Do you think making jerky from ground meat is sacrilege? I do. But I see used in recipes when people ask for jerky recipes. When I say that it makes me think someone doesn't know how to make jerky. I believe jerky ought to be strips of meat cut right off the bulk source. Or generally in my case, strips cut off a bulk chunk of meat off the source.

Why ground meat? It makes me think of processed not great tasting commercial products I see on gas station shelves. I've had bad tasting strips jerky too but that ain't my point. Ground meat jerky seems, wrong.

Discuss.

 

Shorts, as you know DW and I make a lot of sausage and a lot of jerky. I have read lots of recipes for jerky sticks made from ground beef and you can even get a gun at BassPro like a caulking gun to extrude the mixture onto smoking or dehydrating sheets. I like thick strips of lean beef cured and smoked until they are chewy but not dried right out. I have never tried the ground meat sticks but I think if you follow the same rule I do for meat smoking and sausage making they could be fine. What is that rule you ask? Use good quality ingredients - smoked poor meat is still poor meat. We use good cuts of meat - hand trimmed lean, fresh spices (dried is fine but not stale) and pay attention to cleanliness. Ground meat is a perfect place for nasty bacteria to grow so you have to keep it cold and clean, cure properly or cook thoroughly.

If you make the ground meat sticks, use good ground beef. If you go with the cheapest stuff you can get at Wal-Mart, your end product is going to taste like something cheap from Wal-Mart. If you use a good quality ground beef and treat it right, you should get a good end product.

As you have read me mention before, we get our ground beef from our next door neighbors. It is well raised as part of the 4-H program and the taste reflects it. 10 years ago I wouldn't have known what a difference it could make, I thought ground beef was ground beef, why worry about quality. Now I know different.

The other things I would suggest is to use extra-lean ground beef if you are going to do this. Fat takes on bad tastes and can go rancid easily even if cured properly. I cut my jerky strips to be 100% lean with no fat, obviously you can't cut the fat out of ground meat so you would be best to buy ground meat that is as lean as you can get it, or buy some roasts, trim them lean yourself and grind them yourself.

Let me know if you want to discuss more, I can rattle on about cured meat for hours.

 

Jerky is something that you're supposed to be able to chew on. Making it out of ground anything just ain't right. Unless you are after blending different meats. You can stick a piece of good jerky in the corner of your mouth and still be working on it in 20 minutes.

 

Well, we can't accuse Scot of being wishy washy with his opinions

 

For some reason, that meat dispenser thingy squeezing out a line of meat doesn't sit right. I don't know. Maybe it seems very, oh I don't know, suburban.


Scot makes a good point, it's good to chew on.


DHs cousin dislikes jerky. I didn't know this as I handed her a bag from a batch I completed. I told her no worries if she didn't didn't like it. A few days later I got a call, she tried it and loved it. She said she hadn't ever had real homemade jerky. Only the commercial stuff from the stores and she hated it. I told her I'd walk her through it if she ever wanted to try a batch to learn how. Convert!

 

Jerky is intended to be ground up with your molars

I can see where a person that doesn't have their own teeth might prefer the softer processed stuff but I have no need for that

 

I have some roasts, might give it a shot.

I like a thick long chunk of salty beef jerky.

I know someone's gonna run with that here, so here it is again.

I like a thick long chunk of salty beef jerky. Not other stuff.

 

This crowd? NNnooooo.


Roast works well. Marbling and fats will yuk it up so trim any fat you can get to.

I experimented on the last batch and used a clean piece of brisket I found on sale. I pulled off the panel of fat then cut into food slicer sized chunks. I froze them about half hour so they held together and then ran them through the slicer at 1/8". They dried very quick and made great jerky. If you want thicker, just adjust for your preference.



Hey Top, so you're saying the ground beef jerky is good for gummin'?

 

My Dad has one of those jerky guns and I hate to admit it but he makes some really good product.
He primarily uses the cuts of venison that you would normally grind up for burger and the recipe he
uses turns out almost like a tough flat sausage (think landjaeger) but without the casing.

 

I thought ground meat jerky was normally called sausage?

 

I have always been under the impression that jerky was to have a little fight to it, thus , characterizing it as jerky.

The appropriate cutting of the meat is important also.

Squeezer meat just don't seam appropriate for jerky to this hic...

 

For some reason the ground stuff my Dad makes out of venison binds back together when drying and has some fight to it.
The reason for grinding it is because he uses the little bits and pieces of meat that would not be big enough to jerk otherwise.
Also, he pointed out that there are some commercial jerky's (usually the cheaper kind) that are pressed out of ground beef.
Of course that stuff usually tastes like cardboard.

Yeah, that's the stuff.

Great, now you got me wanting some Bacon.

 

One of the traditional ( going back centuries) Comanche ways of storing meat was to dry it ( basically "jerk" it), grind it, and then make "blocks" of pressed dried meat. Its still done that way for the old folks who cant eat tough dryed meat.
I have tried it, and its pretty good, but as said earlier, I think it has alot to do with how good the meat is you start with..

 

I would think it would be though I can't say for sure as I have ALL my teeth

 

Pemmican?