Preparation:
Well I start with a lean piece of beef, usually brisket, sometimes eye of round. I cut it in slices about a 1/4 of a inch thick, then trim all remaining fat off, and cut into strips about a inch wide and six inches long. I place the meat in large Zip-lock type freezer bags. Then I marinate the meat over night in as soy-Worcestershire-sugar-salt-habanero liquid. Then I lay the meat out on my racks, being careful not to allow the meat to rest in spots that have excessive heat(like the outside edges of my round water smoker grills). I currently use a water/gas/wood smoker with a adjustable flame level and tin foil log made of soaked wood chips.
I sometimes use hickory and sometimes mesquite. I can fit about 8 lbs. of meat in my smoker, on about 8 racks all stacked on top of each other about a inch apart. I smoke/cook for about 8 hours, adding three new tin foil logs about every hour or hour and a half, when they stop smoking. The meat around the edges tends to get done faster, then the stuff in the middle, but I generally separate the well done stuff from the perfectly done stuff when I remove it all at once... I eat the well done stuff nearly immediately, and save the other stuff for later, or give some away...
I find it keeps in zip lock bags in the fridge nearly indefinitely or if your really concerned about it spoiling, it freezes extremely well too. I have also dried some out in a dehydrator and kept it un-refrigerated for more then a week and then ate it without any adverse effects.(but it's too dry to taste really good).
My marinade is basically this... 1 part Yoshida's(sp) Gourmet Sauce(a very sweet Soy based liquid) 1 part Worcestershire sauce. 1 part Brown Sugar 1 part hot pepper water(I'll explain later) 1/2 part salt(maybe less depending on your taste) quite possibly some additional water, up to two additional parts, depending on what I feel like and how much meat I had to cover vs. how much liquid I wound up with...
Hot pepper water. I purchase habaneros periodically at the store for about $2 a pound and I dry them in my dehydrator.(I may soon be trying to smoke some) I grind/crush the dried habaneros and put them in bottles to use later. I have about 10 cups worth of them around now... I use about a 1/4 cup of dried crushed habaneros in my hot pepper water... I just boil them in the water and then strain out the rehydrated pepper remnants because I don't want that stuff clinging to my jerky... Be extremely careful when making and using this hot pepper water... it can be very potent, and the steam from the boiling water can really be quite unforgiving to your lungs if you inhale a deep breath of it... You may even want to do this outdoors if you have housemates(I don't). Don't get any of this stuff near any sensitive areas of your body...
That's basically my method for making what I generally call HOT/Sweet Jerky. You could use crushed red pepper instead of haban |
