bushcraft - Moose Jerky

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Moose Jerky

Written by Yonderer

I’m trying to make room in my freezers as we just purchased a buffalo (American bison) from a friend who raises them. My secretary and her husband bought half, but still, both freezers are now full to the top. I canned some moose meat last week and this weekend I decided to make some jerky from some of last year’s moose roasts. Jerky is always a big hit around here.

I started with four roasts weighing about twelve pounds in total. I sliced them about 1/4” to 3/8” thick while they were still partially frozen.

After they were sliced I prepared the brine. I don’t use a recipe for this; I just kinda make it up as I go along. These are approximates.

1-cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Soya sauce
3 tbsp Celtic sea salt
3 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp crushed cayenne pepper
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups water

I heated the brine until the sugar was dissolved and then allowed it to cool. I poured the brine over the sliced meat in a marinating tray. I had too much meat for the tray so I had to use a plastic bowl, too.

I left the meat to marinate for 24 hours and remove it from the liquid and patted it dry with paper towels.

Then I placed the meat on the racks in my smoker. I had to do this in three batches, as my homemade smoker isn’t big enough to handle that much meat at once.

The smoker is designed to be used with a hotplate, propane stove or even placed over a smoky fire.

I used a pan of apple wood chips and used the hot plate to heat the pan of chips to smoking temperatures. The chips ignite and begin to smoke but don’t burn quickly.

The interior of the smoker stays at a pretty constant 150 degrees Fahrenheit. To save time I smoked the jerky for around 4 hours per batch and then finished drying the meat in my dehydrator.

From 12 lbs of fresh meat I ended up with 4 lbs of jerky. Not counting the half-pound or so of samples that the kids and I ate.

After I weighed the jerky I put it in smaller bags.

It tastes pretty good!

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