This kind of pig.

 

So I was cruising through the deep freeze to see what was in there when I came across a six pound pork loin. I haven’t done jerky in a while, so it’s fate was set.

 

I used a Thai style jerky recipe that is very simple and yields my favorite piece of jerky. I’ve done this with beef and moose, but pork loin is my favorite.

To start with, I trimmed the loin and sliced it across grain into 1/4″ thick slices.

 

As I mentioned, this recipe is pretty easy. For every pound of meat, mix together:

2 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1 tbsp light, or dark soy sauce (I use half and half)

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp white pepper

1.1 gm Cure  #1

 

Put the meat in a ziplock bag big enough to hold it all. I used a 2 gallon bag for this batch. Whisk all your ingredients together, add to the bag, and mix thoroughly. Seal the bag and into the fridge overnight. Turn the bag over a couple of times.

 

The next morning, I spread the slices out on racks and into the smoker*. I’m going to start at 100 degrees for an hour with no smoke to dry the pork. Then I add wood, ramp up to 140 for two hours and then 160 for another two hours. Four hours of smoke are plenty.

*If you don’t have a smoker, no big deal. Oven drying will still deliver a quality product.

 

From here, I move the meat to a 160 degree oven to finish the drying. Between smoking and drying, the total time was about nine hours.

 

To finish things off, I put the jerky in a brown paper bag over night to deal with any residual moisture as it cools.

 

You know why jerky is so expensive? I started with six pounds of meat and finished with two pounds of jerky. But it’s worth it!

 

 

Thanks for looking!