Month: July 2023

Fruit Flavored Beef Jerky

writ­ten 07/29/2023, updat­ed 07/29/2023

What

Beef Jerky, Fruit Fla­vored, Oven Baked

Ingredients

*Mea­sure­ments are all to your taste

Main: Beef

Mari­nade: Soy Sauce, salt, sug­ar, fruit jam, fruit juice (your choice in fla­vors, I used straw­ber­ry and rasp­ber­ry jam, and mango/strawberry juice), lemon/citrus juice, red wine, Shaox­ing wine

Option­al: fresh-squished straw­ber­ries, pep­per, gar­lic, etc

Sup­plies: Plas­tic zip­per bag, racked bak­ing sheet or air fry­er bas­ket, lin­er to catch drip­pings, tooth­picks

Time

30 min­utes Prep + Overnight set + 45 min­utes Bake = 1 hour, 15 min­utes + overnight (for 350F Bake)

Steps

Prep

  • Pre­pare the beef: Slice to your desired thick­ness and size
  • If thick­er, then poke holes in it
  • Put beef in plas­tic zip­per bag
  • Pre­pare the mari­nade: com­bine soy sauce, red & Shaox­ing wines, salt, sug­ar, lemon/citrus juice, fruit jams, your option­al ingre­di­ents and fruit (to your desired taste), and then pour into zip­per bag
  • Real­ly com­bine them with the meat
  • Add the fruit juice
  • Close and place in refrig­er­a­tor overnight

Cooking

  • Take meat out of refrig­er­a­tor to room tem­per­a­ture
  • Lay the beef slices on the rack OR, using tooth­picks, sus­pend them between the rack slats
  • Make sure to have a drip catch­er under­neath

Route A: 300F for 45 min­utes

  • Pre­heat oven to 300 degrees F (150C)
  • Bake for 45ish min­utes (depend­ing on thick­ness) until desired consistency/hardness

Route B: Low­est Temp for 2–6 hours

  • Set oven to 300F (150C)
  • Low­er to 270F (133C)
  • Add beef
  • Cook for 10 min­utes (to make it safe to eat)
  • Low­er tem­per­a­ture to low­est pos­si­ble tem­per­a­ture of oven (tra­di­tion­al­ly, it’s 145F/63C), prop open oven door with wood­en spoon for ven­ti­la­tion
  • Cook to desired dry­ness

Route C: Use dehydrator/air fry­er

-

Notes

  • Cut with the grain for MORE chewi­ness, cut against the grain for LESS chewi­ness
  • Thick­er slices will take more time, thin­ner slices with take less time
  • If you thread the tooth­picks into the ends of the beef strips and then hang those in between the rack slats, it will dry even­ly
  • Don’t mar­i­nate for too long or the meat con­sis­ten­cy will change

Pork Xa Xiu

writ­ten 07/29/2023, updat­ed 07/29/2023

What

Char siu (xa xiu) pork baked and broiled in oven

Ingredients

*Mea­sure­ments are all to taste

Main: Pork (Coun­try-style, boston butt)

Marinade/Basting Sauce: Soy Sauce, Brown Sug­ar, Gar­lic Pow­der (or minced gar­lic), Salt, Hoisin Sauce, Shaox­ing Wine, Red Wine, Red Fer­ment­ed Bean Curd, Five-Spice Pow­der

Addi­tion­al: Hon­ey

Option­al: Lee Kum Kee Char Siu Sauce

Sup­plies: Lined bak­ing sheet with rack, foil, bast­ing brush, tongs, plas­tic zip­per bag, bowls

Time

10 min­utes Prep + Overnight set + 45 min­utes Bake = 55 min­utes + overnight

Steps

Prep

  • Pre­pare the pork (coun­try-style comes pre-sliced)
  • Stab holes in the pork to help it soak in the mari­nade
  • Set in a plas­tic zip­per bag
  • In a bowl, pre­pare the mari­nade: com­bine soy sauce, brown sug­ar, gar­lic pow­der (or gar­lic), salt, hoisin sauce, shaox­ing wine, red wine, 1 cube of fer­ment­ed bean curd, Five-spice pow­der
  • Taste and adjust as need­ed
  • Here, you can set aside a por­tion of the mari­nade (for bast­ing dur­ing cook­ing), or just com­bine all of it with the pork in the bag
  • Make sure to com­bine it well with the meat
  • Leave overnight in refrig­er­a­tor (no longer than 1 night, lest it change the tex­ture of the meat)

Cooking

  • Remove meat from refrig­er­a­tor to set to room tem­per­a­ture
  • Pre­heat oven to 425 degrees F
  • Pre­pare the bak­ing sheet and rack: line with foil and pour in some water under­neath (pre­vents drip­pings from smok­ing dur­ing cook­ing)
  • If you did­n’t save some of the mari­nade for bast­ing, pre­pare it now using the same ingre­di­ents OR use Lee Kum Kee’s Char Siu Sauce mixed with oth­er ingre­di­ents plus hon­ey (Note: I need­ed a good amount each time. It depends on how many pieces of pork… plus I like sauce)
  • Set the pork on the rack and place it in the oven.
  • *DON’T WALK AWAY*
  • 15 min­utes after start, pull them out and baste them all over, both sides
  • Return to oven
  • If need more sauce, pre­pare
  • 15 min­utes after that, take out and repeat the bast­ing, both sides
  • 10 min­utes after, baste again
  • Route A: Set oven to Broil on HIGH for 5 min­utes

OR

  • Route B: Increase tem­per­a­ture to 450F and bake for 5 min­utes
  • Baste with hon­ey all over, and let set a few min­utes before slic­ing
  • ENJOY

Notes

  • My equip­ment: Nin­ja Foo­di 10 in 1 XL Oven
  • Red fer­ment­ed bean curd real­ly is nec­es­sary for this to be authen­tic in both col­or and taste. I tried a few times with­out it, and it’s not near­ly as good. Same with the Shaox­ing wine
  • Easy method would be to use Lee Kum Kee’s char siu sauce (or equiv­a­lent) for both mari­nade and bast­ing, but I would still mix in a few ingre­di­ents on top of it
  • Hon­ey makes the xa xiu carmelize on the edges. It’s great! That’s also the point of broiling/raising the tem­per­a­ture at the end
  • Be care­ful of smoke dur­ing the cook­ing process
  • Try not to set the meat longer than overnight because it can real­ly affect the tex­ture of the meat. I made a batch after 2 or 3 days in the fridge and it end­ed up rub­bery and not good
  • Dogs go crazy when they smell this cook­ing 😀