Whats the trick for good ground jerky?
 

I have made a few batches of jerky in the last few weeks and has been uninspired with the flavor. I have tried a few High Mountain seasoning flavors with the same result. is it as easy as:
1. just adding more flavor and ignoring the instructions?
2. switching to a different brand?
3. adding ones own spices?

Any help / tips would be appreciated.

Use a jam or a BBQ sauce instead of water. (Or a combination of water/Jam)
Change up your wood? I am a Alder fan.
Get some chill flakes going in there
Add some cracked Pepper?
Coat with honey for the last bit?

I never liked the high mountain brand.
I switched to another brand and am happy.
Name starts with an "n"
Nebco? Nesco? Nibco? Not sure, but I get it at peavey mart.

Ya Nesco is the best

I have not had outstanding results with the High Mountain spice kits either.

I'd recommend ditching it, researching homemade recipes and learn to tweak them to your taste as you go.

I was very suprised at how good the nesco stuff was compared to hi mountain. I was just playing with my dehydrator and jerky gun. 80% as good as smoked muscle meat.

What flavour of nesco brand is the best ? I've got some eye of round seasoned with Hi country original in the oven it's not quite dry yet but doesn't seem to have muck kick.

BTW Superstore has eye of round on for $3.99 LB.

These are the notes I made from my last two endeavors, they went over real well.

LEM Backwoods Snack Stick Seasoning Original.......... I added 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper to the five lb mix.
4 lbs lean, 1 lb pork. Cooked at 200 convection for 3.5 hrs, 168 internal temp.
This was quite good, everyone seemed to like it.

High Calibre Hot and Sweet Jerky mix. I added 1 Tbs brown sugar per pound. Everyone loved it, I only baked for 4.5 hrs at 180 and the texture was nicer, but it was only a lb. Have to check on it for 3 lbs.

Sweet hardwood is my favorite flavour (nesco).
If I'm after some spice, I'll do the buffalo wing flavour.
And, I'll often mix sweet hardwood with other flavours like cracked pepper and garlic.

That just made me really hungry.

Sounds like you just have not found the right flavor to your taste.Nobody knows your taste buds like you do. That should narrow your search.

If making your own keep the salt under 1.5% as you will be driving off about 50% moisture and don't want a salt bomb.

No kidding! I'll have to pick up some of this Nesco stuff. I've been happy with Hi-Mountain, but am willing to give something else a try.

The halford's mixes are very good as well. Ive never found an Hi Mountain kit I would buy again.

Jerky spices
 

I buy all my spices separately and in bulk. It is way cheaper and a lot fresher. I also mix it all up from hot to plain. Never the same twice.

Recipes?

Jerky
 

I usually put oh salt,garlic ground white pepper coriander, thyme ,onion powder Worcester dauce sometimes paprika a d hot sausage. There is s good basic recipe on allrecipes.com.

Jerky
 

I meant hot sauce not sausage.

I like the Cabelas brand, garlic cracked black pepper is my favorite.

Make your own concoction. Better than package mixes. Rather than water, use soya sauce (doing that I don't use any added salt) and add spices you like. I use lot's of black pepper and cayenne pepper. Maybe some brown sugar, bbq sauce, ect....

Tried the High Mountain brand too..... not happy with it at all, switched to the
HIGH COUNTRY, mix, made in Lincoln Montana, found it to be excellent.

Question for you guys making your own spice mix, are you putting cure in your product. If so, what kind?

I fully agree with you, Soya Sauce is an excellent and key ingredient in most Jerky recipes.

For jerky made from sliced meat, salt is sufficient. For ground meat, cure#2 is a good idea. Making jerky from ground meat is one of the few times I use Morton Tender Quick (mostly because I have a recipe I like... or had, can't seem to find it right now:(), the biggest drawback is that it is fairly high in salt; almost double omega50's recommendation.

ARG

HP Sauce!

One of my favorites as well. Plenty of flavor. Teriyaki from CTR is a favorite too.

You want to use cure number 1, also known as Prague Powder. Cure number 2 is used for dry cured meats that are not cooked or dehydrated like salami.

Prague #1

It is for me, whether it is ground or whole muscle. Has all the salt you need

I usually add some of the maple syrup that Costco sells. Everyone loves it. Also Costco sell a teriyaki marinade that adds a nice flavour

Salt is somewhat subjective and if you like it then let it be so. Your jerky your rules.:)

Tender Quick is troublesome to quantify as ingredient amounts are not given.But Salt, Sugar, both Cure #1 and Cure #2 and Glycol will be in there.

I personally avoid ingesting Nitrate unless it has had time to convert to nitrite.

Perhaps the perception of the actual amount salt in your Tender Quick recipe is offset by the unknown quantity of sugar. But if I had to guess I would estimate that 20 grams of Tender Quick would contain no more than 13 grams of free salt.

I make everything ground now, sometimes in the dehydrator, sometimes in the smoker if its warm enough out.I have tried many per mixed spices and had excellent luck with the Cabelas brand spices. I have tired the DnR spices and always found them to be lacking flavour and high in salt content.

Make sure to add enough water with the spices when making ground jerky. I add 80g of water per kg of meat.