Jamocha Jerky

Another crazy Jerky from yours truly. This Jerky was inspired by my job. You see I am always tired and seeing that I work a lot of unusual shifts meaning they change every day I thought it would be fitting to create a Jerky that could help with sustained energy. Since I already drink a lot of coffee the thought crossed my mind about making a caffeinated Jerky. Coffee and Jerky....caffeine? Hmmm... sounds strange to me too. But can you use coffee as a base for Jerky? In the past I have used coffee grounds in some of my rubs and I make a great BBQ Chicken that has coffee in the recipe. With all that considered the Jamocha Jerky was born infused with lots of caffeine. 

A partially frozen Top Loin. As you know partially freezing make it easier to slice. Remember to slice across the grain. I actually had 3 of these bad boys.

All sliced and uniformed.

I used a lightly roasted coffee bean for the Jerky because they produce the most caffeine. I also decided to use the cold brewing method to create the coffee base. You might not know this but cold brew coffee is very concentrated and very low in acid...up to 70% less acid in most cases. There are many cold brew systems out there and having used both the Toddy and the OXO systems I would have to recommend the OXO.

To find out about my dehydration process CLICK HERE. Lot of more info at the bottom of the page HERE. 

Recipe as Follows

enough for 6-8 lbs of meat

2 cups of cold brew coffee

2 cups of Kahlua

1/4 of Hot Cocoa Mix

3% Salt

.25% of Cure #1 

A Ratio of.... 

Mexican Chocolate Graded 4

Hot Cocoa Mix 3

Guarana  1.5 

Marinate for 24 hours. If the meat is in bags make sure to rotate bags occasionally.

Drain marinade from the meat and lay across your racks. 

Grade the Mexican Chocolate

Place the Mexican Chocolate, Guarana and the Hot Cocoa mix in shaker and thoroughly combine. 

Thoroughly coat the Jerky with the concoction you just put together above.

I dehydrated the Jerky for exactly 6 hours at 125 degrees. It came out perfect!! I will make again. If you want you can kick it up a notch or two by adding liquid smoke, or by cold smoking and or maybe adding some heat. Of course I Sous-Vide to pasteurize the meat. 

Peppered Deckle Bacon

Just another Bacon from your Truly. We all know how much I love Bacon. Some of my Bacon Experiments can be found HERE. What makes this Bacon somewhat unique is the use of the Deckle also called the point on the brisket. 

I used my favorite no frills Maple Bacon Recipe. This Deckle bacon was one of my all time favorites!!!

Gratuitous picture s to follow. Picture of the Deckle. 

Combine the Salt and Cure #1 and spread evenly over the entire Deckle. If you want to you can read my notes on Curing HERE.

Combine the rest of the dry ingredients and coat the Deckle. Place Deckle in Vacuum bag and add Maple Syrup. Vacuum seal the bag and placed in refrigerator. The future bacon will be tossed, rotated and massaged every 12 or so for about 15 days.

All cured and rinsed off.

Covered in coarse Black Pepper.

Cold Smoked for 10 hours using the A-Maze-N-Cold Smoker.

Done

Using my Berkel Slicer

TOP OF THE DECKLE PAGE

Mojito Jerky

I just love everything that is Mojito. From the drinks to the food. With that I decided to create a Mojito Jerky. Not an easy undertaking if you don't have a recipe. I had to create a rub from scratch and I am sure after my taste buds recover I will be modifying it quite often. One big science experiment. At one point after many attempts to get it right I had my wife start sampling the recipe. When you create something like this you're using measurements in grams. 

This mixture is adequate for 4 lbs (1814 grams) of meat. 

1/2 cup of Worcestershire Sauce (this was used for flavor)
1/4 cup Soy Sauce (Mostly used for Sodium Content)
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
3 Tbls Mojito Spice Blend
.25% Cure #1 (meat weight 1474 grams X .25% = 3.69 grams)
Rum......Enough to spray meat before dehydration

Anyhow I took the meat and partially froze it so it would be easier to slice. Remember slice it against the grain into 1/4 -3/8 of an inch.

After 24 hours I line them up on racks and sprinkle on some additional Mojito Spice Blend

This might look crazy but it worked. Mist your beef with your favorite rum.

Vacuumed Sealed at SV at 135˚ƒ for 3 plus hours. This will pasteurize the Jerky for safe consumption. 

All Done!! I dehydrated the Mojito Jerky for 8 hours at 125˚ƒ. 125˚ƒ might seem low but like all my Jerkies they're pasteurized using the Sous-Vide cooking method at 135˚ƒ for about 3 hours. Love the texture at 125˚ƒ. Anyhow this Jerky came out great. Love this stuff. 


Note: the Mojito Spice Blend came out perfect!!! This blend although good for Jerky might be too strong for other food applications.

Safety and Jerky

I don't want to go on a rant or lecture about Beef Jerky but there are some precautions you need to take. The amount of jerky recipes out there pales in comparison to the amount of opinions there are about how to make Beef Jerky properly. You can google to you're blue in the face and everyone has an opinion. There are a lot of rules out there and if you want to explore them I have collected on my BLOG. Click the Link HERE and go to the bottom and click on the desired information. 

This is what I do. I make sure there is adequate salt levels. If I am using a dry rub I use 2.5-3% salt. If I use a marinade I go by taste and experience. I use Cure # 1 because I tend to like my Jerky a little moister than others and cannot guarantee that the AW will be below the 85 threshold to ward off Botulism. I store my Jerky vacuum sealed in bags hence Cure # 1. I refuse to pasteurize like the USDA suggest so I have an alternate way of doing it that provides great texture. I pack all the Jerky in Vacuum sealed bags no thicker than an inch and Sous-Vide at 135 degrees for a minimum of two hours. I prefer 3-4 hours for improved texture. All cured and pasteurized.