Recently I had some time to get around to making some beef jerky, of course the set back from before was not going to stop me trying again. I really wanted to get the Lemongrass to come through into the beef and reading over my notes I realised that it was likely that the lemongrass was not liquidised, liquids better absorbing into meat.
So this time I purveyed some lemongrass sticks in a blender, infused with water. This meant that all the fibres were shredded, but intact, which is where the flavour comes from. However, this caused another issue as they clung to the meat to make it look quite unappetising: like dog jerky, or something from The Fly.
That other part of this experiment was the use of a new food I had never tried before (well, individually I had tried most of the ingredients) called “Tsuyu no moto” which to me had a smokey flavour to it (it was the Bonito, or fish flakes). I wanted to see if I could make it work with Beef Jerky and to see if it could not only replace the Oak Smoked Water that I usually use, but also Soy Sauce – two for one.
I created three batches with the following measures:
1/
Beef: 400g
Salt: 1 tbsp
Lemongrass: 4 sticks (water: 438g)
Black pepper: 1 tbsp
Tsuyu no moto : 60g (1:1 water)
Ginger puree: 1 tbsp
2/
Beef: 400g
Salt: 1 tbsp
Lemongrass: 3 sticks (water: 438g)
Black pepper: 1 tbsp
Tsuyu no moto : 30g (1:2 water)
Ginger puree: 1 tbsp
3/
Beef: 400g
Salt: 1 tbsp
Black pepper: 1 tbsp
Tsuyu no moto : 60g
Okonomiyaki: 3 tbsp
Ginger puree: 1 tbsp
Water: 2 cups (240g)
With the first two recipes I focused on the lemongrass, while the final one more on the Tsuyu no moto, adding a little Okonomiyaki (which is like Worcestershire sauce) to make it a little tart.
In about 438g of water I blitzed four and three lots of lemongrass:
The issue with the fibres I had were only superficial, it just doesn’t look appetising:
In the end you get something like this:
The first thing I must point out is that the fibres don’t poke the inside of your mouth or gums – like the jerky itself it soon becomes malleable when hydrated. It also doesn’t really get in-between your teeth, nor is it obvious in the mouth, it’s not like chewing a ball of cotton, but it is there and it cannot be imagined away.
Well, the good news is that the lemongrass came through, that’s for sure. I don’t know if it’s everything I expected it to be, but with the Tsuyu no moto sauce I can’t say that it didn’t work, but perhaps I should have stuck more to the recipe from before?
My main aim was to get the lemongrass flavour through and I achieved that. But, next time, it will have to be without the fibres and for that I can imagine a separate marinade where I keep the liquid separate for a 12-24h period and then filter the liquid out and into the meat marinade.
The Tsuyu no moto used in the first batch wasn’t really the smokey flavour that I’d have expected, it was there, but more like soy sauce, it quite a meaty flavour. It’s what the Japanese call triple strength and usually diluted with three parts water, but I added it strait because I wanted the intense flavour.
The second batch was certainly weaker, it didn’t work as well as the first batch in my opinion. I didn’t just used half the amount of Tsuyu no moto, but I diluted it with twice as much water, so it’s definitely lacking in flavour and so I’d recommend the first batch of 60g at a ratio of 1:1 with water.
The third batch was without lemongrass, focusing on the Tsuyu no moto and Okonomiyaki (which is like Worcestershire sauce) and I can confirm this to be a lot more like what people would be used to with beef jerky. It was the best of the batch but I think that more Okonomiyaki wouldn’t have been a bad thing, perhaps roughly doubling the quantity used to either five or six tablespoons:
I purposefully kept the ingredients minimal, only really adding salt and pepper, to see how the beef would work with the ingredients I cared for the most with this experiment. So there was a lot missing, but I think I will run with the Okonomiyaki one again to see where that goes, but will likely try the separate Lemongrass marinade idea at a point in the near future.
Incidentally, the Tsuyu no moto was a good addition/substitution, it’s a suitable Soy Sauce substitute (it actually contains Soy Sauce!), but that is quite a specialist ingredient and if you can’t get a hold of it, then perhaps you may find the “strait” version which needs no thinning with water called “Soba Noodle Soup Base“.
I learned a little bit here, as always, it’s good even when it goes wrong, but those mistakes give me more ideas and more gumption to existing ones.
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