese dark soy sauce be used (saltier, maltier)?
* How did the mango flavour come up? Was it there as mango or did it move to a generic tropical pulpy fruity flavour?
* Did you use garlic powder for a different taste or beacuse it's easier to get into solution than finely smashing fresh garlic?

Apologies for all the questions, but you've enthused my tastebuds.

Cheers - Fermented.

I have a fan forced oven and so when I make the jerky I leave the oven door ajar therefore the fan blows the warm air around the oven and out the door - it helps to dry the meat evenly and slowly. I think on fan setting it is probably bottom heat only with fan. I also turn my jerky half way through the drying phase.

I use tamari because of the low salt content but believe me you still get plenty of saltiness. Also as I am using pickle pork or corned beef they are already pretty salty from that process so much so that I may soak my corned beef in some water to help reduce the salt character. If I was not using the corned beef or pickled pork but just some rump strips etc I would probably use soy sauce as you do need the salt content to help and dehydrate the meat as well as add flavour. I have not used any other meat so far only the corned beef and pickled pork.

The mango added some fruit character and sweetness to the meat and in combination with the peanut butter and the other flavours worked really well. It wasnt dominant and if I didnt tell people there was mango in there they may not have picked it but I like what it added and how it worked with the other flavours. I also didnt use too much chilli as I was going for a sweet jerky not a hot one.

I use the garlic powder as it is easier to mix it into the solution and I like the flavour that it gives. Sometimes with using fresh garlic it can be over powering and bitter but the powder is more mellow. I have not used fresh garlic in my jerky but from different marinades I have made for meats there are times I use fresh and times I use powder depending on the end result I am after.

Hope that helps! Best thing to do is get in there and go for it and along the way you will develop your method suited to your tastes!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I reccently made some chilli jerky, but for some reason the chilli-ness did not come out in the final product. It was marinated for 24hrs in a very hot marinate, but no flavour.

I did a couple of pieces by spreading chilli sauce directly on the meat about halfway thru the drying, it worked fine..So I am thinking thatI may need to turn the oven temp down a bit from 80*c to 50*c or just spread the sauce on near the end so that it dries on the meat.

The jerky with the sauce came out very nice....

Just ask Tony...went well with his ESB Yumm.. :icon_drool2:

 

[Mercs Own]

I reccently made some chilli jerky, but for some reason the chilli-ness did not come out in the final product. It was marinated for 24hrs in a very hot marinate, but no flavour.

I did a couple of pieces by spreading chilli sauce directly on the meat about halfway thru the drying, it worked fine..So I am thinking thatI may need to turn the oven temp down a bit from 80*c to 50*c or just spread the sauce on near the end so that it dries on the meat.

The jerky with the sauce came out very nice....

Just ask Tony...went well with his ESB Yumm.. :icon_drool2:

How wet was the marinade?? What liquids did you use? Was the chilli fresh, dried, powder or a sauce/chutney? I wonder if the chilli was oil based would that stop or inhibit the meat absorbing flavour from the marinade? quite likely. What cut of meat did you use?

I marinate my meat for three days so maybe longer than 24 hours would help - I also give the meat a mix once a day to make sure it is in good contact with the marinade.

I dont think lowering the temp will make a difference to how much flavour the meat absorbs from your marinade as that happens when the meat is soaking up the flavours over the 24 hours etc Lowering the temp will only mean more time to dry it out which might make a difference texturally to the meat but I wouldnt think the flavour.

What was the recipe for the marinade?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Trimmed Corn beef

Soy sauce
honey
balsamic vineger
splash tomatoes sauce
1 tbl spoon Habanero chilli paste
4-5 Tbl spoon chilli sauce ( from Steve )
ground pepper

Left in the fridge with the meat fully covered for 24hrs...

Marinade was nice and hot... :beerbang:

 

[Mercs Own]

Trimmed Corn beef

Soy sauce
honey
balsamic vineger
splash tomatoes sauce
1 tbl spoon Habanero chilli paste
4-5 Tbl spoon chilli sauce ( from Steve )
ground pepper

Left in the fridge with the meat fully covered for 24hrs...

Marinade was nice and hot... :beerbang:

Leave it for three days and see if that makes a difference. Maybe if the the chilli paste and the chilli sauce had lots of oil....

 

[Steve]

Leave it for three days and see if that makes a difference. Maybe if the the chilli paste and the chilli sauce had lots of oil....

There was no oil in the sauce I made.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Fermented]

I have a fan forced oven and so when I make the jerky I leave the oven door ajar therefore the fan blows the warm air around the oven and out the door - it helps to dry the meat evenly and slowly. I think on fan setting it is probably bottom heat only with fan. I also turn my jerky half way through the drying phase.

