How to Make Your Own Jerky

Jerky’s got a bad rap. It’s long been synonymous with truckers, gas stations, a hard, nigh-unchewable texture, and dank, fake flavor more akin to the aroma of dog treats than human food. But it’s come a long way from its first iterations, and it’s a pretty perfect road trip snack or hiking fuel, not to mention something to stash in your desk for those hangry moments between lunch and quitting time.

You can find premium versions made from all sorts of meats (and meat substitutes), with countless flavor variations even in chain grocery stores these days, but it’s really easy—and a lot cheaper—to make your own jerky at home. You don’t even need a dehydrator, although if you have one, it’ll come in handy. If you don’t, just use your oven!

There are only a handful of simple tips to keep in mind to maximize your jerky’s flavor, texture, and shelf life. Other than the right meat (or meat substitute), a sharp knife, and an oven, you really only need time to make great jerky.

Test upon test taught us what does and doesn’t work when it comes to jerky. Here are some pointers:

Equipment

• If not using a dehydrator, use an oven thermometer to confirm that your oven is at the right temperature. (If your recipe only gives instructions for a dehydrator, just set your oven to the same temperature indicated.)
• Check your thermometer periodically throughout the drying process to ensure a consistent oven temperature.

Ingredients

• Work with cuts of meat that are lower in fat, since they will have a longer shelf life once dried. For poultry, that means the white or breast meat; for beef, the top loin, sirloin, or tenderloin. (It doesn’t apply to fish.)
• Get the right amount of meat—it will shrink considerably once dried. Three pounds of meat should give you about one pound of jerky, so plan accordingly.
• When making the rub or marinade, be sure to use salt (or ingredients that include salt), which helps the flavor and extends the jerky’s shelf life.

Preparation

• Freeze the meat before you slice it (anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour ahead) to make slicing easier.
• Use a very sharp knife to cut the meat to keep the strips as even and thin as possible.

Storage

• Pat any excess oil from the dehydrated meat before storing it. In general, fat is the enemy of the jerky’s shelf life and will make it turn rancid a lot quicker.
• Let the jerky cool completely on the oven racks before storing.
• Store the jerky in an airtight container. The turkey jerky is fine stored at room temperature, but the salmon and beef jerky should be refrigerated.

See? It’s pretty simple! Here are some recipes to get you started on your homemade jerky journey.

Western Barbecue Jerky

CD Kitchen

This recipe doesn’t specify a particular meat because it’s good made with beef, pork, or poultry. Generally, that’s true of most jerky recipes, so choose whichever lean cut you like, and put a zesty BBQ spin on it. Get the recipe.

Teriyaki Beef Jerky

Cooking With Janica

Teriyaki is a classic jerky flavor, and one of the best. If you’re vegan, try this teriyaki seitan jerky to get your fix. For meat eaters, beef, pork, or turkey all take equally well to the soy-heavy seasoning. Get the recipe.

Spicy Turkey Jerky

Chowhound

Chile garlic paste and honey give turkey hits of spicy and sweet. Get our Spicy Turkey Jerky recipe.

Peppered Salmon Jerky

Alaska From Scratch

You can make seafood jerky from lots of different fish (and with various flavors, like this Hawaiian fish jerky), but simple salmon is the classic piscine choice. This salmon jerky has a nice pepper kick. Get the recipe.

Thai Beef Jerky

Chowhound

Jerky can take on any flavor combos you dream up. Dr. Pepper jalapeño jerky, ginger orange jerky, Kentucky bourbon jerky, and black coffee jerky all (deliciously) attest to that. This Thai-inspired version is one of our favorites. Fish sauce, ground coriander, and honey infuse beef with an irresistible, almost floral flavor. Get our Thai Beef Jerky recipe.

Bulgogi Pork Jerky

Oink Cooking

Another Asian-inspired jerky, this one’s made with pork in a classic Korean marinade more often used with beef (so feel free to switch up the meat if you prefer). Get the recipe.

Spicy Sriracha Tofu Jerky

Connoisseurus Veg

You don’t even need meat to make jerky! This spicy tofu version is savory and chewy, just like you expect from jerky. (You can find Sriracha beef jerky too, of course.) Note that the tofu will get even chewier as it cools, so don’t overbake it. Get the recipe.

Candied Bacon Jerky

Kitchen Heals Soul

It’s hard to make bacon better, but if there’s one way to do it, it’s to add sugar and spice. This candied bacon jerky with brown sugar and cayenne pepper is so good you’ll probably want to make a double or triple batch. Get the recipe.

Spicy Sweet Mole Jerky

Teaspoon Of Spice

Firstly, we are talking about mole as in the classic Mexican chocolate-spice sauce, not small-burrowing-rodent jerky. This recipe does happen to use a semi-exotic meat: venison. If you’re a city slicker unable to source deer meat, you can just make the jerky with beef instead. Get the recipe.

