Alton Brown's Jerky

You can watch his program about jerky on hulu.com

http://www.hulu.com/watch/231570/good-eats-the-jerky

 He does a great job at explaining what happens when you dehydrate the meat to prevent enzymes and bacteria from spoiling it. He recommends flank steak because the grain is long and it's very lean.

• Partially freeze the meat before slicing; that makes it firmer and easier to cut.
• A brine is nothing but salt water you can soak the meat in to preserve it.
• A marinade is a salty acidic hydroscopic product

Alton’s Recipe:

• 2/3 cup soy sauce
• 2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp honey (to keep it from becoming too brittle)
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp liquid smoke (Should you have the desire; he shows you how to make a home made distiller so you can distil your own liquid smoke!)

Soak meat in marinade for 4 to 6 hours. Drain and pat dry. Then dehydrate.

• He demonstrates a drying technique using no heat, but a box fan.... hmmm... makes me begin to rethink the necessity of high heat for dehydrating meat.
• Also has a recipe for using diced jerky bits, diced tomatoes, diced onions and peppers, garlic, and cream to make a gravy/stew to pour over biscuits, rice, or pasta.