Hunt Smart Fish Hard: Jerky Making In The Kitchen

Years ago my wife bought me a dehydrator for Christmas. What I liked about this one was it had a fan in it. It had better heat control and cut the drying time in half. I also have a jerky gun maker. I can make small strips, large strips, and small logs or big logs. The logs are like the size of Slim Jims.

It was time to make some deer jerky. My wife was working and wasn’t going to be home until 5 p.m. I already cut up the meat and it was in the refrigerator. I told Travis on the way back to my house that he was going to cut the meat into little 1x2-inch cubes or however close he could get to them.

We cleared off a spot on the kitchen table to cut up the meat. I grabbed the big pot in the pantry room and set it on the table. I cleared another spot on the table for the food processer. All I know now is I’m glad my wife is not home. I had a mess on the table. I asked Travis if he was ready. Travis said, “Lets go.”

Travis would cut some meat into cubes and put them into a pan. I would take out the cubed meat and put them into the food processor. It grounded up the meat fast. For the most part it separated the tendons from the meat pretty good. It took us a while to get it done. After an hour or so I thought we had everything in control.

Ingredients were soy sauce, Worcestershire sause, liquid smoke flavoring, brown sugar, garlic salt, garlic powder, and two packs of Hi Mountain Jerky Cure and seasoning (teriyaki). We would mix all the ingredients up and we were almost done. I moved the food processor closer to the window to give me more room to work.

Now that we had the meat worked up I did a re-blend. I put the meat back into the processor and mixed it one more time. It also frees up the tendons more. It took a while to get it done and ready for the refrigerator to soak up all those ingratiates overnight.

Travis says, “Uncle Leon, we got a problem.”

I said in a hurry, “What’s wrong?”

Travis said, “Look at the walls and the curtains.”

I looked up and I saw deer blood everywhere. It was on the walls, curtains, the table, my shirt, and on the floor. The only thing I could think of was how was my wife going to bury me. I was a dead man for sure.

I grabbed a few paper towels and wiped the wall. The deer blood was gone. I got some wash rags and put some liquid soap on them. We had a job to do in a very short amount of time. She would be home in a short amount of time. I would rub the blood spot on the curtain and Travis would rub the paper towel over it. So far, so good. We had to hurry because time was not on our side.

Here comes my wife up the driveway into her parking spot. We hurry and put the paper towels and rags into the trash container. The door opens and she sees where we made jerky up. I told her we were going to let the meat rest in the refrigerator overnight and make jerky tomorrow.

Then she asked the question, “Did you make a mess?”

I said with my fingers crossed behind my back, “Nothing we couldn’t handle.”

I told her I was going to take Travis home and be back in a little while. Once Travis and I were in the truck, what a sigh of relief. I think we got away with it. I think we cleaned up the mess pretty good. I know now why they put the lid on the food processor and I will say no more.

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.

Until next week-H.S.F.H.-L.M.

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