Honey-Sage Paleo Beef Jerky

Some things I learned about making jerky:
-You really do want your meat to be almost frozen/fat free. Mine wasn't quite cold enough and it made cutting it rather annoying. It also had little fat pockets that were hard to cut out.


Honey/Sage Paleo Beef Jerky
Ingredients:
-Hunk of grass-fed beefy goodness (I used a London Broil). Try to get something as lean as possible.
-2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
-2 Tbsp Coconut Aminos (I had to go to Whole Foods for this one.)
-2 Tbsp Raw Unfiltered Honey
-2 Tbsp Water
-1 Tsp Sage
-1 Tsp Sea Salt
-1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
-1/2 Tsp Fresh Ground Black pepper

The jerky set-up. Let's get some jerky action going!

Instructions:
1. Put the meat in the freezer for 30min-1hr or so. You don't want it rock solid, but you want it colder than what I used (note the ack, fml note above). It will seriously help your cutting efforts. If you're anything like me you always want to be simplifying the process and making it as easy as possible. Freeze the meat =).
2. Cut the meat into little jerky slices. In my case, I got several little jerky bits as well. I'm new at this! I've heard people talking about butchers (if asked nicely) being willing to slice your meat for you! Seriously, this sounds like a great option. Now to find a good butcher...and not be broke ;).

Mmmm...animal protein...

3. Whip up the marinade using all the ingredients except the beef. Then put your nicely (kinda nicely in my case) sliced meat into the bath-o-flavor and let it chill in the fridge for an hour (one hour). I covered mine.

Meat taking a flavor bath. Love it (although the smell kinda gets me...vinegar...ick).

4. After the short hour flavor-bath lay your meat out on a dehydrator without any pieces overlapping. It will want to dehydrate/cook for about 3-5 hours. At the three hour mark start tasting it to see how it's doing =).

Strips laid out to dehydrate and jerkify.

5. Store your delicious jerky in the fridge. I put a paper towel at the bottom of my container to help control moisture.

Jerky! Yay!

-Perry, The Simple Paleo Cook

Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Let me know!

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