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i've made a couple beef jerky videos
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before but both of those have used my
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electric smoker to get that sort of wood
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smoke flavor
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today i'm going to be showing you an
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easy way to make beef jerky
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in the oven and still get some smoky
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flavor
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[Music]
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before we get to the actual cut of beef
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we're going to be using need to make the
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marinade that's going to go on these
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beef jerky pieces i'm doing it in this
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large bowl because we're just going to
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put the cut strips of meat in here once
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our marinade is ready and we've sliced
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up the beef so we're starting with a
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third of a cup of apple cider vinegar
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you could use red wine vinegar if you
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wanted to
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third of a cup of worcestershire sauce
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third of a cup of soy sauce
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a tablespoon of cracked black pepper a
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tablespoon of red pepper flakes
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a teaspoon of granulated garlic
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a half a teaspoon of kosher salt
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and for that smoke flavor we're going to
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be using some liquid smoke today liquid
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smoke comes in several different flavors
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i'm going to be using mesquite today now
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i'm going to be putting one teaspoon of
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liquid smoke in here if you like a
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smokier flavor add more but it is pretty
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powerful
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now we're just going to give this a nice
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mix
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all right we're going to set this aside
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and move on to our beef all right so
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what i'm working with today is some top
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round this is one piece of it i have
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several pieces of it but i'm just going
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to show you this first piece that i'm
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going to cut on camera
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this has been in the refrigerator for
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about 30 minutes to
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firm up it's going to make it a lot
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easier to slice as thin as you want
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i like my pieces not super thin
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and i like to trim a lot of the fat off
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now i've had a lot of comments on some
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of my beef jerky videos about leaving
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the fat on especially for people who are
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used to eating something called biltong
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i've never had biltong but it looks
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really interesting i believe it's a
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south african snack it's used also in
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australia new zealand i've had a lot of
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comments from those areas about it and i
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do want to try making that but this is a
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sort of a traditional beef jerky and
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this cut is top round which a lot of
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times you'll see sold as london broil so
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i've removed a lot of the fat here and
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i'm just going to start slicing it now
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the choice is across the grain with the
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grain across the grain will give you a
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tender bite when you pull on it
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with the grain you're going to have a
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little bit more of a pull
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it's up to you i'm just actually going
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to slice this straight across here
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trying to keep it as squared up as
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possible
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we're just going to start at the end
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here
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the first cut is always a little
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difficult especially when it's
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been in the freezer and you can see we
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have this extra little piece here that
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i'm just going to go ahead and cut off
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here and we'll just cut that separately
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with the other pieces so now i have my
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piece squared up here
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and i'm just going to go slowly here
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and this is a little too thin for the
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way i like it so they're going to be a
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little thicker pieces
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and no the knife is not dull this is
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almost frozen
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as soon as you get into the meat you
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feel the resistance released
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that outer part
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is
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almost flash frozen
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i'm going for anywhere from an eighth of
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an inch to a quarter inch thick on these
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pieces
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i'm going to go ahead and finish slicing
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this up and the rest of it i'll bring
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you back when we're ready to marinate it
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all right so what i have here is just a
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little under four pounds of sliced top
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round now a couple pieces i did leave
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some fat in i know a lot of people in
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comments said leave the fat
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i can leave the fat because i'm not
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preserving this this is going to be
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eaten within a couple three days and i
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store it in the refrigerator if i was
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taking this to a level of dryness where
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i wanted to preserve it where it can sit
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out just in a jar on the counter or
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something like that
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fat is the first thing that will go
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rancid it will turn bad so that's why
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you try and remove as much fat as you
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can when you're going to be making this
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for preservation in the american jerky
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style so now we're just going to get
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this in the marinade got our bowl of
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marinade here i'm just going to start
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putting the pieces in
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we're going to give them a good mix with
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our hands
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if you want to put them in a ziploc bag
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you can that's really easy to marinade
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them put them in the refrigerator
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[Music]
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and i'm just going to work the marinade
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over these pieces
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i want to get everybody to have a good
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coating here the beef is still very very
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cold from being in the freezer and this
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is going to go in the refrigerator for
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an hour
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i said this was going to be a short
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process and i wasn't kidding now if you
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really wanted to give this a lot more
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flavor leave it overnight leave it six
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or eight hours but you're going to get a
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lot of flavor in here just in the hour
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[Music]
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all right this is going to go in the
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refrigerator i'll see you in about an
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hour all right so our beef jerky has
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been marinating for an hour that's all
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and as i said before you can marinate it
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much longer but this is sort of the
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quick and easy version of beef jerky
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made in the oven so here are several
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pieces of it there are a lot more stolen
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a bowl but i just want to show you what
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you need to do here which is dry it off
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a little bit
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you just want to take off some of that
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excess moisture
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not all of it
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the rest is going to dry out
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in the oven
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and just turn it over
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and get some of the excess off the other
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side you can see we still have a lot of
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those nice red pepper flakes and cracked
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black pepper on the surface all right
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i'm going to go ahead and finish drying
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off the rest of this and i'll bring you
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back when we're ready to get it on the
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trays all right our top round slices are
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dried off not completely there's going
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to be a little bit of moisture on them
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that's fine
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we just wanted to get the excess off so
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what i'm going to do now is transfer
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them to these baking racks that are
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resting in a tray and the tray is there
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just to catch drippings if you don't
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have something like this you could
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actually do it straight on the oven rack
