Life au Gratin

Happy Valentines Day!  Nothing like waking up to discover that it is is -27 Celsius outside!  Oh – and our pipes are frozen so we have no water. Awesome.

So what did we do?  We bundled up, cranked up the smoker and made some seriously delicious beef jerky.

I have a rather embarrassing confession to make.  I love, love, love beef jerky.  Yes – the kind you buy at the grocery store.  You know the stuff I’m talking about – the super salty, super chewy, super awesome stuff that comes in bags and has the shelf life of a Twinkie.  YUM.

Despite my love for this product, I never, ever, ever allow myself to buy or consume it as I am well aware of the ridiculous amount of sodium as well as numerous random chemicals and preservatives.

Our local grocery store had an awesome sale on beef round, so for our romantic Valentine’s Day, we challenged ourselves to make our own jerky.   Love is in the air folks!

To start, we sliced the beef as thin as we could – approximately 1/16th of an inch.  We put it in the freezer for an hour so that it was easier to cut.

Once that was done, we started on the marinade.  We went classic – our thoughts were to try to replicate that traditional, smoky, salty flavor with our jerky.

Classic Jerky Marinade

• 1/2 Cup Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/2 Cup Low Sodium Soy Sauce
• 1 Tsp Liquid Smoke
• 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 2 Tsp Black Pepper
• 1 Tsp Red Chili Pepper Flakes
• 2 Tbsp Sriracha
• 2 Tsp Honey

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

We then placed the sliced beef into Food Saver bags, and poured the marinade over it.  We sealed the bag, trying to get rid of any air bubbles.  Once sealed, the bags were placed in the fridge, and were left to marinate overnight.

Once the beef had a chance to hang out in that yummy marinade, it was time for the dry rub.

Dry Rub

• 2 Tsp Black Pepper
• 1 Tsp Cayenne
• 2 Tsp Chili Powder
• 2 Tsp Brown Sugar
• 1 Tsp Paprika
• 2 Tsp Kosher Salt
• 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 Tsp Onion Powder

Remove beef from the marinade, and place on a flat surface.  Apply rub liberally to both sides, patting down the excess as you go.

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From there, we placed the beef on the smoker racks, and put it in the smoker.