Beef Jerky Made In The Oven – Dry Rub vs Marinade

it’s time to make some more beef jerkybut today I’m gonna be making twodifferent types one with a marinade andone with just a dry rub yeahtwo different kinds today the totallyeasy method by just using the oven we’renot gonna fire up the smoker outsidebecause it kind of looks like it’s gonnarain so we’re just gonna stay indoorstoday what I’m working with today issome top round it’s also sold as Londonbroil that’s how it’s marketed but thecut is generally called top round youcould also use eye of round or honestlyany sort of cut you want and as I sayevery time I make beef jerky I don’tmake it for long term preservation itwill be gone in a few days four or fivedays max so I make it so that I store itin the refrigerator because I like itwith a little bit more chew to it Idon’t want it super dried out and whenyou’re doing it for preservation youwant it extra dried out so we’re notdoing it for preservation today that’snot how I make my jerky lots of videoson YouTube showing you how to make thatlong term preservation but I like itthis way so this is about a pound and3/4 top round cut and I just want to cutoff some of the excess fat from theoutside here I’m not going to worry toomuch about the inside if you are doingthis for long term preservation fat isone of the first things to spoil so youwant to try and get rid of the excessfat I know for all you biltong loversout there who’ve told me about that andI did try some and I liked it this isjust a different preparation method andon biltong generally from what I’ve seenyou leave the fat has a lot of flavornothing can argue with that that jerk isa different preparation method now thisI just chilled down quite a bit in thecoldest part of the refrigerator if Iwanted to make this super easy to sliceI could freeze this for probably half anhour really firm it up but in allhonesty it’s right after Thanksgiving myfreezers packed I don’t haveroom to put a cut of top round in thereto lay flat so first thing I want to dois I just want to square off one end abit and I’ll work with that cut offpiece in a bit and I’m just going tomake some quarter-inch slices here[Music]if you want yours thinner go ahead thisis about the thickness of the jerkypieces that I like I don’t think Imentioned this is a USDA choice cut buthonestly if you can get just select orwhatever it’s listed for in the case goaheadjerky turns out pretty good with justabout any grade of beef all right I’mgoing to go ahead and finish cutting upthis piece of top around and the otherone and then we’ll move on to gettingour dry rub and our marinade ready sofor the dry rub version of beef jerkywe’re going to be making a hot and sweetdry rub we’re gonna start with atablespoon of brown sugar to this we’regonna add a tablespoon of cane sugar ifyou can’t get cane sugar just double theamount of brown sugar one tablespoon ofground black pepper one teaspoon ofgranulated garlic 1 teaspoon of koshersalt and one teaspoon of red pepperflakes I get our lid on give it a shake[Music]that’s what we’re looking for all rightlet’s move on and get our marinade readyfor the beef jerky that’s gonna besoaking in that marinade now this isgonna be a honey soy marinade and we’restarting with a quarter cup of honeythat’s already in the bowl here becausetakes forever to pour honey I justdidn’t want to waste the time to thisI’m gonna add 1/2 a cup of soy saucetwo tablespoons of apple cider vinegarand two tablespoons of a very finelycrushed garlic pretty much pureed now weneed to mix this up you got to startslow because we got to work that honeyin here and get that to accept the moreliquid ingredients it’s soy sauce takeyour timeonce it starts to incorporate you canspeed up a little bit watch those edgesmake sure you get all that honey scrapedoffall right that’s looking good let’s getour top round pieces into the marinadeI’m gonna get these in here and we’regonna get in there and mix this upboth of these der keys are gonna go inthe refrigerator overnight in ziplockbags so they can really absorb theflavors and we’ll turn them into jerkytomorrow in the oven all right everybodythere looks nice and coated let’s moveon to getting our dry rub on the rest ofour top round so for the jerky piecesthey’re gonna have the dry rub I have apretty big bowl here because I want tobe able to toss them around in that dryrub there’s not a ton of it and we don’tneed a ton of it we just need to get agood coating on the outside so I’mactually going to start with the dry rubin the bowl and we’re just gonna add ourjerky pieces[Music]yeah I know you could use a smaller bowlbut this gives room to work plus it’seasier for the cameras to look into thisone so you can see this make sure youpull them apart so that all the sidesget coated here especially those redpepper flakes you want to make sureeverybody gets some of those on therethis is sweet and hot after all now eachof those pieces of top around cost aboutthree dollars they were on sale becauseit was the next day they were gonna nolonger be for sale so if you can getyour beef for jerky that way it makes iteven