Salmon Jerky “Candy”

Chowhound

Smoked candied salmon is delicious, but it’s not true jerky; it’s much moister, plumper, and softer, thus quicker to spoil. Our salmon jerky is still as addictive as actual candy—caraway and sugar partially cure the salmon before it’s dried, resulting in a sweet jerky with a pop of Nordic flavor. Get our Salmon Jerky “Candy” recipe.

Cauliflower Jerky

Olives For Dinner

Yes, cauliflower. Technically, you can make jerky out of practically anything, and there are lots of veggie versions: mushroom jerky, eggplant jerky, beet jerky. (There’s even at least one dessert jerky comprised of cacao and chia seeds.) This cauliflower version is deeply savory from tahini and nutritional yeast, and super chewy after 12 hours in the oven. Get the recipe.

Related video: Black Pepper Jerky.

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Seafood Paella on the Grill

Are you ready for a party? Mix up a pitcher of sangria and call your friends and neighbors!

A festive occasion calls for a big statement, and this paella is just that: a colorful rice dish bursting with clams, mussels and shrimp along with smoky chorizo and saffron for tons of flavor. You don’t need much else to serve alongside it, but you could make a green salad if you feel inspired.

Set the whole pan of paella on your picnic table, and bring out some crusty bread and wine glasses. Summer is just too short not to celebrate it with friends.

Continue reading "Seafood Paella on the Grill" »

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Hummus Fries With Spicy Tahini Dip

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What’s in Salt Water Taffy? The Story Behind the Boardwalk Treat

Taffy is one of those deeply old-fashioned candies that still exist, but is usually only encountered in certain places—chiefly, at the beach. Salt water taffy has been a boardwalk staple for decades, but how did that come to be? And is there actually salt water in it?

Not in the way you might think. There is usually a small amount of salt and some water in all taffy, but so-called salt water taffy doesn’t have a higher amount of either, let alone actual water from the sea; in fact, it’s not distinctly different from regular old taffy in any way save the name.

It’s all made from boiled sugar, corn syrup, and a few other ingredients, including various flavorings and sometimes food coloring. The mixture starts out as an extremely sticky mass that’s also scalding hot, which sounds like a recipe for disaster, but once it’s cooled enough to handle, it’s stretched out and folded back in on itself numerous times to achieve its thick and fluffy, soft yet chewy texture. The constant agitation aerates the mixture, just like whipping cream makes it lofty and light.

Taffy has been enjoyed in America since at least the 1800s; an 1847 recipe from “Mrs. Crowden’s American Lady’s Cookery Book” calls for boiling molasses, flavoring it with lemon, sassafras, or vanilla, and pouring it into buttered tins—but also gives the option of “pulling it in your hands, having first rubbed them over with a  bit of butter, to prevent the candy sticking to them,” which would make it lighter in both color and texture. An 1843 cookbook (Mrs. Webster’s “The Improved Housewife”) elaborates on how one would take the mixture “while it is yet warm, and pull it out into a thick string, between the thumb and fore-finger of both hands. Extend your arms widely as you pull the candy backwards and forwards. By repeating this a long time, it will gradually become of a light yellow color, and of a spongy consistency.”

Taffy pulling parties were once a common pastime (you know, before television, gaming consoles, and smartphones were invented), enjoyed by young and old, and even Raggedy Ann and Andy, who starred in an entire (pretty creepy) story about it, in which a houseful of dolls play with fire and make candy while the human occupants are away. In the real world, these shindigs were both a fun activity for small children’s parties and an acceptable way for more mature young adults to get face time with the opposite sex (again, before smartphones).

Candy making wasn’t confined to homes, though, and large wall-mounted hooks made it possible for one person to manually make taffy in fairly large batches, as it had been since the 1800s as well. It did require muscle, and as former President William Howard Taft wrote in 1921, “[t]he work was strenuous, and produced perspiration and uncleanliness. It was done with the bare hands, and…was neither appetizing nor sanitary.”

And yet, it was still immensely popular, especially in Atlantic City, NJ, where the biggest names were Joseph Fralinger and Enoch James. Lots of other producers set up shop there too.

James Candy Company

Popular legend says one such candy maker, David Bradley, coined the now-common term “salt water taffy” in 1883, after a storm surge or particularly high tide caused flooding along the boardwalk that inundated his shop with sea water. More likely, some clever but ultimately shortsighted person simply applied the term for marketing purposes, to connote the proximity of the sea and thus imbue the confection with the aura of a special holiday treat—something to enjoy on vacation, but also to bring home with you to tangibly extend the experience and give as a souvenir to others too. “Salt water taffy” does sound vaguely magical and ethereal, like fairy bread.

