I recently purchased a dehydrator, and want to make my own jerky. The main reason I want to make my own jerky is that I am not a huge fan of the soy/Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar flavor that overpowers store purchased. In fact, the only commercially available kind that I really enjoy is Chipper Brand (that comes in the little bottles); so if you have tried it, you will understand what I mean- It basically tastes like meat with salt & pepper, and not overly sweet.
Which brings me to my question: In all of the recipes I have found via google; they all call for several cups of both of the offending sauces, and brown sugar. Is there any reason for this other than taste preference, or is there a need for them during the curing process?
I believe the only thing that is necessary is some salt to slow spoiling while the meat dries. Worchestershire and soy sauce provide this, but are not the only way to add salt.
I’ve had good luck seasoning jerky with marinades from the grocery store, but you could easily make one to suit your own taste. Sounds like a simple mixture of water, salt, pepper, and maybe a little vinegar (also retards spoilage) would be good for you, but you’d have to experiment to get the proportions correct.
I’ve found some of the lighter vinegar based marinades let a lot of the meat flavor through, but if you want the most basic recipe, just use a brine for the marinade.
You’ll have to experiment with the salt to water ratio. Looking at soy sauce, 1 tbsp (15ml) contains 1g of sodium, so a similar salt concentration would be… Looks up molecular weights… 2.5g salt/tbsp, or 40g/cup. …Measures a heaping teaspoon of NaCl… 11g… So that’s just shy of 4 heaping tsp of salt per cup. Mind you, that’s brine at the same salt concentration as straight soy sauce, and you’ll have to look at a recipe so see how much this is diluted into the marinade.