Upcycling is hipster speak for reusing your trash. I made a pineapple salsa one night (No, I’m not posting the recipe. The web is stuffed full of recipes for it. You don’t need another one from me.), and decided to “upcycle” the scraps from the recipe. Most (if not all) recipes for jerky say, “Only use lean cuts of meat or you will die (â†I made that last part up).” Well, I don’t plan on storing this jerky in case of winter starvation, so I opted for a tender, more flavorful cut of meat.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ribeye, trimmed of the big hunks of fat
- pineapple core & rinds
- cilantro stems
- ginger peel
- S.O.C. (sweetener of choice)
- water
- 3 T coconut aminos or wheat-free soy sauce
Method
In one of your smaller sauce pots add all the ingredients, except the beef & soy sauce. Fill with enough water to mostly cover the ingredients. Let boil until reduced by half. Remove from the heat, strain and let cool.
While the marinade is boiling, thinly slice the steak, against the grain of the meat. Add the meat slices to a zip-top bag, along with the cooled marinade. Let marinate in the fridge for at least 1 day and up to 2.
Follow your food dehyrdator’s directions for the jerky. I don’t know where my manual is, so I just winged it.  I cranked up the heat to 165ºF and turned on the machine. I checked every so often, until the meat was hard to the touch, no squishiness. I turned off the machine and let the meat cool on the racks. Mine took about 5 hours, but I cut the meat super thin. I’ve stored the jerky in the fridge. I plan on eating it all within the week, but I imagine it’ll keep for a month or so.
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