Jerky

This week my ‘great white hunter’ has my camera so I have been unable to take any pictures. I thought maybe I would share his to-die-for jerky. To begin with, we don’t even own a smoker-we borrowed one from a friend. Then the cost of gas was killing us so we got creative. We bought a $13 hotplate and stuck it under the smoker tray. This takes a little longer by about 25%-50% but the price difference is great. I’m pretty sure we will be building one of our own soon. You can also do it in your oven, try and get the temp to about 120′. You do have to keep an eye on it every hour or two until you get used to the timing. Not too dry, not to moist.

Start with a couple pounds of cheap roast meat. London Broil is good, or just roast. Trim excess fat and slice about 1/4 inch thick strips, about 1/2 inch wide.

Brown sugar

Soy sauce

spices-garlic powder, onion powder, pepper

salt

layer in a deep casserole dish, starting with meat, then sprinkle with spices, including generous salt. Then generously with brown sugar, and pack it gently. Layer more meat, spices, brown sugar.

After you get your layers in, cover with soy sauce. Soak in the fridge for up to 24 hours.

Take your meat out, discard marinade and smoke your meat or dry it in the oven. The oven will not give you the smokey flavor I love, but it’s still tasty. You can use a drop of liquid smoke premixed in the soy sauce if you are desparate.

We prefer the hickory chips on the smoker, and generally it takes about 6-8 hours at 100′.

Be jealous. I’m eating some right now.

How to Freeze Fresh Corn for Later

In some ways maybe I should have been born a hundred years ago. Of course I love my electric stove, nice hot showers, and movies, but I also love putting away seasonal food for later. With rising food costs, it makes sense to take a little time now to save for my winter grocery bills. Heres a good example. I was at the grocery store the other day, and at the cheapest place (winco) green bell peppers were .38/each.  At my other store, (fred Meyer) they were 1.00/each. Last winter at winco they cost $1.50 each.  So I’m thinking I better get over to winco and load up, and freeze some peppers. I missed them last year.

Ok so the subject of corn. Some friends live next to a gladiola farm. In order to maintain the soil Mr. Farmer planted corn in his off year, and isn’t planning to harvest it. He told my friends to take as much as they wanted-they extended that offer to me. whoo hoo!! Free Bodacious Corn!! Aside from eating corn on the cob all week, I decided to freeze a batch. So after about 2 hours of work, I now have a nice batch in my freezer for winter. If you think you can’t do this, think again. It’s super easy, I did it in less than 2 hours, and we now have corn with no added sugar or salt. (yes, they put sugar in canned corn!)

What you need:

• Large pot for blanching
•  ice water-I fill the sink so I can add ice each batch
• large bowl
• good sharp knife
• quart size freezer bags
• plan 5 ears per bag, I did 40 ears and got 8 bags.

Blanching is just dipping into boiling water to kill bacteria before freezing. Water should be at a boil, and I leave corn in for about 1-1 1/2 minutes. With tongs I remove them to the sink to stop any more cooking. As you get your first batch cooled, you can be cutting while the next batch is blanching and then cooling. They should be cooled for at least 5 minutes. Please note that you can freeze it without blanching, at your own risk. Any tiny bacteria can make you sick and/or ruin your corn. Either way I think it’s worth the little extra time to be safe.

My sink looked like this, all my ice melted.

Cool corn quickly

 

Slice corn off into bowl

Scoop into freezer bags

Final Product

 About the time I get down to scooping into the bags I put another batch in to blanch. I stop when the timer goes off to quickly transfer with tongs from the boiling water to the ice bath. By the time my bowl is empty they have cooled down I am ready to slice again.

I am amazed how quickly this went. I definitely suggest it if you can get good/cheap corn this time of year. I plan to do a few more batches this week. Good luck and I would love to hear of your experiences!