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just make sure it's clean clean those
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racks first and then on the very bottom
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rack at the base of your oven line that
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with foil or a large pan to catch any
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drippings you can also do it straight on
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a baking sheet like the one that's under
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here just in a couple hours into this
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you're going to want to turn them over
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this way you don't need to turn them
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because there's going to be air
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circulating around all sides so i'm just
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going to start placing
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my strips
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on here and any little ones just kind of
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tuck to the edge there
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but really you want to try and keep them
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from overlapping if they touch a little
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bit that's fine they're going to shrink
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up quite a bit
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[Music]
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move on to our next tray
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[Music]
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i may have to do some creative cramming
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on this one with the amount left we'll
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have to see
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you could just save the rest freeze it
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thought out make jerky later
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again if some of them touch that's not a
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problem they're going to shrink
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and open up space here got a little bit
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left over that's okay i'm gonna save
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that i'll make a batch of jerky a little
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bit later today let's get these in the
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oven all right our oven is preheating to
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160 degrees
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these are probably going to take
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somewhere between three four hours but
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we'll check in about an hour
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all right it's been an hour let's have a
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look at our beef jerky
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all right let's see how we're looking
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here
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now one difference between this and
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using the smoker is you would have had a
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darker color already because you'd be
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having smoke rolling over this but it is
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looking good here
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starting to get the shrinkage the first
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little bit on the edges
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it's still going to have at least two
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more hours to go like i said this is
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probably going to be a three or four
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hour process but
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it smells great right now so we're just
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going to close it up let it keep going
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all right we are three hours in let's
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see how we're looking
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[Music]
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oh look at that
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there we go
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we are getting that real jerky sort of
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color here look at that you can see that
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and see that still very very very
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flexible i want to get that dried out
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more
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so i'm guessing another hour is probably
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going to take us to
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where i would want this jerky you may
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want it drier and you can take it longer
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it's completely edible right now in fact
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if you notice
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on the bottom shelf there's a missing
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piece i took a taste it's really good
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so all right this is going to go back in
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another hour
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we'll check it
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and we'll probably be pretty close to
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how i like it to be done
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all right we are at just about four and
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a half hours i let it run just a little
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bit longer when i checked it at four
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it's just a little bit
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less than i wanted so let's see how
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we're doing now
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oh look at that
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nice color
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this is what i'm looking for right here
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let's see let me grab this piece back
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here
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look at that
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this is what i'm looking for right here
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i like just that little bit of flex in
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there
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if you're doing it out on the smoker
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you're going to get a lot more airflow
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you're going to get a little bit more of
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a drying action in this shorter amount
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of time but in the oven you get a little
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less airflow unless you're running
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convection
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i didn't run convection in my oven today
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but that is just what i'm looking for
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so let's get these out of here and have
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a taste
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and here we go
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beef jerky a nice little assortment on
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the cutting board
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gotta tell you this just smells amazing
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i told you i cheated and took a little
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taste earlier
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it just
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i love beef jerky i've loved it since i
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was a kid it was always a treat to me
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when my parents would buy beef jerky in
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the store
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and now i can make it myself
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let's have a taste
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got a nice this piece right here this
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one has some fat in it i can tell just
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from
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right on the back side here
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so normally i wouldn't do this with fat
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there were a few pieces that i decided
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to let go through with the fat
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i know it's going to taste good but
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let's see
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oh mom
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if you can't
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use a smoker outside
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and you want that smoke flavor
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using liquid smoke is fine if you have
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no other option and you want that smoke
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flavor
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don't hesitate to use it don't let
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anyone tell you you can't use liquid
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smoke if you want that flavor in beef
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jerky or in anything
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a teaspoon of it in this marinade gives
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perfect smoke flavor
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the total time in the oven was about
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four and a half hours at about 160
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degrees
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your oven may be different ovens can
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range by 30 degrees remember they don't
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just stay at a temperature they go up
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and then they turn off and they come
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down and then when they're below it then
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they go back up
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so you're not going to have a stable 160
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degrees all the time
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that's okay the key is giving it that
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sort of low and slow time here now this
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is only a four and a half hour drying
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process if you want this dryer if that's
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the way you like your jerky you're
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probably going to go six or seven hours
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i doubt you're gonna have to go much
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longer than that if you use a thinner
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cut it's going to dry much quicker i
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like mine cut about eighth to a quarter
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inch and so i like that little bit of
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bend in it especially when i'm doing it
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inside in the oven
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and it just is amazing
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and if you're planning to make beef
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jerky like i am not for preserving it
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you don't have to use top round or eye
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of round you can use sirloin you can use
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tri-tip
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try some different meats see what works
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well for you the key is if you're making
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it without the idea of preserving it
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you're going to want to store it in the
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refrigerator if it makes it that long
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so if you have friends coming over you
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have a party and you want to give them a
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real treat
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go ahead use the oven get some good beef
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some liquid smoke a great marinade
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make some beef jerky it will be the hit
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of the party
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and it just is not going to last very
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long
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[Music]