The Importance of The Brine
Jerky brine is just one of the options that is available to you in terms of marinating your own home jerky, regardless of whether you are creating your own beef jerky, venison jerky, deer jerky, turkey jerky or even Ahi tuna jerky. There are a wide variety of different jerky brine recipes and jerky marinade recipes that you can customize to suit your needs depending on the final flavor that you are trying to create.
When you come across a recipe for jerky brine that has seasonings that you think you will enjoy, you can mix the appropriate recipe and soak your jerky meat overnight in order to allow it to soak into the jerky meet of your choice. Another option is to heat the brine and allow the meat to soak in it so that the flavors will penetrate the meat more effectively.
Here are some recipes for jerky brine that you may want to consider trying in order to get a variety of different types of unique jerky.
The Default Jerky Brine Marinade
This is a jerky brine marinade recipe that works especially well for beef, turkey, chicken and venison. It has been adapted from a recipe that originally came from Sunset, and makes enough marinade to suit approximately 2 lbs of meat. For this recipe you need a quarter cup of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, a quarter teaspoon each of onion and garlic powder, half a tablespoon of pepper and 1 teaspoon of hickory smoke salt.
Old Fashioned Jerky Brine
This is a recipe that contains nitrates, originally used for curing jerky, though they are more commonly used for other purposes such as making bacon, ham or corned beef. It does take some time for the nitrates to fully penetrate the meat, so this jerky brine needs to marinate the meat for around 8 to 10 hours. You should try a small batch of this recipe to make sure that you enjoy it before you begin using it for all of your meat curing needs. For this recipe, you need 1 cup of curing salt, 1 half cup of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of liquid garlic, 2 quarts of water, 4 tablespoons of black pepper. You should dip the meat into the brine when it has been heated, then blot it dry using paper towels. Sprinkle onion salt, pepper and garlic salt on as desired before placing meat onto trays.
Domestic Jerky Brine
This is a popular jerky brine for the hot method but is not usually used for long, cold soaks. For this recipe you need two cups of salt, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of cider, 1 teaspoon of cloves, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 2 quarts of water and 1 half teaspoon of garlic powder. Bring the ingredients to a boil, then immerse the meat. Some people prefer that the meat be rinsed in water in order to achieve a lighter flavor during the cooking and drying process.