It is deer season in the Ozarks so, for those followers who are hunters, I offer the following:
Both of these deer jerky recipes make use of ground venison, an advantage when you are trying to figure out what to do with all those meat processing scraps.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you should only use your left-overs in your venison jerky recipes though. In our house, no matter how much I make, there’s never enough.
Be sure you grind only very well trimmed lean meat, let the spice mixtures do their work, and then pick the jerky method of your choice to finish it off.
It’ll be tremendous.
Ground Venison Jerky #1
* 5-6 lbs coarsely ground lean venison
* 3 tablespoons kosher salt
* 2 tablespoons fine ground black pepper
* 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire
* 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
* 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
* 1 teaspoon onion powder
* 1 teaspoon cure (Prague powder #1 or Instacure #1)
Ground Venison Jerky #2
* 5-6 lbs coarsely ground lean venison
* 3 tablespoons kosher salt
* 1 tablespoon fine ground black pepper
* 2 tablespoons liquid smoke
* 2 teaspoons granulated garlic
* 2 teaspoons onion powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cardamon
* 1 teaspoon dried ground marjoram
* 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 2 teaspoons MSG (Accent)
* 1 teaspoon cure (Prague powder #1 or Instacure #1)
Preparation and procedures for both recipes are the same.
1. Trim and grind your lean venison (or other meat, these recipes work well with any game or beef).
2. Mix all the spice and cure together, and pour onto the ground meat. Then mix everything very well. Be sure to get even distribution of the spice mixture.
3. Cover the jerky mix and refrigerate it for at least 4 hours to give the spices a chance to meld flavors.
4. Form the jerky and dry it by your favorite method.
Nothing fancy about it and it isn’t the “real way”, but I make a lot of deer jerky out of ground venison.
I have an Excaliber food dehydrator at home, I bought seasoning and curing supplies online, and I have a jerky gun that looks like it ought to be used to grease the wheel bearings of a Boeing 757.
1. Mix ground venison with seasoning and curing salt packs and set in fridge overnight.
2. Cram jerky gun full of meat and start sqeezing the trigger to make desired length strips on the trays of the food dehydrator. (Tip: Use a butter knife to cut meat from end of nozzle)
3. Turn on food dehydrator and let it do it’s thing until done. (Typically takes ours about 9 hours til jerky)
4. Line plate with paper towels and dab jerky free of any grease, also allows jerky to cool before storing.
5. Pack in freezer bags to be stored until you have a craving for jerky. (I prefer pint sized freezer bags, perfect size for 8-12 jerky strips, make a great little gift for someone)
I normally use 2 lbs. of ground venison with two packs each of seasoning and curing salt. That yields 5-6 dozen jerky strips 3-4″ in length.
Enjoy!
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