Jerky
Black Pepper Ridge
Peppered Style Jerky
Black Pepper Ridge is a jerky made from lean wild game or lean beef. Smoke at 145-165°F (63-74°C) and finish at an internal 152°F (67°C) held 1 min, before drying. Exact amounts scale to any batch weight in the DeepWoodz Smokehouse app for iPhone and Android.
Cracked pepper on the outside with cayenne and paprika underneath, so the heat builds after the first bite instead of hitting immediately. This is the one for people who think jerky should taste like meat and pepper and nothing else. Crack the pepper coarser than you think you want — it mellows through the dry.
- Internal temp
- 152°F (67°C) held 1 min, before drying
- Smoker temp
- 145-165°F (63-74°C)
What goes in it
- Cure #1
- Coarse Black Pepper
- Garlic Powder
- Onion Powder
- Brown Sugar
- Paprika
- Cayenne Pepper
- Soy Sauce
- Worcestershire
- Water
Amounts are calculated for your batch weight in the app — including the cure, which is held at a fixed, food-safe rate.
The meat
Lean Wild Game · Lean Beef
Bear or wild hog: take it to 160°F and hold 3 minutes. Freezing, smoking and curing do not kill trichinella — only heat does.
How it's made
- Slice meat 1/4" thick against the grain.
- Use a coarse grind on the black pepper — the bigger the grind the better for this one.
- Mix the dry spices, soy sauce, Worcestershire, and water into a marinade. It should be enough liquid to fully coat every strip - about 3 cups for a 5 lb batch.
- Press extra cracked pepper onto strips after marinating 12-24 hours.
- Arrange on smoker racks.
- Dry at 160°F for 1 hour, then reduce to 145°F with smoke for 3-5 hours.
- Done when strips bend and crack without breaking.
- Dehydrator method: Skip the smoke — dehydrate the strips at 160°F for 4-8 hours until they bend and crack but do not break. If your dehydrator can not reach 160°F, finish the strips in a 275°F oven for about 10 minutes to reach a food-safe 160°F internal temperature (165°F if using poultry).
Wood
Hickory · Oak
Safety
- Trim all visible fat before slicing
- Heat to 152°F internal and hold it a full minute before drying — 152°F only counts as a kill step with the hold
- Run humidity during that heat step. Dry heat alone is not a kill step — a dried surface makes bacteria far harder to kill
- Store finished jerky in airtight containers
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