Does jerky have to be salty?

[rickgregory]

OK, yes, I like salty things. But as someone with high blood pressure, I try to limit it. And sometimes I don't want something very salty. I've made meathead's recipe on the free side and it's tasty, but with the soy it's pretty salty of course.

Obviously salt was needed for times when we didn't have refrieration and wanted the meat to last months... but that's not true now. First, because of course I can refrigerate or freeze the jerky but also because I don't need it to last months. A week or two is fine since I make it as a snack to eat.

So... anyone have experience in doing jerky that's not highly salted? Recipes?

[TheQuietOne]

We made low salt jerky for my dad with hbp. It turned out well. It's been years, so I don't have a recipe. We did keep it in the fridge.

[smokin fool]

There is low sodium soy sauce available.
The brand we have is 25% less sodium.
May be worth a try.

[jfmorris]

rickgregory Salt is not needed so much as the curing salt i.e. Prague Powder #1 in your jerky cure. That is what takes care of curing the meat and preventing those pesky botulism spores from taking over. I know my Dad grew up in a rural household where one of his after school jobs was to go into the "smoke house" and repack hams they were curing in either salt or sugar, and that may have been all they were using back then, but we know more now than my Dad's family knew in the 1940's!

I would suggest just cutting back the regular salt in your jerky curing recipe, while keeping the sodium nitrate (prague powde #1) at the same level.

https://www.jerkyholic.com has a lot of recipes. He/she/they recommend curing salt, and also getting the meat to 160 to kill things. I've used some of their recipes, but I follow the smoking advice on AR for my jerky (I've done it on the offset and on the kettle with the jerky on the main grate, charcoal grate (with a rack) and an elevated grate. I haven't done any in quite a while, but keep meaning too. Laziness I suppose...

[Backroadmeats]

Ya can only die once.. ya get lucky a thousand times but die once your still dead.. do some research on it,. It is cheap and worth while in my opinion..

[jfmorris]

rickgregory if you want that "traditional" jerky flavor and reddish color, you only get it from the curing salt. That plus safety from death by botulism... Amazon is where I got my prague powder #1, and a 1# tub of it will last me years.

[rickgregory]

Yeah, I just hadn't thought of using PP #1 in the jerky. I've got some around (I make bacon) but hadn't used it since I've not been smoking it, which is a little more likely to let botulism grow due to the O2 poor environment. But there's no reason not to add it. Thanks for the tip.