Knowing about jerky such as the best beef jerky and the different types that you can find, the time has come to know how jerky is made. As with making Serrano ham (if you want to know more about it, you can do it here), jerky preparation involves a step-by-step in which salt is one of the protagonists.
The procedure is the next:
1. Selection Of Parts
As always, the first step is to choose the pieces that will be used to make the jerky. Remember that you must meet the criteria detailed above to be considered a piece suitable for making jerky. Depending on whether it is beef jerky or beef jerky, pieces of one animal or another will be chosen.
2. Roll Forming Process
This process allows the removal of the skin and another series of imperfections from the raw material to give the jerky a homogeneous shape. Sometimes this process must be repeated almost at the end since, after stacking some pieces on top of each other during the salting process, they tend to become deformed.
3. Salting The Pieces
When making the jerky, we come to the most important point: the salting process. The objective of this point is to incorporate salt into the muscle mass so that the dehydration process of the piece takes place and its conservation is favored, giving rise to the famous smoked hams of León.
How is it done? What is done is to cover the pieces of meat with coarse-grained sea salt, stacking them on top of each other and putting layers of salt between them. The order of the pieces is reversed halfway through the process to ensure that all the pieces pick up salt equally and the quality of the jerky is the same, placing those that were at the bottom higher up and vice versa. This process of salting the pieces lasts 0.3-0.6 days per Kg of weight and must be carried out at a temperature between 2-5 ºC and relative humidity between 80-90%.
4. Washing Of Jerky
After the entire salting process, and as occurs with Serrano ham, the jerky is washed to remove all traces of salt from the pieces. In this way, the pieces are cleaned well to avoid excess salt that has been deposited on the outside of them.
5. Settlement
The objective of the settling phase is to remove excess water, allowing the salt to penetrate evenly and uniformly into the piece. In this way, the biochemical processes of enzymatic hydrolysis are activated, which will produce the characteristic aroma and flavor of the jerky.
6. Smoking Of The Product
Not all pieces of jerky are smoked, but sometimes this process is carried out. To carry out the smoking, either oak wood or wood from above is used, and it is a period that can last between 12 and 16 days.
7. Drying Or Curing
We come to the last phase of jerky production: the point where the pieces are classified based on their weight and confirmation. At this point, the pieces are passed to natural dryers in which humidity and temperature control are carried out through a traditional system of opening and closing windows until the cured meat matures. The usual period for complete drying occurs in about 7 months. Once finished, the jerky can be distributed for you to purchase and enjoy in the comfort of your home.
