Beef Jerky!

It's finally summer, it's been nice and sunny and lovely for days. It's the time for great salads, fresh peas, ripe tomatoes. Light, crisp and - well, summery. But let's face it, beautiful as a well-made summer salad can be, it's not exactly comfort food. As I've been in a bit of a weird mindspace this weekend, I'm very much in need of comfort nibbles.

Also, of course, there's a solar eclipse today. Not that we have a chance of even a glimpse, as it's crossing the South Pacific, but it still feels strangely fitting.



So I decided to give the Sunday roast a pass (well, I did do a couple of duck legs, with a sauce of dried apricots, prunes and tomatoes, with thyme and bay leaf), and instead make the silver-side I had in the fridge into beef jerky.

It came out great, much better than I expected for a first go - slightly sweet, a bit salty and quite peppery. If you don't like your jerky hot, go easy on the pepper and omit the chili.

Beef Jerky

1 pound beef (try to find something as lean as possible, like silver-side)
1 tbspoon brown sugar
3 tbspoon light soy sauce
1 generous dash of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon seasalt
1 tbspoon coarsly ground black pepper
(optional chili powder/sauce - I used a chili/lemon mix)

Trim off all "white" stuff - no matter if it's tendons or fat. Then cut the meat into thin slices, about 1/4 inch. You can either do rather long-ish strips and cut them later, or cut the meat into smaller lumps now (I prefer the latter, but it makes the lining on the rack a bit fiddly), either way - cut with, not as usual over the grain. That gives it the desired texture.

Mix all spices in a bowl, mix with the thinly sliced beef, and let sit for an hour or longer.
Arrange the meat strips on your oven rack so that they don't overlap. They can be very close to another as they shrink, but overlapping will glue them together.

Cover your baking sheet in kitchen foil and put it in the lowest position in your oven to catch any drippings. Preheat your oven to 70C/160F, and stick the rack in on the high position. It takes 4 - 8 hours for your beef to dry out, and the oven door should be slightly open all the time to allow the moisture to escape.
It is done when it can just be bend without breaking.