Brad Makes Fish Jerky

You just want to bite that

like a grizzly bear, right? [bear growling]

Definitely hit pause for a second.

[peppy interlude music]

Hey guys, today on It's Alive,

we're going to do one of my faves,

we're going to do a salmon jerky,

a little fish jerky. We gotta beautiful

piece of wild Alaskan coho salmon,

I gotta bunch of different spices and ingredients,

we're gonna make a marinade,

get it in the hydrator, we're gonna call it jerky, jerky.

[upbeat surf music]

You can't show this technically...

This is our November issue assignment

that we worked on together.

Yeah.

Do you wanna trust me?

You took out all of my opinions

and thoughts and ideas already.

Not with turkey! Not with turkey.

Let's talk about betrayal...

I mean cranberry sauce.

Oh, you're missing sumac but...

So, beautiful piece of fish, ya know,

again, get the best fish you can get.

I want something that isn't going

to have a huge amount of fat content.

In jerky making, just like beef or anything else,

you want those leaner cuts.

So if you can get a wild sockeye,

or wild coho. Get, yeah, get wild,

it's all about the wild fish here.

I mean this is nice, beautiful color,

dense, nice clean flavor.

The belly is the fattest, the fattiest,

on just about all of them.

I'm gonna take about a pound and a half

piece of the tail and then save that,

we'll cook that up for family meal.

Maybe I'll make a little gravlax or something.

Hey guys, today on It's Alive,

we're gonna be making one of my favorite dishes,

well, I guess it's not a dish,

one of my favorite foods.

Hey guys, today on It's alive.

[peppy interlude music]

So we'll nip this right here,

nice lean tail in the back.

Look at that, beautiful fish.

[Gaby] What'd you call me?

Beautiful fish.

Oh.

Nice shirt.

Thank you.

Show the world, the world that watches.

Nailed ya, right to the T. That's Gaby.

So I'm gonna take the skin off,

right at the tail cut down,

and just run it right on the skin.

All right. Beautiful. You take this,

roll it up, and smoke it.

No, you know, you can, ya know, crisp this up,

you can do whatever you want, ya know,

crisp this up, make a little skin.

Ya know, a little crispy skin number.

Do whatever, give it to Andy.

We'll leave it right there for now.

What are you gonna do with that?

I don't know. Like, maybe I'll dehydrate it.

Make a face mask.

[retro game music playing]

This is kind of my thing now, so...

You're gonna take over?

We're gonna make some salmon jerky today.

Got my buddy Brad Leone here with me.

Hey guys.

He's gonna help me out along the way.

Andy's gonna provide a little bit of sass coming in.

Classic, classic, Andy

Morocco's gonna serve some kind

of questionable looks from the back.

Rapo's over there. He's guiding some

people through the Test Kitchen.

Gonna be a great one. Let's go!

Big energy today, on a Tuesday, huh? [beep] Delaney.

[ominous music] The nemesis of this show, the pirate.

Delaney!

Okay, where the hell were we, Hunzi?

So, when doing fish jerky,

I'm gonna cut this right down the line,

[romantic music plays]

and so I don't want super long strips--

Let's split that right down the center,

into...oh wait a minute.

[peppy interlude music]

Yeah no, that's okay.

Just to make it a little more manageable.

And then, usually, say you were gonna cut smoke

salmon or gravlax or something,

you would slice it this way,

just like you would cut a piece of fish.

For jerky, I like to cut it this way, lengthwise strips.

That will help it stay together,

stop it from inter-connective...

[mumbles] prevent it from falling apart,

and it'll just hold into a nice, beautiful strip.

So I'll cut it into fours, beautiful,

and then we'll just slice it into nice little strips.

Like eighth inch, about eighth to quarter inch.

Something likes this. And look,

when you slice it that way, it really keeps it together.

If you were to cut it the other way,

it would start to fall apart,

especially after awhile in the marinade.