The evocative name was never trademarked, though. John R. Edmiston tried to stake a claim in 1925, about 40 years too late. By then, hundreds of confectioners (along the Atlantic coast and elsewhere in the U.S.) had been selling salt water taffy for decades, and the court ruled that the term couldn’t be officially registered.

The actual process of making it, of course, has come a long way since then—the first taffy pulling machine was patented in 1893, and such contraptions continue to evolve. The flavors have grown in scope too (piña colada, bubblegum, and cookie dough can now easily be had along with classic versions like vanilla and molasses). But the original chewy candy continues to beckon beach-goers from coast to coast, and its name to inspire wonder over whether a little bit of the ocean actually makes it inside the sweet.

Related Video: How to Make Maple Syrup Snow Candy

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Here’s the History Behind the Trendy Poke Bowl

If you’ve recently spent time scrolling through Seamless or gone hunting for a new lunchtime spot for you and your coworkers, you’ve likely noticed that restaurants advertising poke bowls have been popping left and right. It’s little surprise that this trendy food has developed a serious following—the fresh, customizable meals are straight-up delicious. But before it swept through your city and your favorite food app, where did the dish originate? And what do you need to know about putting together the best poke bowl ever?

The History

“While there is no precise origin story, many agree that the beginnings of poke date back to pre-colonial times in Polynesia, a grouping of islands from Hawaii to New Zealand,” says Sarah Abadi, founder and owner of POKE IT, a Mexican-influenced poke eatery in San Diego. “Locals would take their fresh catch from fishing and season it with whatever was on hand to enjoy. It was then around the 1970s that poke, as we know it, began to rise in popularity, first found in Hawaiian home kitchens then transitioning into supermarkets. Soon after, the dish journeyed to the mainland.”

Wondering what the word poke actually means? (And by the way, it’s pronounced “po-kay.”) “The word ‘poke’ in itself means to slice, or cut crosswise into pieces,” says Abadi.

Related Video: Tuna Poke with Mango and Avocado

The Traditional Recipe

For seafood lovers, the star ingredient of a poke bowl is the fish. But that’s not all that makes up the classic recipe. “Most traditional poke bowls contain skipjack tuna (known in Hawaii as Aku), mixed with Hawaiian salt (alaea salt), maui onions, seaweed, roasted kukui nut, lime, soy sauce, green onions and sesame oil,” says  Kevin Hsu, co-founder of Pokeworks, which focuses on customizable poke dishes “However, ahi (yellowfin) tuna, salmon and other raw shellfish are being used more commonly.”

Poke Bowls..with a Twist

Though the go-to poke bowl recipe centers around fish, non-seafood lovers don’t have to miss out. New restaurants are swapping in other proteins like chicken or tofu instead of raw fish. And a number of establishments are adding flavors from other popular cuisines into the dish.

“Poke has been evolving from being an appetizer or side item to a feature item at several restaurants across mainland U.S.,” Hsu says. “New ingredients and flavors from Japanese, Korean, Thai…just to name a few, are being introduced into the poke bowl as well.”

And poke doesn’t have to be limited to bowls anymore, with poke burritos, tostadas, and tacos hitting menus, too, according to Abadi.

Bottom line? Poke bowls are a great canvas for an array of flavors, cuisines, and ingredients. “When ordering and creating your own poke bowls, poke tacos, and poke burritos, don’t be conservative,” says Abadi. “Do be creative, and play around with unique base/protein/topping combos that sound delicious to you!” Abadi recommends reaching for chopsticks if you’re eating a poke bowl and pair it with something delicious to drink. “Depending on the components of the dish, you can pair it with a sake, beer, or agua fresca (popular Mexican fruit waters),” she says.

What Is the Difference Between Sushi and Sashimi?

Easy Salmon Poke Bowl

Ahi Tuna Poke

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3 Homemade Summer Sauces to Put on Everything

Chowhound

Secret’s in the sauce, and we’re not talking about the felony-warranting Fried Green Tomatoes kind. Now that the grills have been fired up and summer is essentially here, it’s time to perfect your sauce making and basting skills so that you can impress all of your BBQ picnic guests.

Anyone who’s anyone knows that there are three versatile sauces that work with nearly every protein: barbecue, chimichurri, and romesco. You’re probably more familiar with the first one (#iwantmybabybackbabybackribs), though chimichurri and romesco offer herbacious and peppery (respectively) departures from what your taste buds interpret as “tried and true.” And trying something new is always a good thing.

We’ve broken down the tasty trio below, including recipes and dishes where these sauces shine. Check them out!

What is barbecue sauce?

