venison jerky

One of things that has been on my To Do list for probably 6 months has been to clean our our deep freeze. And last week we accomplished just that.

We had quite a bit of venison in there and when we processed it, we did it really quickly and every thing was in really large pieces which is not very helpful for the 5 0’clock rush. We pulled it all out and either canned it or made jerky with it. We canned 22 quarts and have made 4 large batches of jerky. Just in time for hunting season to start in a couple of months.

Gabriel is our resident griller and smoker. So we just let him do his thing.

The first thing that needs to happen is the venison needs to be cut into thin strips. Then marinate for at least 6 hours. (recipe at the bottom of post). Then put on the smoker for another 5-6 hours depending on how much smoke flavor you like.

After we pull it off the smoker we finish it off in the oven. Right on the top rack with a large baking sheet on the bottom rack. I know the picture shows something different, we learned after this batch that the smaller pieces of meat can fall through rack and land on the oven coils.

We set the temperature to 150 degrees and use a wooden spatula to prop the door open a little.

Thanks for sharing with your friends!