Hand-Crafted Beef Jerky (Peppered)

One of my favorite snacks, is beef jerky.  I used to eat... I still eat pretty much any kind of jerky, but I have become more select in the brands or types I choose.  My all time favorite brand is Mingua Beef Jerky (it's a Kentucky made jerky, soo good), but seeing as I live in UT, and ordering jerky online is quite expensive... And I only visit KY about once a year, I hand craft my own "artisan" beef jerky!

There are a lot of styles, flavors, etc. when it comes to jerky.  One of my goals, besides flavor, is to let it compliment the natural beef flavor.  I already have a few different types I've done, Asian, spicy Asian, BBQ, garlic, and peppered.

I will keep creating different flavored beef jerky, but for now, I leave you with:

Peppered Beef Jerky (I'm am still playing around with this recipe):

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Fresh coarsely ground black pepper (use as little as much as you want)

1 Tablespoon coarse kosher salt

About 1 lb thinly sliced beef (I try to use a sirloin style chuck roast, because it's leaner with less fat marbling)

Directions:

Jerky prep step 2.  salt and pepper both sides

1. Slice the meat to the thickness you want (freezing the meat to where it's partially frozen helps with slicing*)

2.  Salt and pepper both sides of meat

3.  Refrigerate for 8 - 24 hours

4.  Lay strips of jerky on your dehydrator trays

5.  Start dehydrator, let run 4 hours before messing with it

6.  After 4 hours, begin checking the jerky every 30 mins. (The thinner the piece, the sooner they will be done, and depending in whether you want a chewy jerky or not, will also change the amount of time)

7.  Once the jerky is done, let it cool down before storing

*for more consistently sliced pieces, use a meat slicer