Gamer Food: Homemade Beef Jerky

For those in the US, I hope you’re enjoying your Memorial Day festivities!  For everyone else, happy Monday!  Today we’re going to be making some tasty homemade teriyaki beef jerky with our new Home Dehydrator!  Don’t have a dehydrator yet?  Click that link to see how to make one for under $20.00!  No excuses!

Teriyaki Beef Jerky

Ingredients:
Top sirloin or strip beef steak
2 cups low sodium soy sauce
1 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1 teaspoon pepper

Preparation:
Mix all of the above ingredients in a large zip-lock style freezer bag.  Put your steak in the freezer for five minutes to help firm it up a bit (it makes it easier to cut into thin strips).  Take out the steak, trim any visible fat off (these should be very low fat cuts anyway) and cut into thin strips about six inches in length.  Stick the steak strips in the freezer bag, remove as much air from the bag as you can, zip it up, and stick it in the fridge for 24 hours.  This helps the steak soak up the flavor, and the acids in the orange juice help to break it down so it’s nice and tender, even after you’ve dried it.

After 24 hours, take the steak out, shake off as much of the liquid as you can without going crazy, and salt both sides.  Then, stick the strips in your dehydrator, turn it on, and let it go.  In my dehydrator with a 150 watt heat bulb and a small fan in the bottom vent going, it took about three hours for my jerky to fully dry out.  You’ll know it’s done when it holds its own weight(it doesn’t flop over when you hold it by one end), and is dry to the touch.

Enjoy!

Jerky is a great source of protein, and pretty sin-free as far as diet goes.  It is high in sodium, which you need to watch out for if you have high blood pressure, but besides that it’s nicely portable, tasty, and packed with protein!

That’s is for today!  Come back tomorrow for our Booker DeWitt character breakdown!  Please don’t forget to like the blog on Facebook, and follow on Twitter and Tumblr.  While you’re at it, if you enjoyed this post, please share/retweet it to your friends!    As always, remember to live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome.

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace

PS: Have you joined The Champions Guild yet?  You really should think about it…