Umami Beef Jerky

I’ve been working on a beef jerky recipe for a while, since I bought my dehydrator several years ago. My best jerky to date was a galangal-infused batch — gingery and tropical and really good — but I think I may like this one better.

I decided that it ought to just be one big umami blast. So I sliced three pounds of eye of round (from Mike Gale’s Chileno Valley Ranch) as thinly as I could, and let it marinate overnight in solution of kecap manis (homemade, another post for another day), balsamic vinegar, umami salt, and plain bubbly water. My half-baked theory is that the bubbles create maximum flavor by sheer popping distribution, but I could be full of crapola.

Here’s how it’s done: pour roughly half a cup of kecap manis, half a cup of cheap balsamic, and a bottle of bubbly water into a large mixing bowl, add the beef — it should be meticulously trimmed of ALL fat — and let it sit for at least four hours, preferably overnight. After a good marination, cup a ball of beef with your hands, and squeeze; we want to remove as much liquid as we can. Place it in a clean kitchen towel and dry it off as best you can. Then layer it in the dehydrator trays without crowding the pieces of beef. It should be moist and a tad sticky. Liberally sprinkle on umami salt and freshly cracked pepper, set it to 155 degrees, turn it on, and forget about it for about 4 hours. Final yield is about a pound, but a pound is a lot of jerky!

It’s the perfect little snack when you crave a protein hit but don’t want a full portion of something. The flavor just pops — there are so many naturally-occurring glutamates in this beef:

• kecap manis, with its soy blast
• balsamic is full of umami
• umami salt made from kelp, shiitake, and parmesan

that we could even call it “drool beef,” since salivation just goes into overdrive.

Would love to hear from other jerky makers, and to answer any questions, so please speak up!