December 24th- Holiday Beef Jerky

     This may be one of my weirdest recipes currently. Nearly everyone who's heard this recipe has told me to keep it away. But the lucky few who tried it quite enjoyed it.
     This is far from the traditional beef jerky. In fact, I don't even want you to think of it as beef jerky while your making and eating it. Think of this dish as...a cookie.
     It's slightly crunchy, sweet like a Christmas dessert in all of its cinnamon and sugary goodness.
     I make this but once a year, to bring to my grandma's christmas dinner.

Here's what you'll need!
 
2 lbs Beef- London Broil
2/3rds cup Brown sugar
2 tbsp Cinnimon
2/3rds tsp salt
Water
More cinnimon and sugar
2/3rds cup Oil ( I used sunflower oil )

     Lots of cinnimon, lots of sugar. Like I said, this is more like a cookie.

Lets get cooking!

     Start by placing your london broil into the freezer. Leave it sit for aproximately 40 minutes. It wont freeze, but it will become stiffer, and will be much easier to cut preciesely.
      Cut the meat into thin strips, most people suggest staying against the grain, I never payed to much attention to that. Sometimes I will, and sometimes I wont.
     Next put the meat in a 1 or 2 gallon plastic bag, and fill it up with water so it just barely covers the meat.
     Add in your brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and half of your oil. Shake and mix the meat well, squeese all the air you can out of the bag and let it rest in your fridge overnight.

     Go to bed, go to work, do whatever you need to do for at least 12 hours. this stuff needs time to suck in flavor.

     Alright, get back down to business, lay out a long line of paper towels on your counter and spread your jerky over them.
     When all your meat is laid out, make a cinnamon and brown sugar mixture of 1 part cinnamon to 2 parts sugar. Give your jerky a quick dusting of the stuff and begin dehydrating.
     Each dehydrator has its own time. Mine is very old and takes about 12 hours to dehydrate 2 lbs. My friend has one that takes 4 hours.
     Just dehydrate until you get good leathery jerky.

     Give it a try. if it's sweet enough for you now, you can eat as is. If not, I've got one more step for you.

     In a small saucepan, heat on med-low and add the rest of your oil. 1/2 cup brown sugar, a tbsp cinnamon, and enough water to just barely dissolve the sugar into a semi-thick sauce.
     mix your jerky with enough of your sugar mixture to coat them lightly, and you've got my holiday jerky.

     Merry Christmas everybody! If I don't see you sooner!