Yes, you can make kosher for passover beef jerky with one simple ingredient swap. Pineapple juice is the secret ingredient that will tenderize your meat.
Often, when discussing Pesach content, my colleagues sometimes express in astonishment, “They make [insert name of ingredient] for Pesach?!?”
The truth is, we’ve really tried over the years, to stick to creating Pesach recipes that use minimal ingredients.
While many of us can use the full range of products with reliable hechshers on store shelves, there’s something about sticking to the basics and keeping things fresh and simple that I find preferable when it comes to Pesach cooking. After all, who wants to buy so many ingredients, even if we could?
When it came to making beef jerky, though, I made an exception.
Beef jerky for Pesach made so much sense. It’s something I can make ahead of time, even before the kitchen is turned over (yes, it may be worth investing in a separate dehydrator).
It’s the perfect thing to have on hand and take to go, especially if you have teenage boys.
Newsflash–people don’t really want to satiate hunger with cake. They’re much more satisfied with jerky.
Last Pesach, I suppose news got around that I was making kosher-for-Pesach jerky and lots of calls and text messages from neighbors asking for the recipe.
Luckily, most of the ingredients in our Tangy BBQ Beef Jerky are available Kosher for Pesach. The only thing that isn’t is meat tenderizer. But, we looked up the active ingredient in meat tenderizer and it’s something called bromelain, which comes from….pineapples.
Pineapples. Yes, that works! Swapping the meat tenderizer for pineapple juice and using KFP alternatives (i.e. KFP hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce) gave us results that were just as good as all year. We didn’t try the Asian version with KFP soy/teriyaki but we imagine that it will work just as well.
I was able to tell all my neighbors: just swap the meat tenderizer for pineapple juice! It’s that simple.
Note that pineapple juice works even faster than meat tenderizer, and you don’t need to marinate for so long.
We also tried making jerky with fresh, blended pineapple and found that the tenderizing agents were too strong and the meat got mushy.
For the barbecue sauce, you can make a homemade version featured here or use store-bought. I prefer homemade, but it’s not worth the bother if you are only using it for jerky.
NOTE: Some have told us that kosher for Pesach liquid smoke is not available this year (many of us used it last year). While it could be that it’s still to arrive, if you cannot find liquid smoke, use smoked paprika instead of regular paprika.
So here you go! You can make beef jerky for Pesach with one simple swap.
Tangy BBQ Beef Jerky
Ingredients
- 2-3 lbs thinly sliced shoulder meat, like pepper steak
- 1 ½ cups dark brown sugar
- 1 cup honey
- ½ cup BBQ sauce
- 2 tbsp hot sauce
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbsp liquid smoke
- ½ cup pineapple juice
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp paprika
Instructions
- In a Ziploc bag or bowl, combine all marinade ingredients and mix well until brown sugar is dissolved. Add meat and seal bag, making sure marinade covers all parts of the meat. Refrigerate overnight or not more than 12 hours.
- Remove meat and place on dehydrator trays. Group similar sized pieces of meat together. This way, when the smaller pieces are ready before the bigger pieces you will remove that tray and let the rest cook for longer.
- Plug in the machine. Set the knob on “jerky,” the highest setting. Dehydrate for 2 ½ – 3 hours. Remove the tray/pieces that are ready and replace the lid to continue drying.
- Store your jerky in a resealable container for a few days in your fridge, or, vaacum pack for longer shelf life.
As someone who doesn’t use store-bought ingredients, I’ve been using the pineapple trick for years. I cut a whole pineapple into small chunks (or send it through the food processor with the s blade, depending on what type of texture I want), and mix some of the juice and fruit together with whatever else I’m using as a marinade or sauce. It works really well!
I have a dehydrator for year round I really don’t want to buy for Pesach… any way to make it in the oven?
Yes! Chantzy Weinstein has some jerky recipes on between carpools that get baked in the oven. I believe one is even KFP with super minimal ingredients.