Beef jerky question - where to get curing spice?

[El_Guapo]

Got a food dehydrator for Christmas. It came with a jerky gun thing along with some seasoning packets that you mix in hamburger meat and squirt out of the gun. You use one packet of spices (I guess pepper or whatever) and one packet of something called "curing spice", which it says is salt and sodium nitrite (?).

Can you buy curing spice by itself? I looked at HEB and couldn't find any. I want to make real jerky, not the hamburger stuff (which actually wasn't too bad but was more like a Slim Jim than real jerky).

Also, any good jerky recipes out there?

 

[jmrob93]

I make deer jerky every year in the oven--same recipe as in a dehydrator

Slice up meat.
soak in 4 parts soy sauce, 1 part liquid smoke
I usually add some garlic salt
soak over night them roll in course ground black pepper
--never had a bad batch

you can go to Academy or Cabelas and buy a seasoning pack-- they work fine

 

[Orange Salad Ranch]

Staying away from ground beef is a good place to start. You can use most any kind of meat though. The butcher at HEB will slice whatever you want up nice and thin if you'd like.

As for a marinade, I usually use something like:
Soy Sauce
Touch of Liquid Smoke (don't use too much as this stuff is strong)
Touch of Worcestershire
Some Tabasco
Garlic Powder (The soy sauce has plenty of salt)
pepper
Sometimes I add cayenne or cajun seasoning

Basically go into the spice cabinet and throw in anything you like. Use the amounts that make it taste how you want.

After marinating, press the meat and try to get out as much excess marinade as possible. The jerky will dry faster and you won't get as much juice dripping in your dehydrator or whatever your using. There will still be plenty of marinade in the meat to get your flavor.

I usually also add big flakes of black pepper on the meat after marinating too. You can add whatever you want.

This stuff doesn't taste like some of the heavenly jerkies you can find along the highways in Texas, but it can be pretty damn good.

 

[90 Grad]

Go to any grocery butcher pick out a rump roast with some good fat on it and ask the butcher to slice it 1/4 inch thick.

Use Orange's recipe as it is practically exactly the same stuff I use.

The one thing I do though is pound down the slices to get more surface area for the marinade.

 

[hullabelew]

I cooked some a couple of years ago in the oven but the wife bitching about the smell took out all of the fun, so now I do it on the grill. Set it as low as possible then crack the lid open on the grill just a bit and let is 'cook'.

Anyone every try it on a smoker?

 

[flaco]

Sodium nitrite is the primary curing agent used to prevent botulism from occuring in low temp smoked meats. You can eliminate it at your own risk, but I use it in making sausage, like just about anyone that sells store bought sausage. There are some who feel sodium nitrite is dangerous itself but the FDA and the National Toxicology Program deemed it safe in the doses needed to protect cured meats. Most people get much more nitrite in leafy and root veggies than cured meats anyway.

My family makes around 200 to 300 lbs of sausage once a year usually and if the sodium nitrate is not used the meat won't last a year in the freezer without the flavor tasting a little old.

here is some info on "cure"

 

[Beamwalker]

We usually make jerky out of one doe each year, and we use the stuff from a box from Cabelas or Bass Pro Shops.