Partially frozen meat is easier to slice than raw meat. Putting the venison meat in the freezer for an hour or two before slicing will make it much easier to get consistent slices. We've got some tips to help you get the perfect sliced meat for jerky. Thinner slices will result in a harder jerky, while thicker pieces may not dry all the way. You want to cut the venison into one-quarter of an inch thick slices. The key to making good venison jerky is to have consistent, thin slices of meat. If you are new to processing deer or want to pick up some expert tips, check out our ultimate guide to processing a deer at home. You always want to go with the leanest meat because the fat may give an off-flavor and it makes storing jerky more difficult. Venison in general is particularly lean, and these are the leanest cuts.

We like to use the top round and eye of round, but the sirloin, rump roast, and neck will work well for jerky meat. This starts with selecting the best cut of venison for jerky meat. How Do You Prepare Deer Meat for Jerky?īefore you can make jerky, you'll need to prepare the meat. We'll show you our favorite ways to make jerky, along with some recipe tips to help you create amazing, nutritious deer jerky yourself. Making deer jerky at home is easy, fun, and economical.

Venison is a perfect meat for making jerky because it is lean and develops fantastic flavor when we make our own marinade. Deer season has just finished and the deer are all processed and in the freezer, ready for delicious meals – this gives us the perfect opportunity to make our own, homemade deer jerky. Thanks for the suggestion though! I actually hadn't thought of using my mandolin which is essentially the exact same thing as the 'cutting board' haha.Venison jerky is one of our favorite snacks around this time of the year. Since it does have a guard though, I'll make a couple of passes at it this weekend when I do another batch. The blade isn't very great, so I'd be worried about my hands slipping if the meat were to get caught. I do have a mandolin, but I've had some pretty close calls using that thing with far less awkward objects. Freezing the whole thing is also considerably colder and generally makes me work slower because of cold hands. Second method, freeze the meat completely, then thaw it out for a day in the fridge, which basically has the opposite issue where the outside thaws out. First method, throw the whole block of meat in the freezer for about 3 hours or so to get the outside nice and firm, but this generally leaves the center unfrozen and wobbly. I do freeze it, and so far I've tried two different methods. I'm currently leaning toward the cutting board but am weary that it's more awkward than it's worth, so I desperately need to hear from you if you have horror stories about it or would super highly recommend one of the other options instead for whatever reason!Īny opinions will be greatly appreciated. A big boy deli slicer is both expensive and currently would not fit in my small apartment's kitchen, but a part of me hopes that I get 10k replies telling me to buy it so I have an excuse to get it. The hand crank slicer is limited to cutting the meat to sizes that the blades come in, so not a lot of versatility (I may also not have a great place to clamp it to, but I'm sure I could figure something out). The cutting board looks like it would be awkward to handle, and picking up your brick of meat to remove the fresh slice of meat sounds like it would be pretty slow. The main issue I want to address is consistency of slice thickness, time is definitely secondary. I've basically got 3 options in mind, none of which are perfect for my situation, so I'm hoping some of you could weigh in.

The only part of the process that I truly despise is cutting all the meat-simply put, it's unruly, my knives are only okay (and embarrassingly I definitely ruined one trying to sharpen it), my hand slicing thickness always varies too much, and it just takes so much time! I have been making fairly large batches, around 5lbs before dehydrating at a time. Got a dehydrator a few months ago and have made about 8 batches of jerky since then. Hey folks, I know this is kinda sidestepping what the sub is about, but r/beefjerky doesn't have nearly as many members, so I thought I'd ask here.

Jerky slicer