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This Peppered Venison Jerky has an outstanding fresh cracked black pepper flavor!
The soy sauce and worcestershire sauce also give this recipe a really nice sweet and salty taste.
This deer roast was harvested in South Texas on a hunting trip with some buddies. I freezer packed the roast until I was ready to make some jerky. I let it partially defrost and sliced it into ¼" strips.
The marinade is a pretty basic mixture of soy sauce, worcestershire, pepper, and curing salt. This batch marinated in the fridge for about 20 hours before dredging in fresh cracked black pepper and put in the dehydrator.
You can see the marinated meat was strained in a colander and each piece of jerky dredged on ONE side with fresh black pepper. I would recommend only doing one side of the jerky as both sides would be way too much pepper.
The strips were placed on my Nesco Dehydrator and dried for 2 hours at 160F and another 2 hours at 145F. The final result was very tasty. The jerky had a nice sweet and salty taste with that spicy peppery flavor coming out towards the end! If you do NOT like salty jerky, use low sodium soy sauce when making this recipe.
For more in depth directions on how to dry your beef or venison jerky, click on the pictures below.
Ingredients
Lean Beef
- 1 lb Venison Roast
Marinade
- ¾ cup soy sauce (low sodium if wanting less salt)
- ¼ cup worcestershire sauce
- ½ tablespoon pure ground pepper
- ¼ teaspoon prague powder #1 (Curing Salt)
Toppings
- ¼ cup coarsly ground fresh black pepper (enough to cover ONE side of each jerky strip)
Equipment
Instructions
- Trim all visible fat from the venison and place in freezer for an hour or two to partially freeze.
- While the meat is in the freezer, combine the soy sauce, worcestershire, ground pepper, and curing salt in a bowl or ziplock bag and mix well.
- Remove the meat from the freezer and slice ¼" strips against the grain for an easy chew. Cut with the grain for a more chewy jerky.
- Add sliced venison to the mixture in a ziplock bag or bowl and marinate for 8-24 hours in the refrigerator.
- After the meat has finished marinating, remove from refrigerator and strain excess marinade in a colander.
- Freshly grind about a ¼ cup of ground pepper in a bowl or plate.
- Dredge ONE side of each jerky strip with your desired amount of fresh pepper
- Dry with your favorite jerky making method. I used my Nesco Dehydrator and dried for 2 hours at 160F & 2 hour at 145F.
- The jerky is finished when it bends and cracks, but does not break in half.
Nutrition
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Edward says
Great recipes, have made quite a few beef.
Unfortunately not much venison/deer available here so have substituted Kangaroo meat which gives a richer mouth feel.
My favourite is the Peppered Deer with half the Soy and half the Worsteshire to make the end product less salty thus enhancing the Roo flavour.
I also add toasted Coriander seed to the pepper dredge for extra depth of flavour
Was wondering whether the is a recipe for chicken jerky or would you use the Turkey recipes.
Thanks from DownUnder for a great site
Will says
I don't have any chicken jerky recipes, but the turkey recipes will translate to chicken very well. I would love to make some kangaroo jerky, maybe I need to see if I can find it in the store... Thanks for stopping by the site Edward!!!
Formica says
Hi Will,
I made this recipe using beef instead of venison as it seemed like a great, super basic, peppered recipe to start with.
I used Trader Joe's Low Sodium soy sauce, which is some of the best tasting soy sauce I've ever had. Even better it's two bucks a bottle and ultra-low-sodium - 460mg per tbsp, which is way lower than every other low sodium soy sauce I've looked at.
That said, I made this recipe, and it came out very salty. It's not inedible - really, it's pretty danged tasty - but it's still too salty for my taste. What's the best way to reduce salt content under these kind of circumstances? I'm using Prague Powder so I'm not concerned about reduced salt affecting preserving the jerky. Should I just start reducing the soy sauce and adding water?
Will says
You must be like my wife. Us testing jerky goes like this: Me "Needs more salt", Her "Way too salty". Our taste buds are totally different! I love salt, she likes just a little bit. The only thing you can really do to cut back on the salt is exactly what you mentioned. Just cut back on the soy sauce and substitute with water.
Eric says
First off, I tried this recipe, and it was fantastic. I hunt a lot, and I'm always looking for a new way to enjoy my venison.
I personally added some garlic powder, onion powder, and some steak seasoning I had on hand(that I never use for steak...) as well.
I also make this same marinade without dredging in pepper because some of my family aren't a fan of the pepper. Still fantastic.
I've bought the snack master dehydrator on your recommendation as well, but I will be using my Weber Smoky Mountain for some as well.
I really appreciate the helpful website; I plan to try more of your recipe's in the near future.
Will says
Yeah, this recipe is a tasty one. I'm glad you are finding the website helpful. Let me know how the other recipes you try turn out!
Leroy Terry says
As I said before, been making jerky a long time. Tried High Mountain, and most every other recipe trying for the right Teriyaki flavor. I found it.
PaPaw’s Jerky Recipe
2-3 Pounds Eye of Round Roast sliced across grain in about 1/8 - inch thick slices. Can use brisket, top round, bottom round roast, or London broil. Brisket can be tough. Trim off as much fat as possible.
1 cup- Brown sugar
1/8 Tsp – Curing Salt
1 Tsp Onion powder (not onion salt)
1 Tsp Garlic powder (not garlic salt)
1/2 Tsp Cayenne pepper
1 cup Teriyaki Marinade
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Worchester Sauce
1 Tsp Paprika
1/4 cup Water
Stir above ingredients into a large bowl. Add meat and refrigerate for about 24 hrs.
Preheat smoker to 165-170 °
Place meat strips on wooden skewers and hang on top rack. No water in pan.
Use smoke for not more than two times and check after 2 hours. Pecan wood is good.
If thinner pieces are done remove and leave thicker pieces another 1/2 -1 hour.
Test often. Jerky should bend and crackl, but not break when cool. Don’t heat too long as it will get tough.
Remove and let air cool on rack in house then place in Zip bags. Will keep a couple weeks or so in fridge. About one week out of fridge.
More Cayenne pepper can be added to above ingredients to taste.
Mike says
You have to try the Hi Mountain Cracked Pepper and Garlic dry marinade