Can y'all help me out? Nothing overly spicy because my kids won't like that. I will have to use the oven, too.

I get the High Mountain stuff from Academy.

Second the high mountain products. Only added tip to their instructions would be to increase the marination time and add course ground black pepper.

Marinade with homemade garlic salt overnight and sprinkle black pepper before smoking.

Salt and black pepper. KISS

Thisguy1 said:

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I get the High Mountain stuff from Academy.

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I have used this and the cracked pepper and garlic version. I usually add more of my own cracked pepper and sometimes red pepper if I want more spice. Everybody I have let try some loves it.

This is my go to recipe if doing whole meat jerky (rather than ground). I will double the honey in the recipe for the kiddos.

https://thecozycook.com/homemade-beef-jerky/#wprm-recipe-container-23443

I slice the meat along the grain about 1/4 in thick. Weigh the meat and put the appropriate amount of Morton Tender Quick according to the pkg into a pan. Add an equal amt of brown sugar and enough coconut aminos or soy sauce to make a marinade. Mix well and heat well enough to get everything dissolved. Place in the fridge to cool then add meat and back in the fridge for a few hours. Remove the meat and place on racks to drain over the sink. Sprinkle heavily with coarse ground black pepper, one side is enough. Place racks into oven as low as it can go and place a wooden spoon in the door to let moisture escape. When they crack when bent they are done, start checking after about 8 hrs. There are two big grainy muscles in each deer ham that I use and I use nothing else. And I use them for nothing else. The shoulders and the "football" get ground into sausage.

The high mountain seasons have cooking instructions inside of them. It's pretty simple. Also for under $100 you can buy a nesco dehydrator and a LEM jerky gun, also camo fire will run the Wesson sometimes. You can do 3lbs at a time on the cheap nesco. I've probably made close to 100lbs on mine
Obviously adding more pepper makes it spicy. The pepper garlic is what I just made, I left off 2 teaspoons and subbed garlic powder on 1. 7yo &5yo ate it all

High Mountain Garlic and Pepper. Absolutely the best and it's not too spicy for the kids. My boys love it 6 and 8 year olds

Sorry for the late resurrection of this thread but I wanted to share the location of a surefire recipe for whole muscle venison jerky. It's called "The Queen Mother of All Jerkies" and is found in Steve Rinella's The Meateater Fish and Game Cookbook.
I've yet to have anyone dislike this recipe and I have used it on both goose breast jerky and venison jerky. I have been using this recipe for several years with great results - the cookbook came out in 2018.

2% salt by weight, and sprinkle on a teaspoon of #16 mesh black pepper and a teaspoon of garlic powder per pound of meat. Don't overthink this.

For every 2lbs of venison:
1/2 cup soy
2 tbs washyoursister
2tsp coarse black pepper
1 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder

If you want to spice it up, add red pepper flakes.
I also sprinkle black pepper on the meat once laid out, before dehydrating.

Enjoy!

I have doing Dr Pepper jerky. It's pretty easy. I found the recipe online.i typically do one big batch with fresh jalapeño and one batch with fresh habenero.

HTownAg98 said:

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2% salt by weight, and sprinkle on a teaspoon of #16 mesh black pepper and a teaspoon of garlic powder per pound of meat. Don't overthink this.

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Pretty similar to ours we have used for longer than I have been alive.

High Mountain with some extra cayenne and Tony C is what I use, but interested in some of the other posts. Curious why some did not add some salt peter to it?

I have started pre-marinating/seasoning mine when I have time. Basically process on site and marinate the rest of the weekend, bag for the ride home, freeze until the cold weather allows a couple of days of drying time. In fact, that is my plan this weekend.

One day I will get back into making sausage. I prefer dried smoked sausage, so this adds more time then I have now.

Cabelas sweet and hot is what i use for venison Marinate for a day the about 10 hours on the dehydrator

I've always done the high mountain stuff in the past. Good stuff. I have a big grinder, Jerkey gun and xl dehydrator. Lot of work grinding everything, but worth it.

But recently, my brother in law turned me on to his recipe (pretty generic) and he had good things to say about using his pellet grill. So now, I use a meat slicer and slice up 100% of my venison. Placed the sliced meat into a 1 gallon zip lock bag (about 80% full) and freeze it. Get 6-8 bags per deer. Then every 2-3 weeks, I thaw out a bag, marinate it and toss it on the pellet smoker. So easy and quick. I'll have a hard time going back to the old style Jerkey gun method!

Jerky Marinade Recipe
1 Teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 Cup soy sauce
1/2 Cup Worcestershire sauce
3 Teaspoon onion powder
3 Teaspoon granulated garlic
3 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon of Curing salt
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 Tablespoon black pepper
1 Teaspoon paprika
1 Tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes
2 habanero peppers, minced

Smoking Instructions
Hickory, Pecan or Mesquite pellets. Any kind will work though
180 for 2-3 hours depending on how chewy you want it to be

Pull off smoker and let it rest for an hour in a mixing bowl
Put in ziplock bag and keep refrigerated

Can y'all even taste your jerky after all that? Just out of curiosity is that good for a steak too?

The longer it goes the tougher/chewier?