With the possible exception of chocolate and bacon (sometimes together) I have to add beef jerky to the top of my list when it comes to foods I just can’t turn down. That’s why when we got our Sun Oven one of the first things I had to try was making some homemade beef jerky with it.
I’m not sure what it is, but even as a child I loved beef jerky. I could take it anywhere and not have to worry about it spoiling during the day…even though it never lasted long enough for that to become an issue.
In any post collapse of off grid situation we might find ourselves in the position where we need to preserve our food because refrigeration might not be an option. Dehydrating is a great way to increase the shelf life of food because it takes the moisture out, and moisture mixed with air is a breeding ground for bacteria.
Most of the time I don’t follow recipes exactly as they are written, most of the time I take some liberty’s and add my personal flair to them, Sometimes they turn out great, and sometimes they turn into some kind of bad science experiment.
For the sake of this article and video I did followed this recipe. This is the first time I have used the Sun Oven for dehydrating and I was more concerned about the end result that personalizing the beef jerky…but there is always next time.
Last year I made some beef jerky in the DIY dehydrator I made and I used this recipe from The Art Of Manliness and it was fantastic! This time I decided to use that recipe, but with a few of my own “tweeks.” The main difference is that I didn’t use teriyaki sauce, I was going for the peppered beef jerky flavor.
Beef Jerky Recipe
– 1 1/2 cups of Soy Sauce
– 3 Tablespoons of Liquid Smoke (magic in a bottle)
– 1 1/2 Cups of Worcestershire
– 1 Tablespoon of Red Pepper
– 1 Teaspoon of Cracked Black Pepper
– 1 Teaspoon of Onion Powder
– 1 Teaspoon of dried Garlic
The first part of the video explains how to prepare the beef jerkey, and the second half goes over the cooking process in the sun oven. This can also be done in a regular oven or even better a dehydrator, the main thing to keep in mind is that you want to dehydrate the meat, not cook it. Keeping the temperature between 100 and 150 degrees is the optimal temperature for this.
The hardest part about cooking the beef jerky in the Sun Oven was getting it focused to maintain the correct temperature. If I pointed it directly at the sun it got too hot and started cooking the beef. If I turned it too far away from the sun it didn’t heat up. After some trial and error I figured out what the optimal angle was.
Other than beef jerky being what I call “Man Candy” I like the fact that homemade beef jerky doesn’t have all the GMO’s, additives, and preservatives that the prepackaged jerky has.
Do you have a great beef jerky recipe? I’d love to give it a shot. Let everyone know in the comments below…
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