less expensive you know howexpensive it is just to buy beef jerkyalready made so just cutting that costdown even more by getting that meatright when they want to get rid of ittake it home turn it into jerky worksgreatalright this is ready I’m gonna get thisand our marinated pieces into ziplockbags in the refrigerator and I’ll seeyou tomorrowwhen we get it in the oven[Music]all right our beef jerkey has beenmarinating overnight and zorbing thatdry rub and we’re just gonna go aheadand get it on our racks all right so I’mgonna start with the marinated strips oftop round now if there’s too muchmarinade on these still sticking andthey’re too wet go ahead and dry themoff with some paper towels first thereason you want to do that is it justslows down the drying process in theoven if it’s too wet you get theselittle pieces with some stragglers justfold them back and if they end uptouching a little bit that’s alrightbecause they are gonna shrink up as theydry so don’t worry about you know just alittle bit of touching it’s not gonnahurt alright I’m gonna go ahead and getthe rest of the marinated beef jerky onracks and then that dry rub beef jerkyand then we’re gonna get it in our ovenalright our oven is preheated to ahundred and sixty degrees now if youroven doesn’t go down that low if you canget it to 170 this will work fine ifyou’re above 180 it’s gonna be a littlemore difficult I know some people havesaid they prop the oven to open a littlebit with like a wooden spoon to kind oflet some of the heat out I’ve never doneit that way we’re just gonna get ourracks in here[Music]probably gonna take between four andfive hours maybe a little longer it’skind of humid today it’s raining but inabout two hours we’re gonna rotate theracks so I’ll see you back here in abouttwo hours okay it’s been two hours timeto rotate these racks let’s see howwe’re doingoh look at that that’s starting toreally look like good jerky let’s see sowe’re gonna move and move our top rackhere middle rack to the top oh that wason the bottom rack to the middle andwe’ll check these again in another twohours all right we are at the five hourmark let’s give our jerky a check allthat is looking good let me pull out ourtop rack here check that you can seethat this is some of those nice fattypieces that we don’t have to worry aboutbecause we’re gonna be eating thisquickly it’s gonna be in therefrigerator but if you were doing thisfor long term preservation that fat isthe first thing that’s gonna startturning rancid but let’s see how we’relooking here see how that bends nicelydoesn’t break just starts to tear thereas you bend it I think we’re lookinggood here all right I’m gonna go aheadand get the jerky out and let it dry andcool down on the counter for about 20minutes and then we’re gonna have ataste[Music]all right here are two kinds of beefjerky we have the dry rub over here andthe marinade on this side and what areyou gonna do with beef jerky you’re notgonna stand here and show it and talkabout it I’m just gonna dive in becauseit’s time to taste now I’m gonna startwith some of the dry rub jerky andremember I make this to how I like it ifyou want yours drier go longer this wasabout five hours if you want it muchdrier than this just take it to six -seven – eight each time you stop andcheck it you got to decide is that asdry as you like it this is just how Ilike it a little bit of chew with it solet’s see mmm that’s good jerky thatflavor from the dry rub is right upfrontit hits you get a nice bit of heat therebut you’re getting the other things tothat black pepper so it seems like atabout the 5 hour mark – this drynesslevel that dry rub really intensifies interms of flavor on the meat and now fora taste of our marinated jerkylet’s see mmm I really like that mix ofthe sweetness in there sort of the honeyand the ginger together I mean the soygives you that saltiness but that honeyand ginger work really well together nowbetween the two which do I prefer thedry rub or the marinade it’s actually apretty difficult decision to make herebecause the dry rub just punches youwith flavor right away so if you likethat in your jerky where you just take abite and you’re hit with heat you’re hitwith flavor I think that the dry rub iswhat you’d want especially just to givethat a try but if you like a little bitmore of that mellow flavor and you couldpunch it up with some heat to themarinade just gives you sort of thatdeeper flavor it doesn’t hit you all atonce is as you get in your mouth youchew it a bit you really get ityouI have to say if I had to choose betweenthese two and I don’t really have tobecause they’re gonna go in therefrigerator and some Ziploc bags and Iget to eat them over the next severaldays but right now I think I wouldchoose the dry rub turned out great sodid the marinade but I really like thatpunch of flavor right up front mm-hmmso if you’re looking to make jerky youcould do it with a dry rub or with amarinade and you can do it in an oven ifyou don’t have a smoker or a dehydratorthere’s many ways to make jerky this isan easy one inside don’t have to worryabout the weather outside[Music]