hobobrando- my foraging adventures.

[hobobrando]

I would like to get started right away on the compost bin but its to late to start it tonight, and I dont get home untill 9:45 tomarrow night.

 

[lorihadams]

Try marinating the jerky strips overnight in liquid smoke or soy sauce or terriaki or whatever flavor you want. If you let them absorb the flavor for at least 24-48 hours it should be better. If you like goose meat, I HIGHLY recommend doing jerky from the breast meat....wonderful! Let us know how it turns out!

 

[modern_pioneer]

So last night I removed my jerky from the dehydrator and I took a huge bight, there was absolutely no flavor

Well there is two ways to approach this issue;

1. Build you a little box, 3ft square 48" tall, leave a gap at the top on the sides for smoke to vent out. Make one side a door. Dig ya a little pit in the middle, say, 4 inches deep. Take a couple nails, use hooks if you have them and put them in the sides of your frame. These will be use to string either wire across or hang chicken wire to hang and smoke your meat on.

Start you a little fire, charcoal is okay say eight pieces. Go out and find you some live apple branches not bigger than 3/8 of an inch. I am a huge fan of hickory, I mean HUGE yum yum pigs bum!! Hang your meat to the outside edges of your fire. Now place the twigs onto your little fire close the door and let them smoke for two/four hours. Finish in it i indoors in your machine.

I always rub mine down with pepper and garlic powder, if I want it a little spicy I will add some crushed red peppers.

2. Liquid smoke.

Cut your venision into jerky lengths, soak in liquid smoke for 20 minutes, remove, sprinkle pepper, garlic place in your machine.

Now, if you want to try something different, buy a little can of Old Bay seasoning and spronkle that on instead of pepper and garlic.

Its to late tonight for me to take some photos of my smoke house, so I will try to post a couple tomorrow weathr permitting.

 

[modern_pioneer]

Here is mine, I forgot I had these. No don't be stealing my deer jerky now!!

 

[Beekissed]

So last night I removed my jerky from the dehydrator and I took a huge bight, there was absolutely no flavor :/ . I had made a little dry rub from some spices in the cubbord and the mixture tasted good but once the jerky was done all the flavor was gone. I figured I did alright for my first time though because the texture was right. My next batch will be a honey mustard marinade that I found in a cookbook.

As for school today my teachers all seemed to be in a good mood and I dont have to much homework tonight. If I can get the homework I have done I will get to go to TSC and check out there selection of canning stuff. Not much of anything exciting today.

Yeah, you just about have to marinate the meat before you will get that good jerky flavor. My mom makes her own marinade with Braggs Amino and seasonings. I like to add a smitch of red wine vinegar in my marinade as well.

My boys are deer jerky addicts but sit around and wait for the women folk to make it for them....I wish they were more proactive in their jerky habit~ like you, Hobo!

 

[hobobrando]

Yesterday I was all excited because afterschool I was going to go skiing. So we got to the mountain and I was having fun and then in our last hour I messed up on landing a jump and I fell on my hand. Well now people are telling me its broken and I should get it checked out but I dont want to. I wrapped it and went to school this morning when I got home I removed the wrap and my palm was blue and my knucle bruised. So now Im icing it and taking it easy.

I will be trying my hand at jerky again this weekend,I think I'm going to marinade it in a wet marinade this time and hope for some flavor. Peddler that wooden smoke house doesnt catch on fire? I might have to make one and make it look like an outhouse with the moon and all. Thanks for the advice with the marinade everyone.

 

[freemotion]

Hmmm....might want to get that hand checked out. You need your hands for your entire life, especially if you want to build things and make things, etc, in an ss life. Hands are very intricate and it is more than just the bones involved.

I remember, some years ago, I had my horse at a certain boarding stable and there was a doctor there who fell off his horse and a couple days later I saw him and his hand was all red and swollen. Being the type of person I am, what I am thinking tends to spill right out of my mouth, I looked at the hand and gasped and said, "You need to have that looked at RIGHT AWAY!!! It looks broken to me!" Now, at the time I was going to massage school and cleaning houses part time! Not a doctor, mind you.

His hand WAS broken, and because he'd waited so long, there was some damage that required several surgeries and his thumb never worked right after that. He always had difficulty with it.

Don't risk your hands. Go get it looked at!

 

[TanksHill]

Ouch, It's always the last run of the day that gets you. I agree go get your hand checked. Better safe than sorry. Good luck on the jerky.

 

[modern_pioneer]

I agree, you need to get your hand looked at.

Well the idea of smoking meat is to use a small hot fire and add green wood or dried wood soaked in water for a day or two. The fires I build are small and hot. I have lots of apple and hickory trees on my land, thou soon I will need a step ladder to get to some more hickory branches

It gets so smokey in there, when I open the door I have turn my head in the other direction.

 

[hobobrando]

Well I went and had my hand checked and sure enough it was broken so after an hour or two at the hospital my hand was reset enough for the swelling to go down and its in a splint. I asked the doctor how long it would be before I could realy use it again and he said 6 weeks. First that means no skiing even though I had already payed for three more trips. But whats realy going to get me is I cant till the garden . Now my compst bin has to wait and every other thing I had planned for the next month and a half. I go to the orthopedist in a few days and he will have the final word on weather it will be usable sooner.