Goose Jerky

Here’s a good way to make goose jerky, or any kind of jerky for that matter. I’ve always used a combinatgion of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce as the basis of my jerky. With just these two ingredients, you can produce good tasting jerky by marinating your jerky meat in a 50/50 mixture. The flavor is good, but after a while it gets a little boring. So, here’s a way to make things more interesting by adding some variables that you can experiment with.

Here are some ingredients to use to make jerky spicy and/or sweet.

Teriyaki can be used instead of Worcestershire sause or in combination with it. This will sweeten the flavor. Chili powder and red peper flakes can be used to make the jerky spicy hot. Don’t overdo it. A cup of brown sugar and water will also sweeten the pot. Ducks unlimited magazine published a variation of this recipie in their Sept/Oct issue and my friend Jeff suggested the addition of teriyaki sauce. He also said he preferred to make his with little or no chili powder.

Brown sugar is a good addition.

I generally use a dehydrator to dry my jerky (Jeff used an electic smoker for his, smoked it for an hour at 165 degrees and finished by air drying). The temperature on the dehydrator can be set as high as 165 degrees, but don’t leave it that hot for more than an hour. Today I left the temp set at 120 degrees for about nine hours and then 165 for an hour to finish. It’s a good idea to make it hot for an hour to eliminate any chance of bacteria growth. I’ve never worried about this before and many times I’ve just air-dried jerky to completion, but it doesn’t hurt to be safe.

Here’s the recipe I used for this batch. 1 cup soy sauce, 1 cup water, 1/4 cup Worcestershire, 1/2 cup teriyaki, 1 cup brown sugar, 3 table spoons of salt, 2 tablespoons of chili powder, 2 tablespoons of red pepper flakes, 3 tablespoons of course ground pepper. I brined the meat for about 20 hours and dried it for ten. The flavor is very good, but it’s slightly hot. Good with beer, but probably hotter than you’d like if you’re going to eat it in the woods.

To take on a hike, I’d leave out the hot stuff. Other than that it would be just fine.

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Turning A Pile of Geese into Table Fare

If you read my previous post, you know what a mess of geese looks like. Here it is again. 

This is a pile of waterfowl.

 

This is a pretty intimidating pile of dead birds. I have to admit to being a bit overwhelmed as Fred and I began the process of plucking. We got the birds into a reasonable state and I also dropped one spec off at a friend’s house on the way home. It was plucked, but not gutted. The wings, legs and head were also still attached. My friend’s wife came to the door in her bathrobe as he wasn’t home. I placed the carcass on their kitchen counter and departed, hoping that he would know what to do when he got home. My worst fear was that she would drop it in the garbage before he even arrived. Anyway one less bit of goose work for me. 

On Sunday afternoon while watching football, I began the process of cleaning up the pile. That’s when I videoed the project. The video is on youtube. Click on the link to see it now. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OkAj6vIB9g 

That will give you my thoughts on how to proceed. I worked on each bird, resulting in a processed result of goose meat to be used in several ways. The best eating birds, the specs, mallard and pintail were completely cleaned and plucked for roasting – one spec for dinner Sunday night and the rest for freezing, except I ended up delivering one spec to my neighbors across the street who enjoy eating ducks. 

Here are the results. Some for roasting, some for frying and some for jerky.

The Aleutian, snow goose and damaged spec will be sliced thinly, brined for a day and then dried in my dehydrator for jerky. The roasting birds will be shrink wrapped except for the one on the rack which is ready to be roasted at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. I recommend that you pull it out of the oven and check it by slicing open to see if it’s right for you after 12 minutes. 

Here’s the shrink-wrapped result. 

 

The specs were split to make individually sized individual portions.  The gizzards will be fried up. And, the package to the upper left is the leftovers from dinner. Here is the dinner.

 

I’m convinced it was every bit as good as filet mignon.  Do not over cook. Medium rare is ideal for me.

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