Just set your oven to the lowest possible temperature that it can steadily maintain. While a dehydrator would obviously make the whole process go a lot faster, as it is able to put out consistent heat and provide its own ventilation, you can also pretty easily do it with a home oven. This is surprisingly easy, even if you lack a dehydrator. Remember that you will eventually be adding water back to the meat to rehydrate it for cooking, so it will probably not taste as salty as it might look! Just sprinkle kosher salt so that it covers the entirety of both sides of your meat, and that should probably be enough salt to saturate it completely. There are a lot of calculators out there for working out the ideal salt ratio for preserving meat, but the joy of using something like kosher salt is that it is able to guide you into how much you need visually.
The exact salt ratio is actually not entirely critical unless you plan on leaving this meat out on your counter for long-term winter storage. Other than that, just make sure to slice the meat as thin as you possibly can, as this will help to speed the drying process.Īfter that, you want to salt your meat liberally with coarse salt, like kosher salt. This will create a softer, easier texture in the finished Machaca. Then, just cut across all of the fibers rather than between them. To find the grain, just pull the hunk of meat slightly apart, and the lines of the muscle fibers should make themselves clear. Most likely, the meat you are using will be incredibly tough and filled with connective tissue, so you want to cut it to minimize any of that chewiness in the final product. The critical part of making Machaca is cutting it properly first.
#MACHACHA JERKY HOW TO#
Related: Makin’ Bacon: How to Dry Cure Pork Belly How To Cut Meat For Machaca A lot of Machaca was made using nothing other than salt to help the drying process, but adding in fresh chilies like Poblanos was also very common.įirst, though, you need to cut your meat.
Other than that, plenty of salt and whatever spices you plan on using are all you need. Pork shoulder, beef top sirloin, and any other cut you wouldn’t particularly want to make a steak out of are all great cuts for turning into Machaca. Meat destined to be made into Machaca tended to be those large cuts filled with loads of connective tissue and usually pretty unappetizing without long, slow cook times. To make Machaca, you will first need a cut of meat to dry. So how do you make it at home? Just how easy is it to make some Machaca using meat from your own homestead? To use it, the Machaca is rehydrated with some water and then cooked until it swells back into a sort of ground beef consistency and then used in all kinds of different recipes. It was then stored away from the air and kept in this almost powdered form. From there, the meat was pounded using rocks to break it apart and tenderize it, eventually shredding it into fine pieces. The meat, which was sometimes mixed with ground chilies and other spices, was traditionally dried and dehydrated by leaving it out under the hot sun, usually on drying racks. Machaca is the Mexican reply to regular jerky and is the somewhat ancient method of preserving those large cuts of meat that just won’t get tender no matter what you do. Instead of turning them into ground meat for burgers or sausages, why not try and emulate North Mexican ranchers and make your very own Machaca at home? What Is Machaca & Why Is It Different From Regular Jerky? Not often made outside of Mexico, Machaca can be a great way to preserve those extra cuts of meat that you have leftover after butchering. One of the more interesting and least talked about is the Mexican tradition of Machaca. From regular American-style beef jerky to South African Biltong, there is a surprisingly wide array of ways to preserve meat for long-term storage. In fact, jerky is so great that most meat-eating cultures around the world have developed their own varieties of jerky, each made in their own way. It makes for the perfect hiking snack or a way to sneak in that little bit of extra protein. Everyone has heard of beef jerky – salty, chewy, and delicious.
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