Beef Jerky - Indonesian Style.

Yes, you read correctly - Indonesian style beef jerky.

First, a little legal stuff: Making jerky from any meat can be dangerous to your health if it is not prepared, cooked and stored correctly. Do not make jerky unless you are absolutely certain that you know what you are doing and even then you should do it in consultation with someone who has done it before and knows what they are doing. I will give this warning only once, being this time. For all future recipes I will give only the marinade recipe and leave it up to you to decide how to cook the jerky. You elect to make it by your own free will and therefore the results are because of your efforts alone. I am not liable in any way, shape or form for your illness or death or any event related to this blog entry or any other I may make anywhere at any time.


That said, let's have some fun!

Beef jerky is one of those things that you either love or hate. Being a brewer and therefore a beer drinker I love some snacks to eat with my brew on the balcony of an evening. Beef jerky and pork jerky are just two of my favourite brew foods. I will teach you some more types later.

What's beef jerky? Easy - it's dried thin slices of beef. Sometimes it's plain with just a little salt and pepper, other times it is flavoured with herbs, spices and all kinds of amazing, interesting and tasty things.

As far as cost goes, it's a slightly expensive snack because the finished product is around one-seventh of the weight of the original piece of meat you started with. Most of that loss is because of the drying process - in other words, the weight is lost to evaporated water. However, if you consider that around 30 grams of beef jerky costs AUD$7 or more, then taking a twelve dollar 1.5 kilo slab of corned silverside and turning it into jerky you will end up with at least 200 to 275 grams of top grade product. Money saved and a happy mouth!

When I first made it, I thought it was really difficult and was somewhat scared. It's really easy, but you need to put two good ground rules in place:
* You must dry the meat at over 80C and less than 85C for more than two hours as part of the drying process and
* You must trim as much fat and sinew as possible.

Why? The 80C for two hours part is about killing off as many bad bacteria and other microbes that may be present. These non-beneficial organisms will either make you very sick, possibly dead or make the jerky spoil.

For this reason, I dry at 80C for the duration of the process. Despite jerky being able to be stored without refrigeration I prefer to refrigerate. How you choose to cook and store is up to you, as is the result because you made that decision.


Here's how to do it:
* Trim as much fat and sinew from the meat as possible.
* Slice the meat along the grain into thin strips. About 2 - 3 mm is best, but up to 5 mm is OK. Too thick and it will take too long to dry out and be incredibly hard to chew, too thin and it will be like leathery, dried carpaccio.
* Mix up your marinade of choice. It's entirely up to you what you want in it.
* Marinade for at least one day, up to three days, in the fridge.
* Dry in the oven at 80C until done (four to six hours, maybe longer). If you have a food dehydrator you can use that - just follow the manufacturer's instructions.


OK - basics out of the way - here's the Indonesian style beef jerky recipe for you.

Why Indonesian style? I like the flavours of Asia with Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore being my top South East Asian favourites. There is something slightly more home-spun and comfort-food about it to me. I like good traditional Thai food and adore Cantonese food without reservation. Not the restaurant stuff we suffer out here - the real thing.

Let's cook!

What meat?
* Meat. 1.3 - 2 kg of lean looking corned silverside will do well for this recipe. Rump, scotch, rib-eye, whatever you like.
* Remove as much fat and sinew as possible.
* Slice along the grain into 2 - 3 mm thick slices.
* Put the sliced meat into a large container with a lid, ready to add the marinade.

Meat sliced and ready to be marinated.

Here's what you need for the marinade:

* Two tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter
* 185 mls (3/4 cup) of Kecap Manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
* 30 grams hot chilli powder
* 30 grams Korean red pepper powder
* 1 tablespoon of Lao Gan Ma chilli oil sauce, chicken flavour
* 1 tablespoon of Bumbu Daging Sate (Indonesian satay sauce)
* 2 tablespoons of Sambal Oelek (Indonesian chilli, garlic and shrimp sauce).

Here's a pic of the less common ingredients to make it easier for you to find those:



Optionally, you can add the following:
* 1 tablespoon of tamarind paste for some sourness
* 1 - 2 tablespoons of palm sugar for some warmth and depth to offset the chilli hotness a little.
And here's what you do with all of those yummy ingredients:
* Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan over low heat until they're well combined
* Allow to cool off to room temperature.
* Spoon the marinade onto the meat slices in the container and then use your hands to squish the marinade among and into the meat, making sure each piece is coated.
* Put the lid on the container and put it into the fridge.
* Marination time for this recipe is around 24 hours, but up to three days won't hurt it.

Marinade in the saucepan, cooling down.

Marinated silverside ready for drying in the oven.

Sprinkle some dried chilli on top before drying to give it a little more kick.

And here's how to cook it:

* Pre-heat your oven so that it's stable at 80C. If you use a digital thermometer like the cheap one from Ikea, it makes it easier to accurately set your oven. It's better to allow the oven to pre-heat for 30 - 45 minutes so that the temperature is very stable. YMMV.
* Put the marinated meat onto the wire racks.
* Cook at 80C for four to six hours. Leave the oven closed at least until four hours have passed, then check quickly every so often until the jerky has reached your preferred level of doneness. Opening the oven gets rid of the moisture, but it also crashes the temperature. As with everything in life, balance brings good results.
* Allow it to cool off for about half an hour or so, package it for storage or start eating!


Enjoy!


PS. I must give credit to Paul Mercurio for the basis for this recipe. He participates in a forum where I am also a member. He posted a recipe for a pork jerky which I tried and didn't find to be exciting enough for my palate. I borrowed from his recipe and adjusted it to be spicier, richer and more flavoursome.