I use tamari because of the low salt content but believe me you still get plenty of saltiness. Also as I am using pickle pork or corned beef they are already pretty salty from that process so much so that I may soak my corned beef in some water to help reduce the salt character. If I was not using the corned beef or pickled pork but just some rump strips etc I would probably use soy sauce as you do need the salt content to help and dehydrate the meat as well as add flavour. I have not used any other meat so far only the corned beef and pickled pork.

The mango added some fruit character and sweetness to the meat and in combination with the peanut butter and the other flavours worked really well. It wasnt dominant and if I didnt tell people there was mango in there they may not have picked it but I like what it added and how it worked with the other flavours. I also didnt use too much chilli as I was going for a sweet jerky not a hot one.

I use the garlic powder as it is easier to mix it into the solution and I like the flavour that it gives. Sometimes with using fresh garlic it can be over powering and bitter but the powder is more mellow. I have not used fresh garlic in my jerky but from different marinades I have made for meats there are times I use fresh and times I use powder depending on the end result I am after.

Hope that helps! Best thing to do is get in there and go for it and along the way you will develop your method suited to your tastes!

Cheers

Paul

Thanks for the reply!

I used your recipe but swapped the tamari for a crap bulk lot of Chinese soy sauce that we bought which was big on wheaty maltiness but poor on salt, left out the mango and the garlic yet it still turned out very tasty. Likewise, I cut the fermentation to one day, but sprinkled dried crushed chilli onto part of the batch as an experiment... which yielded tasty results.

Similarly, I used fan forced mode only but didn't crack the door open. Overall, it took about six hours at 80C-ish. I preheated and used the notorious Ikea digital meat probe to test and set the temperature. Low = 75, high = 85.

Meat was sliced at nominally 8 mm - I think thinner will be better and quicker.

The end result was some really tasty pork jerky that lasted only two days at drinking time for the missus and myself.

Thanks for a great recipe, some good hints and your kind reply.

Am looking forward to trying it out with some beef, corned silverside and venison over the coming weeks.

Cheers - Fermented.

 

[Fermented]

There was no oil in the sauce I made.
Cheers
Steve

If you want to try a pleasantly hot chilli sauce that is oily, try 'Lao Gan Ma' (say "Laow Gann Mah", where 'Laow' rhymes with 'Bough' as in tree bough) chicken version. It's also referred to as 'Ugly Woman Chilli', owing to the pic of the originator (a street vendor from Szechuan Province, China) on the label. It's mostly crushed chilli with something that looks like dehydrated chicken bits with some oil... very flavoursome and pleasantly hot. There are some other varieties including black bean chilli and the like, but imho they taste crap compared to this one.

You will need to read the Aussie nutritional / importer label to confirm which one on the shelf has chicken in it unless you can read Chinese/Kanji characters. The original Chinese label has almost no useful Roman characters on it, iirc.

About three bucks at your local Chinese supermarket.

Cheers - Fermented.

EDIT: PS: If you want a pic of the bottle so you don't have to embarrass yourself or explore English as a fifth language at your local Asian supermarket, please let me know and I will post the pic for you. I get to make bad Asian jokes scot-free because I'm married to a Chinese and am a Dutch-Indo-Aussie mongrel myself, so the politically correct police can sod off in advance.

 

[Fermented]

[...] oven temp down a bit from 80*c to 50*c [...]

First off, sorry for so many replies in the same thread... my e-mail all hit me at once after a few days and all in one go.

Going to 50C wouldn't be a good idea from a health risk perspective, possibly. I'm also guessing that it really wouldn't enhance the marinade's uptake by the meat.

As I understand it, 80C for two hours minimum is needed to kill off most of the microbes that would otherwise give one a couple of dunnie-days or worse.

A one day marinade based on Merc's recipe yielded a 'good enough' flavour, but with sfa chilli. Either more time and tossing in the sauce or adding chilli powder / crushed chilli at cooking time will more likely give the bite you're seeking.

Cheers - Fermented.

 

[wyatt_girth]

Dehydrator on sale here. $49.95 + a tenna for post

 

[Mercs Own]

A one day marinade based on Merc's recipe yielded a 'good enough' flavour, but with sfa chilli. Either more time and tossing in the sauce or adding chilli powder / crushed chilli at cooking time will more likely give the bite you're seeking.

Cheers - Fermented.

My other recipe posted on p11 has some good bite to it and if you wanted more heat then just up the chilli and cyenne component AND sprinkle more crushed chilli on the meat when you put it in the oven to dry!

 

[Fermented]

Thanks Merc - missed that one! It's next up in that case.

Cheers - Fermented.