Jerky

Jerky is lean trimmed meat strips which are dehydrated to prevent spoilage and seasoned to varying degrees. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt to prevent microbial growth through osmosis. The word "jerky" derives from the Quechua word ch'arki which means "dried, salted meat". Modern manufactured jerky is often marinated, prepared with a seasoned spice rub or liquid, or smoked with low heat (usually under 70 °C or 160 °F). Store-bought jerky commonly includes sweeteners such as brown sugar. Jerky is ready to eat, needs no additional preparation, and can be stored for months without refrigeration. A proper protein-to-moisture content is required in the final cured product to ensure maximum shelf-life. Many products that are sold as jerky consist of highly processed, chopped, and formed meat rather than traditional sliced whole-muscle meat. These products may contain more fat, but moisture content, as in the whole-muscle product, must meet a 0.75 to 1 moisture-to-protein ratio in the US. Jerky-like products can be found around the world, such as biltong in South Africa, pastirma in Turkey, kilishi in Nigeria and Cameroon, ch'arki (Quechua for dried, salted meat whose hispanicized spellings include charque, charqui or charquí) in South America, Carne seca in Latin America, and cecina in Spain. The main processing districts of beef jerky in China are Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Yunnan. Beef jerky from Inner Mongolia is the most popular jerky product in all of China and is classified into traditional and modern beef jerky by air drying outdoors (hand-made) or thermal drying (large-scale industrial production), respectively.

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