Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Deer Jerky & Pemmican

I've been hunting and cutting up deer for over 20 years, but I have yet to make jerky! Anyone have a good, simple recipe that can be accomplished using a) a conventional oven or b) a campfire? What is the shelf-life if not refrigerated? Similarly, anyone have a good pemmican recipe that doesn't taste terrible? I've made successful pemmican with an insanely long shelf-life the traditional way (dried meat, blueberries, and rendered tallow), but it's very much just for survival. If anyone has a tasty recipe that also keeps well, I'd be glad to have it. Drop them below--thanks!

I haven’t ever made pemmican.

Do make jerky often.

With an 20 yr old American Harvester dehydrator. It keeps going.. 😂

Slice up the hind quarters.

I’ll make a big batch and vacuum seal some of it for later.

use the Hi Mountain jerky kit, follow the instructions, Good Stuff

use the Hi Mountain jerky kit, follow the instructions, Good Stuff

use the Hi Mountain jerky kit, follow the instructions, Good Stuff

Sweet n sour sauce ain’t bad

Following.

I'm a fan of the using a jerky gun and using ground. IMO/E way more efficient and consistent. I buy a regular jerky mix and then add to it. Keep notes of how much and what. You'll get it dialed in. I favor chipotle powder as my add in.

Stalking the Wild Jerky from www.riflesandrecipes.com has 100 jerky recipes, both with ground meat and sliced.

Whole muscle is my preference.

Salt, pepper, garlic and red chili flakes hung with paper clips on a chain in my loading room.

I have found that I prefer using more seasoning for jerky than what I would cook with, especially salt. I don't use any preservatives, just freeze when it is as dry as I like.

Just one way I do it but the simplest.

Do you just air-dry it, or smoke it?

Do you just air-dry it, or smoke it?

I just air dry.

After experimenting for many years with ground, sliced, smoking, dehydrating, etc., my preference is to slice 1/8" thick, combine with spices, water, and cure overnight in a sealed container, then smoke for 1 hour with something like Hickory, and dehydrate for up to 8 hours at 150 F until the firmness and texture suit you.

When I was on a remote trapline when I was younger, we would make dry meat when we shot a moose in the fall.
We simply set up a wall tent and made meat right there where it was shot .
Usually took about three days to do an average sized moose .
The meat would them be packed in cotton bags and hung up to be recovered later on, that is how we put up our meat for the winter
Cat

I do the exact same thing, except 130 for 10 hours.

If you go on youtube, look up 2 guys and a cooler. They have an excellent pineapple and black pepper jerky recipe. That does require a dehydrator though.

Search on youtube "2 guys and a cooler biltong" They have great directions on building an easy drying box and their biltong recipe is excellent. The kicker is you can leave the biltong in the box until it has lost about 65% of its weight. Then toss it chunked up in a blender. Then mix in one part meat powder with one part melted beef tallow. Still a survival food but has some flavor. Next batch I am mixing in some dried blueberries to see how that makes it taste.

Got some elk thawing in the sink last night. Woke up, striped it, acrossed the grain, then with the grain, of course. Put it in a bowl, dumped a generous amount of salt, pepper, and garlic in it, some Tony cashere's, and then poured a can of Dr pepper in it. Stirred it up and set it aside.

Stand by.....

You still have my address to sample it?

Honey is good

Yes sir!

Sometimes the jerky don't quite make it to the dehydrator. I got fajitas on the brain.....

Funny y'all mention jerky. I did up a whole big batch in 2020 and froze it. Then 2021, I got the cancer and life got put on hold for a while. I was digging in the freezer earlier in the week and found a massive bag of the stuff and thawed out a few pieces. It was as good as when it went in.

Jerky does keep!

44 more minutes to finish the thicker pieces.

Done. Been making it this way since I was a kid.

Have a lady who's Cambodian married to an old VN vet who does my perky. She has a walk in cooler and dry house. I have jerky in my pantry that's 2 years old in zip lock bags.
Have stood in her kitchen and watched her cut. Zero whitening. Just pure clean red meat.

Pemmican wise we give our sliced meat a couple of hours of smoke at low temp, 150ish max. Run it through the dehydrator until it is crispy, with some blueberries going at the same time.

Blast the dried meat and berries in a food processor until it is dust, then add ~35% melted tallow, some salt, and some honey.

I have no idea of the exact measurements as my wife just adjusts to her taste. The lower than usual fat content gives it a more palatable texture to me, and the berries smoke and honey all play well together.

I wouldn't do jerky without a meat slicer. I like it a little more than an 1/8th of an inch. I really like using the dehydrator rather than a smoker, it seems much more even temp and I don't care for smoke on the jerky. I use a very simple marinade- 2 cups terriaky, 2 cups water, 1/3 cup soy sauce and some black pepper. Marinade the sliced venison over night and then lay out and pat dry. I then sprinkle red chili flakes to taste (be careful they are easy to overdo) and some more coarse pepper. My dehydrator takes about 5 hours on high but I really watch it near the end to hit the sweet spot of done without being too dry and hard.