Recipe Change

I've made another change to my keto jerky recipe. Till now I've been using skirt steak, but the effects of inflation and the rising popularity of skirt (primarily because restaurants are catching on to it) have resulted in it climbing from £8 a kilo a couple of years ago to between £15 and £18, depending on where you get it. Also, given it can be covered in a membrane, it can be time-consuming to prepare.

I therefore decided to try pre-packed stewing beef, which can be purchased in Tesco for under a tenner per kilo (on ClubCard). It's also ready-diced.

Here it is, covered in my special rub, laid out on 3 trays and ready to go into the air fryer. I used 3 x 400gm packets.

As it dries out (100 degrees), the shrinkage means you can reduce that to 2 trays after half an hour and, in any case, I prefer the mesh trays as the solid tray tends to encourage leakage of the juices on to the tray and a bit of stewing to take place. The mesh trays allow the hot air to get all around the beef.

And here it is again after 2.5 hours of drying out. It's delicious!

Buying diced steak cuts down the prep time before drying to about 3 minutes too (I use a ziplock bag), and the square chunks are chewier.