Home-made Beef Jerky. No nasty preservatives

Im a big fan of Beef Jerky, but reading the back of the packet of the store bought stuff puts me off. Check out the ingredients on this list form store bought jerky...Beef, Water, Sugar, Soy Sauce Corn Syrup Solids, Flavourings, Hydrolyzed Corn Gluten, Dextrose, Flavour Enhancer, Monosodium Glutamate, Antioxidant: Sodium Erythorbate, Preservative: Sodium Nitrite, Smoke Flavour. Preservative 250. Not to mention the supermarket charges $5.50 for 75 grams. That's $73.20 per kg!! NO Thanks.

My local butcher usually has larger cuts of beef at discounted prices. The last batch of jerky I picked up 5kg of beef rump for $5.50/ Kg. That's what the supermarket charges for a packet. As you can tell i usually make a big batch. My family and friends are constantly nagging me too make more. This recipe is what i use for per kg of beef...

Ingredients

1/4 cup Soya sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
2 tablespoons Honey
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon racked Black Pepper
1 tablespoon Garlic powder
1 tablespoon Onion powder
1 tablespoon Pakrika
1 tablespoon Seeded Mustard
1 teaspoon Chilli flakes (optional)
Also optional is liquid smoke I use 1 tbs, But this stuff can be hard to find!
These ingredients are per Kg!

Now for the beef, many cuts can be used. Some will take more or less skill to cut, a sharp knife will help. Also if you freeze the beef for 30-40 mins before slicing it will be easier to handle and cut. Cut the beef to 1/8 of an inch of 3-4mm.
If you feel really uneasy about cutting the beef you can always get your butcher to cut the meat in to steaks. Then when home place the beef between 2 pieces of cling wrap and flatted with meat mallet. Then cut into smaller pieces.

Method

• Place all ingredients into a large bowl and mix well, then add the beef slices.
• This need to be wrapped and place into the fridge for a min of 8 hours up to 48 hours.
• Then if you have a dehydrator put it on to the highest setting and lay out the marinated beef. There a number of variables that will change the dehydration time. The make of machine, the thickness of beef, how much is in there and so on... the best bet is to give it 4-5 hours then give a piece a try.
• and if you don't have a dehydrator, you can use your oven. Put the over on it lowest setting, lay out the beef on the racks and remember to place a piece of aluminium foil on the bottom of the over to collect any spills and drips.
  
  

This is a photo of a batch i did before the dehydrator changed my life :)
Hope you give this a GO!