Snacks for the tracks can cost quite a bit, when you add up the cost of all the jerky you’ve bought over the years you might want to sit down. We know that some of the tastiest treats cannot be neglected when you are heading bush, so we thought we’d let you in on a little secret about making your own beef jerky as a snack for the tracks and for keeping in the cupboard for munching away watching the tele or with a beer after work!

Beef jerky is incredibly simple, and because it is so simple it can be cooked in a few hours on the weekend and give you a couple of kilos for very little money.

The first step to cooking up your first batch of beef jerky is selecting an ideal cut of beef, in our opinion topside beef is quite easily one of the best cuts for making jerky, but brisket or any other lean cut will work spectacularly.

The way that jerky works is by removing all of the excess moisture inside your meat and by seasoning with preservatives like salt and sugar, you can make the meat last for months and even years without spoiling.

Starting with your superb cut of beef, you need to cut it into fine strips and the best way to do this is to chuck the meat into the freezer for an hour or two. This has the effect of firming up the red meat and making it much easier to run your Adventure Kings Kitchen Knife through it to produce thin slices of beef cutting across the grain of the meat fibers, this is ideal for marinating and seasoning, plus thin slices dry much quicker than thicker slices.

Once you have your beef cut sliced thin, it’s time to start marinating, the best thing to begin seasoning with is a bottle of soy sauce and your favourite Flaming Coals Meat Rub, by mixing these salty and peppery mixes of herbs and spices, for extra sweetness you can add a few teaspoons of organic local honey or brown sugar, you will get a tasty and zesty flavor, some people even add in a bit of chilly flakes for extra spice, to a point of making it a challenge to eat!

When you have seasoned your meat, you can test the flavors by taking one of your jerky strips and giving it a quick fry in a hot frying pan, this means you can adjust the flavor to perfection for the ideal batch of jerky!

Once your meat is seasoned perfectly, its time to let it marinate, you can chuck it in the fridge (covered or in a zip lock bag) overnight is a good period of time for the meat to take up all the flavours you could want.

Now its time to smoke! The best way to smoke your batch of jerky is to get your Kings Portable Meat Smoker heated low and slow, we are chasing around 60-70°C with a smooth smoke, to get the head burning you can use almost any combustible solid fuel, such as wood, charcoal briquettes, or even heat beads once these are burning steadily you can start to close the vents on the smoker to trap a little heat.

Once this temperature is stable and between 60°C and 70°C you can add your selected wood chips to the heat and once you have a steady smoke being produced, stack on the seasoned marinated meat evenly spaced on the cooking grill of your smoker. This process can take some time between 6 and 12 hours, so put on some of your favourite music, crack open a cold drink and just make sure the heat stays consistent, every few hours checking to see how dry the meat is getting, we are looking for jerky that isn’t limp.

Once your jerky is good and dry, and not floppy its time to taste test, this is going to blow your mind. For such a simple process you can have delicious jerky to stash away in your cupboard for a rainy day.

To store your jerky for a longer period of time, you can even pack your jerky into a Kings Vacuum Sealer which uses suction to remove all excess air from around the jerky and seals it in place with a heat sealed bag! This method of storage can make your home made beef jerky last for months, and even years, giving you tasty snacks well into the future!

To find out more about the entire range of cooking gear available from 4WD Supacentre, head over to their website www.4WDSupacentre.com.au or call us on 1800 88 39 64 to speak with an expert about the best possible solution to taking your food preservation to the next level!