Jerky, Whole Muscle Vs. Ground??

[returnofsid]

Hi all!

I come to you in need of some advice...

I recently purchased a LEM 10 tray dehydrator and have been making a lot of jerky, using whole muscle, Top Round and scrap venison. I also have a side burning stick burner smoker.

Anyway, I want to try using ground meat.  I have a Harbor Freight meat grinder that I've yet to use, since purchased.  I just purchased an LEM Jerky Shooter.  Now to my questions...

1. When making whole muscle jerky, I'm very careful to trim all of the fat and especially every bit of silver meat.  I just purchased a 26 pound Top Round and trimmed it, just as I would to make whole muscle jerky.  Should I ADD fat, if I'm making snack sticks from ground meat?  I have a lot of real clean fat, from the fat cap of the top round?  Should I add that to the grind?  OR, should jerky from ground also be very lean, void of fat?  If I should add fat, what ratio would be best?  I plan to make round and flat snack sticks?

2. Spices...When making whole muscle jerky, after cutting to size,I marinate the meat 24-48 hours.  From what I understand, when making jerky from ground meat, you mix dry spices into the ground meat.  Is it better to mix spices and then let sit for 24 hours?  Doesn't seem like that would be necessary.  Is hand mixing the spices adequate?  Should I add any liquid to make mixing easier?

3.  Grind size?  My grinder comes with coarse, medium and fine grinding plates. I plan to grind coarse, to begin with, then grind medium.  Will this be adequate, or should I grind fine?

Any other words of wisdom?  When grinding, I know to freeze the grinder plates, and to cut the meat into cubes and freeze it for a bit.  Between coarse and medium grinds, I'll also chill the meat in the freezer for a bit.

Any answers to questions I've asked, or advice for things I haven't asked about, are very much appreciated!!

Recipes??

[Wolfdog2314]

1) I started making ground meat jerky last year and love it. I’d probably prefer whole muscle over it, but I like saving my whole muscle meat for other uses. The ground jerky is a nice change, easy to do, and a great way to use up excess burger. With that being said, I first used ground elk deer from a commercial processor with 10% fat added. Tasted great. The thing I didn’t like was the fat dries on the top of the meat and leaves that waxy fat residue. Which is really only making it “look” less appealing. I have some whitetail to grind myself. And I will be grinding it with NO fat added and using it for jerky.

2) I use the high mountain jerky packages and follow whatever the instructions say. Pretty sure for ground meat the marinate time is much less 4-8 hours or so, as opposed to the whole muscle.

3) Like I said my first round with ground jerky it was ground at a commercial butcher. I’d say it looked like a medium grind. When I do my next batch thru my own grinder, I will be doing the large and then medium grind. I think the fine grind is just toooo fine. Especially for making burgers and such. But maybe it could be even easier to chew?? I know I didn’t have any problem with the consistency in my first rounds of ground jerky.

I cut the whole meat in to about inch wide strips, as opposed to cubes. The grinder will really suck the meat thru that way. You want the meat pretty dang cold. So cold your finger start to hurt as you push it thru the grinder. My cabelas grinder I can take the whole elbow from the motor and I stick that in the freezer before I grind also.

I use a smoker, using a dehydrator id maybe add some liquid smoke
A lot of it all is trial and error. See what u like the most.

Check out the breakfast sausage kits too since your getting going on processing your own meats. Prairie sage 

Hand mixing is adequate. That’s all I have ever done. A little water, liquid smoke, yoshidas, or Worcestershire would work. Like I said I just use the Hi Mountain mixes. https://www.himtnjerky.com

[J.Brower]

I do ground jerky a couple times a year. I haven't added any fat, and my grind is pretty lean. Using the cabelas jerky seasoning mixes have worked well for me, we like the prime rib flavored one. I usually mix it up in the afternoon, put it in gallon ziploc bags in the fridge and mix it around every couple of hours. Usually let it sit over night and start the dehydrating the next morning. I have heard to add water to it before shooting it into the trays, but that seems counter productive to me (adding water just to dehydrate) and I havent noticed any issues with shooting the strips out. I haven't done round sticks yet, just flat strips.

[Jburke]

I've done it both ways, but started out using ground meat.  I never added any excess fat to the grind unless all I had left was burger than had already had some fat added to it previously.  It works fine either way really.  Then medium grinding plate is what I have always used and seems to work well.  For seasoning you can use any of the pre packaged seasoning mixes, I use the Hi Mountain original blend and then add some other stuff to the marinade.  I've done ground with a liquid marinade multiple times as well as dry seasonings.  I've got some whole muscle marinating to throw on the smoker tomorrow morning actually. 

[biggfish]

I like to use lem snack stick seasoning, I use ground venison and add 4 to 1 ground bacon ends and pieces. It adds a great smoked flavor. I find they need some fat and I trimmed heavily and there was little to no marbling in the last deer I shot. I think an 8 to 1 ratio could still make and excellent product.

Sent from my LG-K425 using Tapatalk