Venison jerky?

[mainbutter]

The situation:

I have leftover venison from last year in the freezer. I'm going hunting. Last year's venison needs to become this month's deliciousness

The solution:

..jerky?

I had a guy process my 2 deer last year. I know pretty little about butchering, so I couldn't even tell you the difference between a "chop" and a "steak". I have wrapped packages stamped with "venison chops", "venison steaks", and "ground venison".

I have access to a propane smoker, a food dehydrator, and most of your typical kitchen stuff.

Anyone want to give some some instructions on using what I have in my freezer so I can be making delicious jerky that'll get eaten up?

[LABS4ME]

I use chops and roast portions of the deer. I believe in a jerky cure more than a marinade now. It is more stable and les prone to bacteria.

If you want to do it very simply, buy Hi-Mountains jerky cure, follow the instructions and smoke it. Simple to do.

One other trick is to slice the meat when it is semi-frozen. Way easier to get consistant thickness vs. when it is thawed.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Farley]

Consistant thickness is key. Cure is great, just make sure to follow the instructions as far as how much per pound of meat. Dont want too much or too little in there, you can get sick either way.

[OnAFly]

All good advice so far. Use a cure, keep to the instructions, and make uniform slices. This will yield good jerky.

I use a meat slicer to get the uniform slices. It works great! You can also use ground meat. Just follow the directions on the box of cure.

[Juneau4]

Make hamburger out of it. Thaw and grind.

[Dark Cloud]

I can slice the meat real uniform but I like to wack each piece a few times with a meat mallet - evens em out uniform and makes them a bit more tender.

I like most of the pre packaged cure - typically I go half and half with a "regular" and a "hot" flavor...

[OnAFly]

I've put a little spin on the regular stuff before. I put the meat and cure into a plastic bag and add sweet chili sauce adn let it cure. Then when the meat dries, the sauce dries on it and makes a sweet/hot coating. It's really good!