While many know me as a baker, people who’ve known me for a long time know me as someone who loves to cook all sorts of things besides bread. And close friends know that I love to grill and smoke meat. I regularly make carne and pollo asada; love to prepare chicken in a variety of ways; grill and BBQ fine steaks; and every year at Christmas, I BBQ a whole Prime Rib. Last year, it was an 18-pound A5 Wagyu!

But despite all my experience in cooking meat, one thing I hadn’t done in all my years of cooking was beef jerky. Holy shit! After I made a batch yesterday, I was kicking myself for not making it much earlier. Instead, I was filling pockets of Jack Links and Pacific! 🙂 But now that I know how to make it, I’m going to make it often.

For the batch I made above, I used a basic soy sauce and brown sugar marinade with a bunch of spices: Seasoning Salt, Cumin, Black Pepper, Red Pepper Flakes, Garlic Powder, Hot Spanish Paprika, Old Bay, Allspice, and a touch of Montreal Steak Seasoning. And no, I didn’t measure. I tasted the marinade as I added spices than added more if it needed it. In the end, I added a bit more soy and brown sugar because there wasn’t enough liquid.

As for the meat, I used thinly sliced top round that I got from the grocery store. It was already sliced, so that was convenient. I then trimmed all the fat off the edges, then made thin strips (about an inch to an inch-and-a-half). According to my research, you should use very lean meat as fat will spoil over time. Next time, I’m going to try it with flank and flap steak.

After prepping the meat, I dumped it all into the marinade and massaged it to make sure all the slices got coated. Then I transferred the entire mix into a Ziploc bag to marinate in my fridge overnight.

The next morning, I set up a cooling rack over a large baking sheet and placed the slices on the rack. Then I popped it into my Traeger set to “Smoke” for 4 1/2 hours. I let the meat cool to room temperature, then transferred it to a couple of Ziploc bags and into the fridge. The bulk of it is going to my son as a part of a college care package this weekend when I see him. I showed him the picture I took and he replied with a “fire” emoji.

Tell you what, it may be an investment in time, but it beats the shit out of paying $15 for a bag of jerky!