To help ensure homemade pork jerky drying goes smoothly with no harmful bacteria surviving while still keeping the meat tender, most recipes utilize a curing stage. But two primary curing technique camps exist in jerky recipes – salt-centric brining or tangy acid marinades. What’s best for flavor and safety? Let’s weigh their pros and cons!

Salt Brine Benefits

• Enhances existing pork flavor
• Provides necessary salt content for preservation
• Alters protein breakdown for a tender yet toothsome texture

Salt Brine Drawbacks

• Requires careful monitoring to avoid overly salty end jerky
• Needs exact refrigerator temperature regulation
• Celery powder necessary for safe curing

Acid Marinade Pros

• Infuses bright complementary flavors
• Tenderizes through acid reactions
• Quicker than full brine stage

Acid Marinade Cons

• Risk of overly acidic/sour flavor
• Can impart bitter notes if over-marinated
• Less leeway with strips drying at margin temperatures

While acid marinades offer great creative flavor blending opportunities, salt brining remains the gold standard for the safest level of pathogen protection. If going the acid marinade route, use cure enhancers like celery juice powder to hedge safety bets. Combine both methods to get the best of both worlds! First brine then marinate before drying into fantastic pork jerky.

When selecting raw pork to transform into your next batch of delectable homemade jerky, not all cuts make the cut. Choosing lean, tender pork portions allows for the best moisture, texture, and big flavor payoff once marinated and dried into chewy jerky perfection.

Many favorite pork jerky recipes call for loin cuts thanks to large uniform muscles producing ample meaty chunks while keeping fat and connective tissues low. Center-cut pork loin yields those ideal long, flat slices perfect for getting seasons penetrated throughout. Flanking sections of the loin also produce wonderfully tender jerky.

Further down the back, the pork tenderloin also offers premium lean, supple meat that excels for slicing for jerky. Given its name, it’s no surprise this cut creates exceptionally tender jerky chunks that easily soak up bold marinades. With two tenderloins per hog, you get double the jerky-ready meat in one small protein package.

Shoulder butt or Boston butt portions high in marbling surpass other cuts too for moist jerky imbued with richer mouthwatering flavor once all that fat slowly renders and bastes the meat. Go low and slow when drying and just trim off the remaining surface fat after slicing across the grain into strips.

While bacon jerky certainly tantalizes tastebuds, sticking to ultra-lean yet tenderloin cuts eliminates chewing through chewy fat bits. Their uniform grain and muscle structure take wonderfully to thin slicing necessary for jerky success. Treat your jerky-loving taste buds by starting only with prime pork cuts so tantalizing homemade jerky can be yours!

It is premium because you would see after you remove the fat cap, that the muscle there is very lean.

It makes it easy for you to slice the meat against the grain.

Additionally, there is no gristle, bone or connective tissue that blocks your slicing action in the loin. And finally, the pork loin is so affordable to any budget.

Just make sure that the pork part that you use has 10 percent fat or less because the fat is very fast in turning rancid and the fat that’s in excess will be leaking out of the dehydrator.

IS PORK JERKY SAFE TO EAT?

Yes, it’s safe as long as you use farm raised pork when you make pork jerky.

The fear of eating pork jerky is based on usual concerns of eating undercooked pork and contracting a trichinosis infection.

But as of the present time, trichinosis is known to be completely eradicated in the US for decades now.

So it means pork jerky is safe to eat.

For a fact, if your procedure for making pork jerky includes curing it with salt and nitrites (kills harmful bacteria) and placing the meat in the oven and completely cooking it at 325 F temperature, you’ll bet in a hundred years you won’t ever contract trichinosis.

It is reiterated that farm bred pork is best for making pork jerky and pork loin is the best cut.

So this means that when you bag a wild boar on your hunting trip, don’t get its meat to make pork jerky.

WHAT DOES PORK JERKY TASTE LIKE?

It has a smoky barbeque smell with typically Southeast Asian flavor. It has a sweet and salty taste; it is glazed with light sugar; and has a semi dried texture.

For most pork jerky lovers, if it doesn’t have a charcoal-grilled flavor without the old-school taste, it’s not real pork jerky.

But if you live in a place that is not fitted for a barbeque, you can still attain that barbecuey and charcoal grilled flavor as long as the pork jerky is sun fried, then smoked.

After that, it should be roasted in the oven or fried in a pan that’s nonstick. You’ll be surprised that you’ll get the charcoal-grilled flavor that you desire.

Pork jerky is great as a snack, eaten with bread, noodles or rice. It’s low in calories and fat and full of protein.

Pork jerky’s nutrition makes you recover faster, build up more of your muscle and you feel fuller throughout your day.

Pork jerky’s nutritional value is constantly being criticized. It could be a bit high in sodium content, but if you only consume one serving and then you sweat persistently, it’s of no worry at all.

There are also questions about MSG, sodium nitrate and artificial flavoring, but pork jerky manufacturers are aware about this concerns.

