Wild turkey jerky??

[hypox]

Just wondered if anyone has a recipe for turkey jerky?? I've seen it in stores and just thought it might be good. Thought I just might try to make a little...anyone ever try it??

[Salmonsmoker]

Hypox,

There is certainly no reason why wild turkey would not make an excellent jerkey. One suggestion - go to the store and buy a turkey-breast roast and experiment with that.

It seems that some of the flavoring in pre-packaged jerkey seasonings might be too strong for turkey meat. On of the things that I have done with my venison jerkey is to take the packaged seasoning and add an equal amount of dextrose sausage sweeting to it. When the jerkey is dried in the smoker, it makes a sweet and smokey final product. My feeling is that sweet and smokey would be an excellent way to go with turkey meat.

Let us know how it turns out. Also, next week (since this is Mother's Day weekend and we have plans) I will get a chunk of turkey meat from the store (don't have any wild turkey meat to experiment on) and see what I can do with it. Will keep you posted on my progress.

Salmonsmoker

[Salmonsmoker]

Hypox,

Here's what I came up with in an experiment that I did with a chunk of turkey meat that I bought in the store.

Sliced the meat with the grain (I used my meat slicer to insure that all slices were consistent. By slightly freezing the meat to a point where it is firm, the same thing can be accomplished with a sharp knife.)

Mixed 1 part Backwoods meat cure and 1 part Dextrose Sausage Sweetner.
Took 1/2 cup of that mixture (I have worked with brines long enough to go by the taste and the idea with today's jerky making is to give it a good flavor rather than making a food product that will not spoil over the winter) and disolved it in 4 cups of water.

Put the Turkey slices in the brine (in a plastic container) and mixed it around to insure that all of the meat surfaces were exposed to the brine.

Put the container in the frig for 24 hours - mixing it every 2 to 4 hours.

Put the slices directly onto my food-dehydrator trays for about 1.5 hours (this one is a judgement call - The longer the jerky is in the dehydrator, the tougher it will be) then turned it over and continued the process for another hour. By this time the strips were about 2/3 dry.

Put the half of the strips into the smoker for about an hour (bring the smoker temp up to 180 degrees to set the protien in the meat) using Oak wood chips that I get from a local sawmill. Made an excellent smoked turkey-jerky.

Put the other half of the strips into the smoker for about an hour using Shagbark Hickory that I get from the woods. I love the smell of Shagbark Hickory smoke but it was too strong for the turkey meat.

So, my recommendation - test a recipe on some store-bought meat, change and perfect that recipe on some store-bought meat. Then, when you have a unique flavor that you really like, make a batch of your own knock-your-socks-off turkey jerky from the wild turkey meat.

Finally, let us know how it turns out.

Enjoy

Salmonsmoker

[hypox]

Salmonsmoker,

Thanks for some of the suggestions. I just got a turkey breast from the store yesterday. I'm gonna try a few different batches with it. When I find the one that I think will be the best with the wild turkey, I'll give it a try. Hopefully, I'll make a knock-your-socks-off batch:) If I do...I'll definetly post the results.

[gamegetter]

I deboned my turkey and soaked it in this brine

1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 quart apple juice
1 tbls rosemary
1 tbls sweet basil

Then I smoke cooked it for about 3 hours til it reached 170
on the meat thermometer. I also used half apple juice in
the water pan. Turn out pretty good Iwould recomend giving
it a try.

[Salmonsmoker]

Gamegetter,

Is your recipe for jerky or for a whole breast-fillet?

Salmonsmoker

[gamegetter]

Salmonsmoker that recipe is for a whole breast.