How to Make Ground Beef Jerky

The first thing you might want to do is to trim off the fat cap; since we are grinding this and then extruding it, this is not 100% necessary and is just a personal preference. Grind your meat twice, first through a 3/8 plate and then through a 1/8 inch plate. You can also use already ground beef purchased from a store if you don’t have a grinder. Cut the meat into small pieces for the smaller #8 grinder. Make sure your plates and knives are sharp and well-oiled to reduce stress on both the machine and the meat.

• 15 lb of lean beef

• 9.1 oz of Dill Pickle Jerky Snack Sticks Seasoning
• 0.6 oz or 3 tsp of Sure Cure (included with the purchase of seasoning)
• 1.2 oz Smoked Meat Stabilizer

The first thing you might want to do is to trim off the fat cap; since we are grinding this and then extruding it, this is not 100% necessary and is just a personal preference. Grind your meat twice, first through a 3/8 plate and then through a 1/8 inch plate. You can also use already ground beef purchased from a store if you don’t have a grinder. Cut the meat into small pieces for the smaller #8 grinder. Make sure your plates and knives are sharp and well-oiled to reduce stress on both the machine and the meat.

Now we are going to mix in the seasoning, cure, and Smoked Meat Stabilizer. Smoked Meat Stabilizer should not be used with water, so do not add any. It will start to gas out almost immediately, and this can be very dangerous to breathe. With ground and formed jerky, some people like to get protein extraction, and some do not. We recommend you mix until you have protein extraction for a better texture. So use a Walton’s Meat Mixer.

Now we are going to extrude this using Walton’s 7 lb sausage stuffer with the All-Around Jerky Maker attached to it. This comes with a few different types of attachments. For this, use the 2-slot die. As we extrude it, the paper which sits underneath the Jerky Maker is going to move down the ramp with it. Now just keep extruding until you have everything in strips.

Smoked Meat Stabilizer should not be used with water, so we did not add any. It will start to gas out almost immediately, and this can be very dangerous to breathe.

Stage 1 - 130° F 1 Hour with Dampers Wide Open

Stage 2 - 145° F 2 Hours W/ Dampers 2/3rds Closed

Stage 3 - 175° F Until Internal Temp Reaches 160°

There is no need to put jerky in an ice bath as it is so dry and thin that it will stop the cooking process quickly enough by itself. It is important to let the jerky sit out at room temperature for about an hour before vac packing to prevent condensation from forming inside the package.

You will start out with 15 lbs of meat and end with 8 lbs of jerky, so that is just about 50% loss so we are right where we would expect to be with the ability to control humidity in our smoker. The All Around Jerky Maker really made this entire process much easier than trying to do this with a Jerky Gun though that will certainly work as well; it will just take longer. The flavor of the Dill Pickle Seasoning is awesome, if you like Dill Pickles, that seems obvious, but this does have a strong dill flavor!

• Do not add water if you are using Smoked Meat Stabilizer.
• If you do not use Smoked Meat Stabilizer, you will want to hold your product overnight to allow the cure to work in the meat.

Just to make sure that we put this in here as many times as possible, if you are using the Smoked Meat Stabilizer, do not add water to your product, or it will gas out and create a gas cloud. You don’t need to be scared of this product; just be careful with it.

The simplest definition of Jerky is just meat that has been cured and dried. There are many different ways to make and process jerky, the most common being sliced whole muscle or restructured jerky. We made a restructured jerky using Walton’s #8 Kitchen Grinder, a meat mixer, a Walton’s Stuffer with the All-Around Jerky Maker, and a smoker to cook and dehydrate it.