why does this jerky look so dark? BLUEBERRIES!
Blueberries are plentiful and super fresh here, and I eat them by the pint all summer. On late summer hikes, we have blueberries and huckleberries growing right along the trails—kinda makes it hard to get anywhere! Bear mode.
When I’m in the wild, lunch is an all-day affair. Each morning in camp I pack a little stuff sack of lunchy foods to keep in the lid of my pack. This allows me to keep my main food bag buried lower in my pack where the weight carries best. Typically I’ll also put a baggie of snacks in my pocket, especially when I’m hiking with a group; my hummingbird metabolism (or is it T Rex?) requires me to eat frequently on the trail, and this way I don’t hold up the group suggesting more frequent stops than would otherwise happen.
On hard hiking days, given my druthers, I get to camp and find I’ve inhaled all the carbs, sugars and fats in my lunch bag, and what remain are the proteins. Seems when my body is burning hard, it wants instant glucose to make more ATP (more on that another time). But that protein is important too!
So, the eat-all-the-carbs-and-no-protein habit was remedied by creating ways to make my proteins extra tasty. How?
- Change the texture (ground beef jerky vs. whole meat jerky strips): Rosemary Thyme Ground Beef Jerky
- Make it super savory (such as adding herbs like rosemary or sage): Sage Maple Beef Jerky
- Include some sweet or carbs in it (such as maple, honey, or dates, or adding in plantain or cassava flour: Pemmican with Dried Fruit and Greens.
I still tend to reach for carbs first, but now that my protein sources are spruced up, I eat more of them on the trail and my body gets what it needs during the hike.
Blueberries!
To increase my protein-source recipe repertoire, I’ve been playing with variations on flavored ground beef jerky. Currently I’m experimenting with blueberries.
Blueberries are high in:
- Antioxidants
- Fiber
- Vitamin K
- Manganese
- Vitamin C
They are known to boost brain function, fight inflammation, and help promote heart health. Most important, they are tasty!
It didn’t take long to come up with a recipe I love. I played around with the maple, lemon, berries, and some other items (not in this recipe), and I found this version to be delicious and simple to make.
I always make at least a double batch, to save half for eating before and after my in-town workouts along with some carbs.
Blueberry overtones and a light texture
If you’re not much of a beef jerky person because, well, BEEF flavor, this may be the recipe for you! While you can still taste the beef a bit, this recipe has sweet blueberry overtones.
If you’ve had my Rosemary Thyme Ground Beef Jerky, you know the satisfying texture that’s got just the right amount of chew to it. This jerky has a slightly lighter texture—I suspect it’s the berries that make it so. I do use a lean ground beef, so depending on the fat content in the beef you use, yours may come out chewier than mine.
As with all my recipes, I suggest making a single batch, then if you like it, quadruple it to save on prep and drying time for future batches. It freezes and defrosts nicely.
Blueberry Ground Beef Jerky recipe
Time: 15 minutes prep, 4 to 6 hours dehydration time, with monitoring every hour
1 batch makes makes six to seven 2×12 inch strips
At six strips, each pair = 1/3 lb ground beef (think 1/3lb burger)
Ingredients
1 lb organic grass-fed ground beef (I get mine here)
1.5 cups organic blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp coconut aminos
a ceramic bowl filled with water, weighting the berries in the bag
TIP: If using frozen blueberries, defrost them completely first. Otherwise, frozen bits will snag in the extruder and make it hard to lay out the jerky. This also leaves holes in the jerky strips. To defrost them, I put the bag in a bowl of hot water and weigh it down with something solid. If you’re in a rush, place the berries in a sandwich-sized ziploc, press them into a thin layer, remove all the extra air, and immerse in the water.
Instructions
Prep the beef
Prep the ground beef by grinding it further in a large food processor for about 30 seconds. If it balls up into one mass, break it up with a spoon. UNPLUG THE PROCESSOR TO DO THIS!
Re-grinding the meat makes it easier to extrude with the jerky gun (also called an extruder), and it makes for a really nice texture. An 8-cup food processor fits 1 lb of meat perfectly; you need some extra room in there for it to grind properly.
Mix
Once the beef is well-ground, add all remaining ingredients to the food processor and mix until well-blended.
If you have a standard 8-cup food processor, mix one batch at a time. Don’t try for 2 lbs at once—it won’t mix well.
Make sure the beef and berries are smoothly mixed in the food processor. UNPLUG THE PROCESSOR and dig around in there with a spoon to check. If you leave beef unmixed, you’re more likely to have fatty chunks that block the mix from coming out of the extruder. Dealing with that will double your prep time. Below is a photo of mix that hasn’t been blended well enough yet.
Lay the jerky on trays
Jerky gun (extruder) method
Turn the mix out into a bowl. Using a large spoon, load the jerky extruder all the way (this jerky extruder holds roughly one pound of mix). Press out the air pockets as you go; they will cause gaps in the jerky strips.
see the air gaps? get rid of those
that gap in the jerky is from an air pocket
Put the tip of choice on the jerky extruder, and slowly push the lever to move out any extra air. I prefer the widest size for this.
Slowly press the lever to see how fast the mix comes out.
Lay down strips of jerky mix directly on your dehydrator trays, leaving ½ to 1 inch of space between them. Adequate air circulation is needed for proper drying.
The moisture in the berries makes this mix fairly flexible; try to avoid laying it out ultra-thin—this will help it attain normal jerky chewiness.
