Bourbon Peppered Beef Jerkey

Directions

1. This needs to be done the night before you want to cook the jerky. First, place your beef in the freezer for one hour or so, so that it’s easier to slice. After about an hour, take a sharpened knife and slice it fairly thinly, about 1/4″ slices, against the grain. Trim off any fat that you see.
2. Next, prepare your marinade, mix it together in a bowl large enough to hold all of the sliced meat. Once ready, stir the beef into the marinade and make sure it’s coated really well. Wrap it up in saran wrap, and store it in the fridge overnight.
3. Next day, preheat your oven to 170, this is the best temperature for drying, rather than cooking, and will ensure it at least gets hot enough to kill any bacteria in the meat, rather than incubate it and make it worse.
4. Line the bottom of your oven in tin foil, so that any drips don’t make a mess of the oven. Then, lay out your beef on the oven rack as you see. It’s a little tedious, but it will be worth it. Cook your beef in the oven for about 4-6 hours, depending on how good your oven works, your exact cut of meat and the slices’ thickness, it’s going to vary a little bit. Two very important things to keep in mind: The first, is that you must cook your jerky with the oven door held open a bit by either a crushed can or a wooden spoon, so that the air / moisture can get out. Next, about half way, you may want to flip the jerky pieces. They can be a little tricky to rebalance, but the parts touching the metal wrack won’t have been exposed to the air enough to dry out. It won’t be that hot in the oven, so you can stick your fingers in there alright, for the most part. But seriously, don’t burn yourself. If you do, it’s not my fault.
5. Enjoy! Nothing intensifies the drama of having your eyes peeled on True Detective quite like chomping on this hearty snack.