Have a Merry Jerky Christmas.

All my daughter wants for Christmas is my homemade beef jerky. So I’ve spent the past few days marinating the meat and making the jerky in my food dryer.

Homemade Beef Jerky

Ummm, you want the recipe as a Christmas gift? I do change it up, depending upon how I feel on any given day and what I have available.

Things to remember:

Ask your butcher to slice the meat thin. I tend to use a sirloin or a top round roast.

The marinade needs to be salty. Not gagging-salty, but still you need enough salt to dehydrate the meat, preserve the meat and minimize any bacterial growth.

The basic recipe -

2-3 lbs beef, sliced thin

1 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup water

1 cup ketchup or barbecue sauce

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 palm-full of Kosher salt (about 1- 1 1/2 Tbs.)

1 heaping tsp. black pepper

1 palm-full of chili flakes

1/2 cup packed brown sugar or maple syrup

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Whisk everything together, put meat in a big ziplock bag, pour over marinade and make certain all meat surfaces are covered with the marinade. Store in fridge for two days, turning a few times a day. I stack the meat in my food dryer and spend a day drying the jerky - takes several hours per shelf. I don’t know how to make jerky in the oven, sorry.

Sometimes I add hot sauce or mustard or Thai chili sauce. As I said, it all depends upon what I have in my fridge.

So have a spicy jerky Christmas! It’s the best time of the year! Talk soon!