SC - jerky documentation?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Ann Sasahara wrote:
> 
> Greetings
> 
> ....chipotle jerky!  Recipe please?

Um, embarrassing... here goes:

CHIPOTLE BEEF JERKY

2-3 pounds lean beef roast, trimmed of all fat (I usually use eye round)
One 7-ounce can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (Goya, La Morena, any of
several brands exist)
Additional garlic (there's some in the sauce) optional
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
~1 Tbs sugar

Slice meat along the grain less than 1/8 inch thick. I usually cut the
roast into four lengthwise quarters along the grain, semi-freeze the
quarters, then slice them, again, along the grain, into thin strips. If
you want the pieces smaller, you can cut the roast in half first, across
its "waistline", so your strips are shorter.

Puree the peppers and sauce in a food processor. Leave it slightly
coarse (unless you prefer it that way, but too smooth is wimpy, IMO) Mix
the beef slices by hand with the puree and the other ingredients. Leave
to sit for an hour, then dry.

What I have done with some success is set this up at about 10PM, string
the strips on bamboo skewers at 11PM, allowing them to hang by one end
of each slice from the skewers, without overcrowding or touching, then
lay the skewers across the oven racks, with the beef hanging down
between the grid bars of the racks. A cookie sheet underneath catches
the drips, and I've found that this makes the best use of the oven
space, with room for more jerky without crowding or touching. You may
need to slide the skewers around, or the meat on the skewers, to get all
the meat to hang straight down, but it gets a lot of meat in the oven
without doing anything too heinous to the oven racks.

I usually dry this in a gas oven (Gott sei dank for the New Old Oven
with a pilot light; I cooked for ten years with one of those spark-plug
ovens and it was vastly inferior). Put the beef in a cold oven, heat it
to about 200 degrees F. for just long enough for it to light and start
to warm, then lower to 175 or so, maybe 150, and leave overnight with
the door cracked open an inch or so. Go to bed and wake up in the
morning and you have jerky (provided you've sliced it thin enough and it
isn't unbelievably humid). Allow to cool completely before packing in
ziplocs or other airtight container. Laugh hysterically at the price of
jerky in the stores.

Adamantius    
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com