Ground beef jerky

[1899b]

I don’t smoke and only dehydrate. You definitely want extra lean though asnit will be oily otherwise unless you are using venison which is very lean.

[Iskra]

Originally Posted by operator john

We buy Eye of the Round from Costco. It's nice and lean. Grind it the coarseness you desire and process as mentioned above.

This. We do it with any kind of meet, make own grind. Less expensive and we know what we get.

[AndrewM]

Have a look at wholesale club for meat if near one. Noticed they had some striploin on for 3.97 a pound and a pile of other cuts in the same price range. No membership required.

[AndrewM]

Originally Posted by pikergolf

So I bought a Lem jerky cannon and pan and racks off of Amazon. The cannon comes with a package of spice. Any recommendations for spice? I like mildly hot with a hint of sweet, just love the stuff the co op makes.

I haven’t found a good sweet wth heat package yet so hopefully someone here has or has a recipe. Cracked pepper, cracked pepper with garlic and teriyaki are great from Cabelas as mentioned prior.

[waldedw]

Originally Posted by pikergolf

So I bought a Lem jerky cannon and pan and racks off of Amazon. The cannon comes with a package of spice. Any recommendations for spice? I like mildly hot with a hint of sweet, just love the stuff the co op makes.

If you like a little sweet and a little hot try the Maple Jalapeno from cabelas, the kids don't care for it but I love it, instructions say 1 pk does 5 lbs but I find that a little strong so I mix about 7 lbs meat to 1 pk of seasoning, tones it down a bit but still a great flavor.
Having tried about 10 different flavors I'm down to about 3 favorites now per the requests from the grandkids, Teriyaki, Hickory, and Cracked Black Pepper and Garlic, got another batch in the works now, will mix it tonight and throw it in the dehydrator in the morning.

[pikergolf]

So if I make the ground beef jerky with cure, and heat to 165, how long does it keep? refrigerate? How does it freeze?

[waldedw]

Originally Posted by pikergolf

So if I make the ground beef jerky with cure, and heat to 165, how long does it keep? refrigerate? How does it freeze?

Any that I have made never lasts long enough to know how long it will keep in the fridge, if it makes a week that just means the grandkids weren't here 🤣🤣 but I did make a batch for hunting camp and froze it, was just great when thawed out

[SuperCub]

Originally Posted by operator john

We buy Eye of the Round from Costco. It's nice and lean. Grind it the coarseness you desire and process as mentioned above.

Using eye of the round would be perfect for plain old whole muscle jerky, but would be expensive overkill for ground meat jerky. Any lean muscle would work fine for this.

I would tend to lean towards shoulder meat for better flavour, but all fat would have to be removed for proper lean ground beef.

[pikergolf]

Originally Posted by SuperCub

Using eye of the round would be perfect for plain old whole muscle jerky, but would be expensive overkill for ground meat jerky. Any lean muscle would work fine for this.

I would tend to lean towards shoulder meat for better flavour, but all fat would have to be removed for proper lean ground beef.

How is it expensive overkill, it is 4 bucks a pound, pretty hard to find extra lean ground for 4 bucks.

[Warrior]

I make a ton of jerky. Both whole and ground.
I am surprised no one mentioned spices from CTR. Much cheaper than Cabela’s. One bag does 25lbs of meat.
Mt go to one is Teriayki. I let it marinade at a minimum 24 hours. Then one I have it out on the racks I put a good amount of course ground pepper on it, then I add Franks Hot powder that I got from Costco. I sprinkle some of that on as well. So all combined a good mix of sweet and heat....
for the jerky blaster with ground I generally use venison of some sort and add some pork for the fat content. (Cheap bacon sometimes). I use both the flat strips as well as the pepperoni tube. Both turn out great...

[AndrewM]

Originally Posted by Warrior

I make a ton of jerky. Both whole and ground.
I am surprised no one mentioned spices from CTR. Much cheaper than Cabela’s. One bag does 25lbs of meat.
Mt go to one is Teriayki. I let it marinade at a minimum 24 hours. Then one I have it out on the racks I put a good amount of course ground pepper on it, then I add Franks Hot powder that I got from Costco. I sprinkle some of that on as well. So all combined a good mix of sweet and heat....
for the jerky blaster with ground I generally use venison of some sort and add some pork for the fat content. (Cheap bacon sometimes). I use both the flat strips as well as the pepperoni tube. Both turn out great...

I meantioned teriyaki from CTR early in the thread. One of my favorites! Any other flavours from there you would recommend?

[SuperCub]

Originally Posted by pikergolf

How is it expensive overkill, it is 4 bucks a pound, pretty hard to find extra lean ground for 4 bucks.

It's more expensive than some other cuts and would have less flavour.

More importantly, I would prefer chuck shoulder for ground meat, stew and pot roast any time over round steak. OTOH .... The round steak would have the advantage of being the leanest cut on the beef.

[pikergolf]

Originally Posted by SuperCub

It's more expensive than some other cuts and would have less flavour.

More importantly, I would prefer chuck shoulder for ground meat, stew and pot roast any time over round steak. OTOH .... The round steak would have the advantage of being the leanest cut on the beef.

I agree with the highlited, but we are talking about ground beef jerky, the leaner the better, no?

[SuperCub]

Originally Posted by pikergolf

I agree with the highlited, but we are talking about ground beef jerky, the leaner the better, no?

Leaner is better.

I'm not saying that the ground round would be a good choice, it would. I'm thinking that one might get a bit better flavour from the should, which might be a moot point once all the marinade flavouring is added. I was a meat cutter for almost 25 years and am a bit biased towards using chuck meat for tastier cuts.

[Tigger72]

Just about everyone is right... I use the High mountain jerky kits - cracked pepper garlic and will sometimes add some cayenne to it - or mix the cracked pepper garlic with the hickory blend. I will also do up any goose or duck and mix it with beef or pork ( the pork tends to be fatty though and I will actually pat it dry as others have said when using non lean ground beef ) ( Bacon jerky is really good tooooo !!!!)