A while back, I made the peppered jerky kit from Cabela’s, and it was fricking amazing. So – this week, I was thumbing through the circulars, and found this advertisement:

That’s right: Boneless Bottom Round roasts for super cheap! It’s usually $3.99/lb up here, so that’s a bargain. Bottom Round might not the ‘perfect’ jerky meat, but I used it last time, and it worked out awesome. Some folks will say the flank steak is the best jerky meat – and maybe they’re right. They’re also probably from the south where the shit is $2.99/lb – I pay $7.99 up here…

Regardless – This was my countertop shortly after I got out of work today:

  I trimmed as much silver skin and fat off as I could, and started slicing them up nice and thin –  how thin?

Pardon my nasty hands, that pic was taken towards the end of processing! I cut some with the grain, some against – some thicker than others – it’s all going to become jerky and delicious.

Then of course, it was time for the cure and the seasoning:

Like I said – I used the Cabela’s peppered jerky kit – it’s great. Hand mixed until uniform.

I had 10 lbs of meat total which is perfect for the 5lb increments that the 15 lb capable kit allots for, so I actually did two batches. One batch was the regular peppered jerky as is, the other was doctored up with some key ingredients!

HEAT baby!

One problem with jerky is that it disappears. Friend, Coworkers – they just jump all over it. Making it hot as hell (but still tasty) is one way to get your chili-head fix, and extend the life of a batch of jerky. Plus, you can watch people try it and watch them start crying when they realize it’s got some serious heat on it. (that Dave’s insanity is no joke for people who think I’m going light on the spice with the redhot and Sriracha. I certainly made sure the ‘hot’ batch isn’t for kids.

So that’s it – they’re going to hang out in this bag for the next 2 days – I’ll probably smoke these on Sunday afternoon!

Stay tuned!