How to Prepare Deer Jerky
Once a deer is killed, the hunter will harvest the meat and create different types of meat packs from the carcass. Steaks, ribs, ground meat, sausage and deer jerky are different ways of dividing up the meat. Preparing deer jerky involves using thin strips of deer meat and allowing the meat to slowly dry through the use of a smoker especially made for creating various types of jerky, an oven, or a dehydrator. Deer jerky will keep for one to two months on the shelf when you prepare it yourself. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Knife, sharp
- Cutting board
- Water, hot
- Soap
- Deer meat
- Seasonings
- Smoker
- Smoker wood chips, any flavor or blend
- Matches
- Oven mitt
- Outdoor area with sufficient ventilation
- Dehydrator (optional)
- Oven (optional)
- Food thermometer (optional)
Instructions
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Clean all of your cooking utensils and your meat preparation area with hot soapy water. Assemble your food smoker outside on a stable surface such as concrete or level dirt. Remove the inner drying racks from inside the smoker and bring them back to your meat preparation area.
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2
Cut your deer meat into strips any length you desire just so long as they are not more than ¼ -inch thick in width each. Keep the strips as even as possible in width.
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3
Season your deer meat to your taste preferences. This may involve dry rub mixtures, pepper only, salt or perhaps no seasoning at all.
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4
Hang the strips of deer meat over each inner drying rack section. Regardless of the smoker model, make sure none of the strips of deer meat are touching each other after you place each slice on the rack. This will allow the smoke to reach all sides of the meat.
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Place the drying racks, with the meat, back inside the smoker. Replace the top cover to the smoker.
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Pour wood smoker chips inside the small cooking pan that came with your smoker. Fill it up so that the chips make a small mound in the center of the pan just above the pan edges.
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Strike a match and light the wood chips so they catch fire. Smoke will begin to pour from the cooking pan. Slide the cooking pan inside the chip compartment at the bottom of the smoker and fold down any flaps to cover it.
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Monitor the wood chip supply every couple of hours. If you see only a slight amount of smoke or no smoke at all, you need to replenish the wood chips. Use an oven mitt to open the flap covering the wood chip compartment and remove the cooking pan to inspect the wood chips.
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Wait between four to eight hours for each batch of deer jerky to finish, depending on your make and model of smoker.
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Tips & Warnings
Other methods of preparing deer jerky involve leaving the meat slices on the oven racks at a low temperature between 170 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit for several hours or using a commercial food dehydrator. Both of these methods require you to heat the meat to an internal temperature of 160 or 165 degrees Fahrenheit before commencing with the drying process to avoid food-borne illness.
Never guess at the internal temperature of your meat. Use only food-grade meat thermometers and measure the internal temperature of the meat at the thickest point of each strip. Never use a food smoker indoors.
References
- Photo Credit deer image by Joan Stanton from Fotolia.com
