Bringing home the bacon!!!

[gsganzer]

About 2.25 hours into the jerky drying. Getting pretty close, maybe another hour. I think the Doc's jerky recipe is going to turn out well. I have 2 full trays on the Traeger and 1.5 trays in the oven.

 

[gsganzer]

The Doc's Jerky recipe is probably the best jerky I've ever made. I added a couple of teaspoons of red pepper flakes and some extra black pepper.

I have it all vac bagged with little O2 absorbing packages and sitting in our spare fridge, but I bet it's all gone in a few weeks anyway.

 

[gsganzer]

The German bacon is going to have to cure for another week. I got home too late from my business trip to pull it and let it dry overnight. I only had today to smoke it.

I'll massage it in the bag really good and let it sit until the 12th, when I get home again.

 

[workinonit]

I mix equal parts non-iodized salt, brown sugar and pepper. Wrap mine in brown butcher paper really well and cure it for 8 days or so at 37 degrees. I then move it to a 46 degree cooler for 3 days. Take it out and wash it then let it sit over night on a rack in the fridge(this is a must or it won't take smoke). I smoke mine on my Recteq at 170 until the internal temp is 150. Let it fridge cool over night then move it to the freezer for an hour and slice it on my Bizerba slicer. I haven't tried the Kosher salt but I may do that tomorrow.

 

[gsganzer]

My wife wasn't feeling well, so I left deer camp a day early. This allowed me today to smoke the German bacon. I think it came out well. I need to get a better slicer or I'll need to cut it in half to fit on my current one. The carriage on my cheap Ostba slicer is really short. I've cut it by hand before, but that's a pain too.

 

[Molalla1]

My wife wasn't feeling well, so I left deer camp a day early. This allowed me today to smoke the German bacon. I think it came out well. I need to get a better slicer or I'll need to cut it in half to fit on my current one. The carriage on my cheap Ostba slicer is really short. I've cut it by hand before, but that's a pain too.
View attachment 4375404

Now that is some nice looking bacon!

 

[gsganzer]

The German bacon came out really good. Really neat flavor.

When I was following the wife around in Sam's Club the other day, I bought another top round for making jerky. I sliced it today and have it marinating in Doc's jerky recipe overnight. It was a 5lb top round, so I tripled Doc's recipe. I also added a total of 3 teaspoons of red pepper flakes and 3 teaspoons of cayenne pepper to give it some heat.

I have some more credit card points, so I think I'm going to buy a dehydrator for making jerky and drying herbs. I'll probably get an Academy Sports gift card, so I'll probably buy the MEAT brand dehydrator. It has 6 trays and seemed to have great reviews on the Academy website. It looks like a dehydrator is a pretty simple device, a little heat and a fan to circulate it. The trays fit in the dishwasher, so that should make cleanup simple. Anyone have any experience with the MEAT brand dehydrator or any other brand I should consider instead?

 

[gsganzer]

I bought the MEAT dehydrator. I think it might be a rebadge of a Magic Mill dehydrator. It has 6 trays and fit 5lbs of jerky.

I set it at 158 for 4 hours and I'll check it a few times and adjust accordingly.