Beef Jerky, The Verdict

I love good beef jerky.  

But.....

I've grown tired of the store bought variety. 

It's hard to see, but look at the number of ingredients.  Too many that are not natural and made for longer shelf life.  I made this request as part of our Costco run in order to have some quick protein around the house, but I this may be my last bag of this stuff.  It's dry, full of stuff I don't need in my body, and not worth it in the end.  

This past weekend my wife ventured to the Indy Winter Farmer's Market and brought back a bag of........

Sweet and Spicy Buffalo Jerky from a local farmer

Ingredients:  Buffalo, Sugar, Water, Salt, Spices, Garlic, Cayenne Pepper, and Black Pepper.

All natural stuff, simple, and you know where it comes from.  Progress. 

And so I got the bug after our friend Lindsey made her first attempt at homemade beef jerky and did not use a dehydrator.  I have to say, I did not know it was possible without one.  I'm going to make you go to her blog to get the recipe because again, she deserves all the credit.  

Here is my final product

A bit too salty and too much pepper.  I was way too generous with it, so I had to scrape off the excess salt and pepper afterwards and it was good to go.  I did let the meat marinate for about 4-5 hours in a bag, but if I had to do it all over again, I would have let it marinate for a good 24 hours.  I just did not plan well this time.  I would also make sure to get a meat hammer or in my case, I used the back of a small iron skillet and spend more time hammering down the raw meat to make it flat, because I got some pieces that were too fat and they come out too chewy for my taste.  The only issue I have is that this is all that one chuck roast yielded, so that's roughly $10 worth of meat.  However, the meat came from a local farmer here in Indiana.  The ingredients are simple:  

soy sauce, salt, pepper, lemon pepper, and garlic cloves.  Easy!