Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Venison Report, ongoing...

So, after marinating the meat in my "secret sauce" for about 3 days, I dehydrated it at 170 degrees in my oven (propped open about 1") overnight.  In the morning, I sampled a piece...

...and my face shriveled up like a Fresno raisin.  "Holy antlers, Batman!  That's salty stuff!"  I must have soaked it in the sauce too long, I mourned.

Later that day, I stumbled upon a sample of my friend Michael's venison jerky, and tried a piece.  Now granted, Michael is about as close to a Montana Mountain Man as I'll probably ever meet:  if it can be done in Montana, he's done it.  Twice.  And well.  As the jerky melted in my mouth, making my teeth lazy, all I could think was "Dang that guy!  He got it perfect!  How'd he do it??"

I humbly and embarassingly admitted my failure to Michael last Sunday, in hopes of getting some helpful advice.  When I got to the part about my use of a cup of salt (!) in my "special sauce", he just winced and chuckled a bit.

"What recipe did you use?", he asked.

"Something I got... off of... the... internet...", my voice trailed off, in reply.

More chuckling.  Then a sincerely kind and encouraging smile:

"You know, just a couple tablespoons of salt, or a little bit of soy sauce works much better", he said.

I questioned, "OK, but doesn't that decrease how long the jerky will 'keep'?"

"Well," he smiled (and his eyes lit up like a child's), "with my recipe, I'm not worried about how long the jerky will keep... I worry about how long I can keep the jerky!"

I thought back to how scrumptious that sample was... and how I uncontrollably finished the bag... and I saw his point.

Next time, I'm going with "handed down" preservation recipes... not Googled ones.

Have a great week!

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