Chowhound

The ingredients differ by region and part of the globe, but most include some variation of tomato paste, vinegar, mayonnaise, mustard, spices, and a sweet component like sugar or molasses. The sauce is extremely versatile, as it can be used as a dip, marinade, baste, or condiment. Get our Basic Barbecue Sauce recipe.

Dish Suggestion: Easy BBQ Baby Back Pork Ribs

Chowhound

Honestly, why should you ever mess up a good thing when you have it? These fall-off-the-bone ribs will put those annoyingly catchy Chili’s commercials to shame. Get our Easy BBQ Baby Back Pork Ribs recipe.

Want to level up your barbecue sauce game? Get our Bourbon-Bacon Barbecue Sauce recipe.

Chowhound

What is chimichurri?

Chowhound

Used primarily in South American (Argentinian, predominantly) and Mexican dishes, this parsley-heavy sauce is blended with garlic, vinegar, olive oil, and red pepper flakes for a perfect component to grilled red meat. Get our Argentine Chimichurri recipe.

Dish Suggestion: Argentine Grilled Tri-Tip

Chowhound

Chimichurri shines as a cool topping on a hot piece of steak. An Argentinian tri-tip is a perfect option because it’s not only geographically thematic, but also capable of handling an excess amount of sauce. Get our recipe.

What is romesco sauce?

Chowhound

Originating in northeastern Spain, this nut and red pepper-based sauce pairs perfectly with seafood. Common ingredients also include garlic, sunflower oil, vinegar, and other nuts and peppers, though you can essentially tailor it to meet your needs. Get our Romesco Sauce recipe.

Dish Suggestion: Roasted Shrimp with Romesco Sauce

Shrimp love a tomato bath, especially if it’s chock full of spices, garlic, pine nuts, and other Spanish-derived flavors. Give them a dunk in this zesty romesco, which can also be used as a dip for fresh bread. Get our Roasted Shrimp with Romesco Sauce recipe.

Related video: Smoked Barbecue Baby Back Ribs

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What Makes Good or Bad New York Pizza?

New York isn’t the only town with distinctive pies—just see Detroit style pizza for proof. But if you’ve been to New York City and never tried a slice of pizza, you’re doing life wrong. At least that’s how Scott Wiener from Scott’s Pizza Tours feels.

“NYC is an incredible pizza town because we have multiple ways of eating. It’s common for New Yorkers to eat quick bites on-the-go, which is why pizza-by-slice became the city’s culinary flag,” he says.

But recently, NYC has also begun to incorporate the sit-down pizza scene, taking pizza to more formal settings.

What is it about pizza, NYC and beyond, that’s so widely popular and universally desired? The answer, according to Wiener, lies in pizza’s endless versatility.

“Pizza isn’t a specific food, it’s more of an inclusive concept that can be stretched as far as you’ll let it go as an eater,” he says. “For me, pizza is at its most basic element—a bread item, but someone with Celiac can find something that contains no gluten and still consider that to be a pizza. I love that.”

Apparently, America loves it too. Pizza has become more popular than ever—about one in eight of us eats pizza any given day, and it’s no surprise that NYC is ranked high as one of the best places in the world to find a delicious slice.

When it comes to Big Apple pizza, there’s a myriad of options to choose from. Here are but a few:

Coal-Fired Pizza

Flickr (Pictured: John’s of Bleecker Street)

Wiener says coal-fired pizza is a NYC favorite due to the city’s proximity to coal mines located in northeastern Pennsylvania. What makes coal-fired pizza different and delicious is a crust that’s dry on the outside and soft on the inside—a texture that he says can’t be produced from a standard gas-fuel desk oven. John’s of Bleecker St. is among the oldest coal-fire pizza spots in the city, and one of the stops on Scott’s NYC pizza bus.

Neapolitan Pizza

Timeout (Pictured: Keste)

“The past few years have seen growth in Neapolitan pizza,” Wiener says, speaking to the classic pizza of southern Italy. Greenwich Village’s Keste is a mecca for this style, and also doubles as a pizza school for chefs and culinary professionals.

Classic NYC Slice

Yelp (Pictured: Joe’s Pizza)

Of course we can’t neglect the classic NYC slice, and Joe’s Pizza is one of the most famous places to enjoy this “quintessential” New York slice that’s “big, floppy, and foldable,” according to the Scott’s Pizza Tours website.

There’s one thing that Wiener wants to make clear, though: “You don’t need cheese to have a good time.” The vegans, lactose-intolerants and even gluten-intolerants of the world can still enjoy the beauty of pizza at places like Two Boots and Sizzle Pie.

Ultimately, Wiener says pizza is “really in the eye of the pie-holder,” so it’s up to you to decide what kind of pizza is the one. And with the endless variety of pizza in NYC, there’s no doubt you’ll find your pizza-mate sooner or later.

Related Video: How to Toss Pizza Dough (and Why You Should)

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