If you use a dehydrator, don’t use parchment paper or impermeable dehydrator tray liners; you want the fat to go away from the meat, and it won’t if you use those items. Typically there shouldn’t be so much fat it drips on the tray below.
If you use an oven, you’ll likely want to use the paper on the tray, so you’ll just need to be more attentive to removing the fat as it dries (below), and you may need to replace the paper halfway through drying.
blueberry beef jerky ready to dehydrate. the blue spots are the skins of the berries
BEGINNER TIP: If you’re new to using a jerky extruder, you may feel like you have no control over how it lays the mix down on the trays. Have patience, you’ll get better at it. If things go sideways, you can scoop the mix back up and reload it in the extruder!
By-Hand Method
For instructions on how to form ground meat jerky by hand, go to this post. However, this jerky mix is stickier than my Rosemary Thyme Ground Beef Jerky and I recommend using the jerky extruder for it. If you do it by hand, have a bowl of water handy to wet your palms periodically as you lay out the strips.
Drying
Dehydrator:
Line the bottom of your dehydrator with parchment paper; if fat drips this makes cleanup easier.
Place the loaded trays in the dehydrator and set to 155°F.
Dry for 4 to 6 hours, until the strips are dry but not brittle; they will dry further in the last step (below), and you don’t want blackened jerky. Trust me on this one.
Oven:
Set the oven to 155°F. Prop the door open a wee bit with a heat-resistant kitchen utensil to allow moisture to escape, and check the temperature periodically. Adjust temp as necessary. Drying time will likely be longer than for a dehydrator. Make sure wee flying creatures can’t get in.
Remove fat as the jerky dries
Excess oils make jerky more prone to rancidity later on. As the beef dries, the fat will migrate to the surface. You can help avoid early spoilage by removing the fat as the meat dries.
How to remove the fat
1. About one hour into drying, check the meat for fat sitting on top. If you see fat, take the trays out (close the door to keep the temperature up) and use non-toxic paper towels to gently blot the fat off. Be thorough. You might be tempted to lift the pieces up and get underneath, but it’s likely the jerky is still somewhat tender, so don’t try that yet.
2. At 2 hours, do the blotting again. This time, turn the jerky strips and blot the bottom side too. Leave turned and return to the dehydrator or oven.
If the beef is very fatty, the jerky can end up sitting in fat on the dehydrator tray. If this happens, simply blotting it each hour won’t remove enough fat. If you have extra trays, just transfer the jerky sticks onto fresh trays for the second half of drying.
If you don’t have extra trays, it may be worth taking the strips off the trays and cleaning the fat off the trays with a paper towel. Reload and continue. Again, it’s worth it. Extra fat will make the jerky more likely to spoil.
3. Continue blotting every hour until no fat shows on top or underneath. You might need to flip it again.
4. Once the jerky is done, check for remaining fat, and do a thorough blotting if necessary.
IMPORTANT LAST STEP: Post-drying heating to assure meat safety
According to the experts, jerky meats need to reach a temperature of 275°F for ten solid minutes to kill any pathogens present. Solid meat types handle pre-dehydration heating, but with ground meats, post-drying heating is the easiest method of assuring food safety.
NOTE: This last step is important for maximum food safety. Personally, I skip it only because the beef I use comes from a local ranch with high cleanliness standards. I’ve visited, and know the owner. However, I would not trust a ranch I’d never been to. The choice is up to you; the food dehydration research experts recommend the post-dehydration cooking for safety.
How to heat the jerky after dehydration
- About 20 minutes before your jerky is ready to take out of the dehydrator, preheat your oven to 275°F. You want the oven at full temperature when the jerky comes out of the dehydrator so you can put it straight into the oven without it cooling down.
- IMPORTANT: The oven must be to temperature before you put the meat in; the meat needs the full 10 minutes at 275° but it’s also easy to burn, so you have to play the balance by having it in the oven for the full time at the high temperature, but no more.
- Once the meat is dehydrated, immediately place the strips onto a baking sheet with no overlapping. Place in the preheated oven immediately, so the jerky retains its heat.
- Heat in the preheated oven at 275°F for 10 minutes.
- Watch it closely for burning. It can go from fine to dark in a blink.
- At ten minutes (or earlier if turning dark) remove the jerky from the oven.
- If you have fat running in the pan, set it at a secure, slight tilt to drain all the fat into a corner.
- Right away, use tongs to move the jerky to a plate or other dry, cool surface, so the heat of the baking tray doesn’t darken it further.
- Blot fat away one more time if necessary.
- Cool to room temperature before packing for storage.
Why don’t I include this final post-dehydration baking step in my Sage Maple Beef Jerky? Because in that recipe, much like ceviche, the meat sits overnight in a mixture of vinegar and lemon juice, which effectively ‘cooks’ it, making the post-drying heat step unnecessary.
Storage
After the post-dehydration heating, let the jerky cool completely before storing.
Package the jerky in an airtight, preferably light-proof container. Make sure to label it with date and ingredients.
Store in a cool dark place if you’ll be eating it within a few days. Store well-sealed in the fridge or freezer for longer shelf life.
It’s very important to make sure your jerky is fully dried and fully cooled before packaging. See my Jerky 101 page for more details on meat drying techniques, storage and safety.
I hope you enjoy this blueberry ground beef jerky as much as I do! I’d love to know what you think of it, and if you experiment with any flavor additions!