So what they do is most (if not all of them) don’t use these additives anymore on their pork jerky.

So, to attain that barbecue flavored pork jerky on your dining table, it took a long procedure before you get to enjoy it. But it’s worth the wait. Here’s the process:

Two to three pounds of pork loin is trimmed, then sliced and cured.

To make the pork jerky really tender, slice the meat against the grain in 3/8 inch strips with the use of a jerky board so you can get nice consistent slices.

A jerky board makes it easy for you to work and it’s easy to clean up afterward.

Never slice the meat more than 3/8 inch because it makes it more difficult to dry the meat well.

Then, cure the meat with nitrites, salt and flavorings for a minimum of 8 hours in the fridge. You can use a commercial jerky cure or you can make your own.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of apple juice
• 2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon of commercial jerky cure
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper

Mix the seasoning and cure in a bowl. Add one fourth of the mix to the pork and stir well to make the distribution as even as possible to all the pork sections.

After this stirring period, add in another one fourth of the mix and keep on repeating this process until all the seasoning and cure are evenly distributed on the meat.

Put the seasoned meat into a bowl, cover and then put inside the fridge overnight. This will make the cure absorb well into the meat.

The following day, extract the pork from the cure.

Then pat it dry with paper towels and lay the meat out on a drying rack placed on a sheet pan. Don’t let the pieces of pork meat touch each other.

Now, place the meat in the oven at a temperature of 325 F for 20 minutes.

This will guarantee that the pork is completely cooked and safe. Food safety is a priority.

Get the meat from the oven. Now, lower the temperature to its lowest setting, maybe 150 F.

Open the oven door again and return the pork.

This will dehydrate the pork. It will take about 5 hours for the pork to be dry and pliable but check-in between because it might be done already.

When it’s served on your dining table, enjoy the barbecue flavored pork jerky that you’ve been desiring for.

In the next section, you will be guided on ways on how to eat pork jerky.

HOW TO EAT PORK JERKY

1. Crumble it on salad. It’s like premium bacon bits. Sliver them on your salad with tomatoes and arugula. Season with salt, pepper, vinegar and coriander and add more vegetables and herbs of your choice.

2. It’s nice when mixed into cornbread. When you stud cornbread with bites of pork jerky, it would be a pleasant siding for your roast chicken or roast beef. Mix in some jalapeño slivers into the batter for that tasty kick.

3. Simmer into tomato sauce.

A little bit of pork jerky in that pasta sauce give it a pleasant richness. Put in olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and grinds of fresh black pepper. Then add diced pork jerky and let the whole mix gently bubble and give that pleasant smell into your whole house.

Pour this mixture over pasta and serve with meatballs and polenta.

4. Whip up pork jerky immersed beans.

Comfort food which is a cozy bowl of beans is made more satisfying with minced pork jerky. Simmer green peppers, onions and garlic in olive oil.

Add in a can of beans, chicken or vegetable stock, a few pinches of cumin and then minced pork jerky.

Serve with cornbread that also has pork jerky toppings to reinforce the jerky goodness of the beans.

Then you need to keep reading this article because we are going to share with you 5 easy recipes of bacon jerky that are completely keto-friendly and just require less than 20 minutes and a few ingredients.

Black Pepper Bacon Jerky

Estimated time to prepare: 20 minutes

Time to cook: 2 hours

Ingredients you need:

• 1 tbs garlic powder.
• 1 tbs ground cumin.
• 1 tbs smoked paprika.
• 1 tbs chili powder.
• 1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper.
• 1 pound uncured center-cut bacon.

How to Prepare

1. Preheat the oven on the lowest setting. Around 150 F.
2. Mix the garlic powder, cumin, paprika powder, and pepper in a large bowl. Add the bacon and coat it with the mix.
3. Before starting to bake the bacon place a few baking sheets on the bottom part of the oven so it catches all the fat the bacon renders. Place the bacon on the top rack of the oven.
4. Bake the bacon for about 2 hours or until it reaches the level of jerkiness you are looking for.

Sriracha Bacon Jerky

Estimated time to prepare: 10 minutes.

Time to cook: 10 hours.

Ingredients you need:

• 2 Tablespoons of Sriracha sauce.
• 6 drops of stevia or another low carb sweetener that you prefer.
• 16 oz of uncured bacon.

How to Prepare

1. Preheat the oven at 250.
2. Cook the bacon for about 2 to 3 hours. Make sure to drain off the grease and blot the bacon with a paper towel. You can use the grease for other recipes.
3. Place the bacon on a dehydrator. Expect to dehydrate for around 8 hours or until it reaches the level of jerkiness that you expect. About 4 hours in brush the sriracha sauce with stevia on one side. Wait a couple of hours and brush the sauce on the other side. You can’t do this recipe only using the dehydrator because the bacon renders a lot of fat.

Honey and Bacon Jerky

Estimated time to prepare: 10 minutes.

Time to cook: 3 hours.

