Help!! I want to make some Goose Jerky on the BBQ

bill c68

bill c68

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Ok, I have never made Jerky ever.
I have 8 goose breasts, thinly sliced in a marinade of HP, soy sauce, rum and bbq sauce.

I have some apple wood chips and a BBQ.

What next?

I have done some research and cannot find any recipes or instructions, so what I am thinking based on bits and pieces from other recipes is...

200 degrees, indirect heat, a foil tray over the heat with the chips in it, about an hour and a half and voila!

Will this work? any ideas? tips? tricks? Am I doing it all wrong?
Also, if I run out of room on the grill, would the top rack work as well?
 
You general plan looks OK, but no curing salt??? you will not have jerky you will have dried smoked meat. Cure makes the meat safe to store for a long time, but you do not even mention using regular salt. You need one or the other or both. I use a commercial jerky cure & spice like Hi Mountain. You could use Morton's Tender Quick with your home made mix. Cure ( sodium nitrate) is also sold as "Prague powder" in butcher supply stores.
 
Good to know... actually the recipes I found didn't have salt either,,, but the HP, Soy sauce and BBQ sauce is loaded with salt.

Any idea how much and when to add it? in the marinade or in the smoking process?
 
I use a commercial jerky mix , a Brinkman smoker with willow wood and then used to finish drying in the oven but have since gotten a dyhydrator.

I must have an allergy to liquid smoke as any food containing that stuff leads to a frantic trip to the crapper within 20 minutes of my ingesting it. Same goes for any Hickory Farms product and a few brands of bacon.
 
First did mine in the oven and turned out real good, wife started yelling because it stunk she said. So next batch went on the BBQ, all I can say is they splintered in my mouth way to dry for my taste.
 
Don't try to make it in an hour or two. Traditionally, it is dried very slow. Outside, hanging in the air, vey light smoke fire underneath, bit of a shelter to let air through but help confine the light smoke, no heat from the fire = good jerky.
Give it curing salt first, with some flavour, if you desire.
In the rel world the most difficult operaton is getting the right amount of salt falvour, in the finished product.
 
I hope you post the results you get.

I am afraid that the BBQ will be too hot even with indirect heat. Can you prop it up some too, maybe that would help?
 
Well, I tried it, definitely done too fast, I kept the bbq at around 200 degrees, after reading the last 2 posts, I could try it again at a lower temp, My Q will go down to 150, 175. I did try some up higher on the warming rack.... but I relearned that heat rises and it was way too crispy.

The oven batch was ok but lacked the flavour of the smoked product.
Both were not salty enough.

I may just have to try it the more traditional way, outside maybe build a box or a lean to and just dry the stuff, kinda scary hanging meat in the open goes against everything we have been taught about food safety.

My father has a used smoker in his attic, a flea market find, i'll have to check it out.
 
I've tried making goose jerky, years ago.
Soaked in salt brine and prolly over dried it while cooking\ smoking in the smoker?.

Wasn't too bad, quite tasty actually, just too dry and chewy.

Never took it to the next level of jerky experience.
More moisture would have made it better I think?.

Mostly cause I like goose slow cooked in the oven and can have a great meal and sandwiches or snacks from the same slow cooked goose.:D

Good luck..:)
 
We've always made alot of goose jerky by cutting the breast into 1/4" slices. Putting it into any kindof marinade you want overnight or a day or two, then we just put into a electric dehydrator till you think its done, normally its done after a day. Always worked great and is probably my favorite way to eat goose, and it isnt that salty either if you just do like a sweet rub instead of salt brine.
 
I don't make a brine, beats the heck out of me why you would add water before trying to dry it out.;)

Try skipping the water. Just put your salt, spices etc in with the meat ina large container and leave it on the counter overnight. When you check it in the morning you will find the salt has drawn a lot of the moisture out of the meat and you can just pour it off before it goes into the smoker/dehydrator.

This works very well with fish also.
 
Joe, the salt right on it. Good point, what I said about brine, I really didn't mean you had to soak it in l iquid brine. Direct on the meat, salt and maybe some brown sugar with it, is certainly a popular way, jerky or fish.
However, I also find it difficult to get the right amount of salt flavouring that way, too.
With fish I tried using a much weaker solution of salt, along with some brown sugar, to soak fish in overnite. Just rinsed off with cold water in the morning, dried in the air for a few hours, or overnight, then smoked.
In reality, I can't see that soaking in water makes it any moister than just putting the salt on it. But, by using the weak salt solution, it seems much easier to end up with a better flavouring of salt, with a tendency of not getting too much salt in it.
 
With fish, I find the length of time the salt is on the fish more important than how much you put on. For what I call "white" fish, (whitefish, goldeye, grayling, bass etc) max cure time 8 hours, less if the pieces are small. Whole fish or bigger halves, the full 8 hours. For what I call "fatty" fish, (ie, Lake trout) they can easily go 12 hours or more as they seem to absorb salt slower.

Putting the fish in the refridgerator to cure will also hinder salt absorbtion somewhat versus leaving it on the counter. Not a tremendous amount mind you, but enough to sometimes compensate for life's unexpected annoyances.

Red meat seems to absorb salt readily, I always use the fridge to cure. I use a 1 gallon pickle jar for jerky, I think deeper containers give a better flavor/salt distribution.

You are right, soaking in water will not make it moister, but letting the salt extract the water does make it dry faster. I like to hang my fish to smoke it, if you start off with some off the water removed, there is less chance of the fillets ripping of the hooks. Then cold smoke for several hours, and ever so slowly increase the heat to dry the fish/meat rather than cook it.

Damn, now I'm hungry!:)
 
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