Thin Jerky

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Pigs On The Wing BBQ

Master Chef
Joined
Apr 29, 2005
Messages
6,922
Location
Akron New York
I took a venison roast to the deli and sliced it super thin on the slicer, did up the jerky and into the smoker, took about half the time and came out super tough. Only thing I can think of is it was too thin, or I let it go too long. Any ideas?
Thanks

Pigs
 
Hmmm not sure about that. Lady who hangs out at the local watering hole makes jerky wafers like that cept she uses eye of round and soaks it in some type of terriyaki marinade. Always been edible but not real sure how thick she gets the butcher to slice it to start with but the finished product is so thin you can purty well read a newspaper through it. I think if a person over dehydrated it the stuff would be crunchy like an icicle.

bigwheel
 
Well glad yall brought up the grain issue. I had pondered the idear it might be part of the equation. I have sliced up quite a few deer hams by hand and if their is some rational way to get a grip on the grain..I aint found it or even bothered to look for it that I can recall. I just strip it up as best I can and try to remove all the silver skin..or sometimes I get lazy and just leave it on there. I aint really never had any Bambi which come out any tougher than beef round steak. Now I did manage to make it crumbly one time when I got to be a smarty and decide to skip the marinate and just seaon up the meat and dry it out. Will attest that no worky. Wind up like fried pork rinds under that scenario.

bigwheel

ps..edit..now I mean there aint but one way to slice it which is like a ham which since it is a ham makes sense. Go in from 90 degree from the meaty parts of the outside and slice to the bone blah blah blah. That would keep a person cutting across the grain. Now I aint never tried slicing one end to end which I think may have beem implied by my original post. Could see how that could make it tough. Those slicers aint got no sense about them kinda things. Thats why at the local deli sometimes you get a passable Reuben and sometimes it just stringy and choke a person to death..depends on how it laying in the slicer..and betcha Pig's ham was laying the worng direction. Just guessing. Smart thinning Bruce.
 
Only thing I could add to this is that most if not all jerky recipes call for meat sliced to 1/4" thick. Now I know you are asking, " What about all those packaged bags of jerky at the gas station?" I just don't think that stuff is real.

But think about it. If you base your recipe on 1/4" slices of meat and call for a certain period of time, then it would have to be quicker for thinner and longer for thicker. I think you over cooked it. Personnaly, I taste test mine often and pull it out when I like the texture. It is already seasoned and cured so all your doing is making it like you like it.
 

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