What You Need to Know About the Curing Process for Jerky

In this article, you’ll learn what you need to know about the curing process for jerky. You may be curious about what work goes into your favorite grocery store snack, or you may want to find out how you can go about making your own jerky. Either way, this article is sure to provide helpful bits of information. Read on and see if you learn a thing or two about jerky.

Removing Parts and Defatting the Meat

Before the curing process can begin, the jerky must become separate from connective tissue or bones. After separating the meat from these unwanted parts, jerky makers must remove the fat from it. They sometimes accomplish this by putting the meat in a large spinning centrifuge. The machine separates liquid fat particles from the meat. Another method is to press the meat and squeeze out the fat.

Dipping the Meat

Now we move on to the actual curing procedure. The next bit of information on this list of what you need to know about the curing process for jerky is one of the more common ways to go about curing. Usually, the person making the jerky puts the curing solution together with salt, seasoning, water, and other additives. After the jerky has gone through the deboning process, they grind it in a chopping machine or freeze it and cut it into chunks. Then, the jerky maker dips the meat into the solution long enough so that the liquid can penetrate it.

Injecting the Meat

Aside from dipping the meat, another method is to inject the food with the liquid. After the curing process, the meat enters a tumbling device that adds more of the curing solution and tenderizes the meat.

Finalizing the Meat

To complete the process, the person making the jerky cools the meat on blocks. They then cut it into strips and put the strips on wire mesh trays. From there, they heat the jerky and dry it out. By the end of this step, the jerky is ready for eating. If you want to have some delicious beef jerky to munch on, check out the big game jerky at Lee’s Market Jerky.