Ingredients you need:

• 2 pounds of uncured bacon.
• 1 cup of stevia or another low-carb sweetener.
• 1/2 cup of honey.
• 1/2 cup of sriracha.
• 1 tsp of ground black pepper.

How to Prepare

1. Preheat the oven to 170 F.
2. Mix in a large bowl the sriracha, the honey, and the black pepper.
3. Make sure the bacon is dry (if not, use a paper towel to dry it) and put it in the bowl to coat it with the mixture.
4. Place the bacon on the top rack and make sure to place a few baking sheets on the bottom rack to collect the dripping fat. Cook for around 3 hours or until it reaches the jerkiness you desire.

Special Bacon Jerky

Estimated time to prepare: 20 minutes.

Time to cook: 4 hours.

Ingredients you need:

• 2 pounds of uncured bacon.
• 1/2 cup of coconut aminos or tamari sauce.
• 2 tbs of fish sauce.
• 1 tbs of coconut vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
• 2 tsp onion powder.
• 2 tsp garlic powder.
• 1 tsp smoked paprika.
• 1 tbsp coarse black pepper.
• 1 to 2 tsp of sea salt.
• 2 tbsp of stevia or another low carb sweetener.
• 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper.

How to Prepare

1. Prepare the marinade mixing the coconut aminos, fish sauce, coconut vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, freshly ground black pepper, sea salt, low carb sweetener, and cayenne pepper.
2. Brush the sides of the bacon with sauce.
3. Place in the fridge for 8 hours to marinate or overnight.
4. Preheat the oven to 160 F. Place them on the top rack of the oven, place a baking sheet on the bottom rack to collect the dripping fat.
5. Cook them for 3 to 4 hours until it reaches the level of jerkiness that you desire.

Candied Bacon Jerky

Estimated time to prepare: 10 minutes.

Time to cook: 3 hours.

Ingredients you need:

• 100 grams of a low carb sweetener.
• 1/4 tsp of cayenne.
• 10 strips of bacon.

How to Prepare

1. Preheat the oven to around 225 F.
2. In a large bowl mix the brown sugar and cayenne. Dip each slice of bacon on both sides on the sugar mixture. Place them on the top rack of the oven. Place a few baking sheets on the bottom rack.
3. Bake the bacon for around 3 hours or until it reaches the level of jerkiness you desire.

Sources

https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/lchf/the-best-low-carb-homemade-beef-jerky

Though there are some small prep steps, making pork jerky is essentially a 2-step process: marinate, then dry.

I will be using pork as my meat of choice, but you can use almost any meat to make jerky, but stay away from raw poultry, as the texture and flavor of the finished product are often unpleasant.

My favorite cut of meat to use is pork loin because it is healthier and cheaper than the traditional choice of beef.

Plus, pork loin is especially lean, which will result in a higher quality finished product. Fat quickly goes rancid in dehydrators, so it’s best to go as lean as possible for jerky.

After the meat choice, the most important aspect of the recipe is the seasoning you choose for the marinade.

Countless seasoning combinations can lead to any number of jerky flavor profiles, from the classic salty and smokey, to sweet and spicy, feel free to experiment with spices and marinades until you find your favorite combo.

I particularly like this marinade from the National Center for Home Food Preservation:

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon each of black pepper and garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon hickory smoke-flavored salt

Along with these ingredients, you will need 1 ½ -2 pounds of pork loin to complete the recipe.

The full recipe time should be around 9 hours, depending on your specific dehydrator and how long you choose to marinate your pork, with 2 ½ hours for prep and 6 for dehydration.

To prep the pork, let it rest in the freezer for at least 1 hour. This will firm up the pork and allow for cleaner cutting.

Then, remove the pork from the freezer and slice the meat into thin strips no thicker than ¼ inch. If you want a chewy jerky, slice with the grain.

Slice across the grain if you want a more tender, brittle jerky.

Trim and discard all excess fat from the meat, we don’t want any rancid flavors seeping in.

Combined the meat and marinade in a shallow container, making sure all pork pieces are covered by marinade, or that all pieces get an even coating of seasoning when using a dry marinade.

Refrigerate the meat and marinate for at least 90 minutes; overnight would be best. The longer you marinate, the deeper the flavor will be.

I usually marinate mine for at least 12 hours. To complete prep, remove the meat and marinade from the fridge and drain.

To dry the pork, place the pieces, in a single layer, on the racks of the dehydrator, which should be preheated to 155 degrees Fahrenheit.

Let the pork dehydrate for 6-10 hours depending on your dehydrator.

Check the meat every few hours in the beginning, then increase to every hour near the end.

The meat will be sufficiently dried when a piece will crack, but not break when bent.

The jerky will be hot when it is done, so remove it carefully from the dehydrator.

Let the jerky cool to room temperature before eating or storing.

Once finished, you can store your jerky for up to 2 weeks at room temperature in a sealed container. To increase the jerky’s shelf life, you can refrigerate or freeze your pieces.