Nice beautiful color. And that's coming

from what the fish eats,

what this wild fish is eating, ya know,

it goes out to the ocean,

gets into all those little crustaceans,

different types of fish and stuff

that it's eating and all of that

is helping to contribute to

the color of these fish. And the flavor.

So, all about the wild, get the wild if you can,

especially for salmon. Especially for everything.

My god. We'll add those right to the bowl

and I'll slice the rest of these up.

Now, a lot of folks like to cut

the dark meat out and you can,

it can be a little fishy for some folks.

I kind of dig it. We're gonna leave it on,

we're gonna leave it on and see how it goes.

If you're not super into fishy flavored things,

I guess you're probably not making fish jerky,

but if you are, if you're [stumbles on words].

[peppy interlude music]

Do I hear a baby? Oh yeah, Oh yeah.

We've got babies. All right, so now,

we're going to build our marinade for this.

And we're gonna let this marinate overnight in the fridge.

First up, is the gochujang, fermented Korean pepper paste,

it's awesome, you've seen me use it a bunch of times,

it's just a great pantry item to have in your fridge.

We're gonna add three tablespoons.

[dinging sounds] [mooing sound]

Next, soy sauce, I'm gonna use a

little tamari and a little bit

of black soy sauce.

If you can't find this,

this is a Thai soy sauce, it's awesome.

It's a little sweet, it's a black soy.

If you can get your hands on it,

knock yourself out.

If not, just do a little bit more soy sauce.

So first up, regular soy.

We're gonna do three tablespoons.

Come back in 20 minutes. [peppy interlude music]

[peppy interlude music continues]

There it is.

Next up, we're gonna do the black soy sauce,

we're just gonna do one tablespoon.

It's a little thicker, but it's nice.

[Ominous sci-fi music].

There it is. For our next trick, sesames.

One tablespoon, sesame seeds.

Next up, a little cayenne pepper,

give it a little bit of heat,

we're gonna do one teaspoon.

Oh that's the stuff. Now we're zinging and singing baby.

A little zingo, bingo, bango, baby.

[punching noise] Next up, miso, mmm.

I'm gonna use, because [coughs]

I had it from another project,

some really cool chickpea miso.

Add one tablespoon of that. One more ingredient.

Let me go get another tablespoon.

[downtrodden music] Okay.

Who is that Igor?

Who's that from Winnie the Pooh?

Okay. What was his deal, just depressed?

He was depressed and closeted.

Oh, closeted.

Eeyore had some issues.

He had, he was dealing with some [beep].

No one was talking about that, that was dark.

I thought about him the whole time. I really did.

Really?

Oh yeah.

Interesting.

Cause what's it called? What was the hyper one?

Tigger!

Tigger! Tigger bouncing off the walls.

Tigger relax. I really feel bad for Eeyore,

like, where is he now?

[Hunzi] Eeyore.

What'd I say, Igor? Oh yeah. Eeyore.

Let's pull this right back down.

So adding a little bit of manuka honey,

it's a really cool, thick,

flavorful, floral honey from New Zealand.

Now we're just gonna mix this all up,

make it one big, nice, happy thing.

Oh god, I love honey.

All right, let me get a little, thing.

Maybe I'll just use the spoon.

Get that miso all broken down nice.

No clumps, no lumps, no bumps, no humps, no dumps.

Oh God. I almost forgot, the wild card.

A little piece of fresh ginger. Hiyah!

[karate chop noises] Just crush that up,

let that hang out. All right,

now I'm just gonna pour that over there,

I'll put a little plastic over it,

and we'll pop it in the fridge.

I'm just gonna do this by hand.

[sloppy noises]

What's it sound like?

Like wet clay? Great, now I'm just playing with it.

So I'm just gonna push this down onto it,

I don't want any oxygen. Tuck it in on the side,

just tuck it in a little, bud.

Just like that. I'm gonna go pop this in the fridge, bud.

And that's it. Gaby, walk in looks pretty good, bub.

[Gaby] Oh, thank you. I learned from the best.

Damn, right. We'll give you a B+.

[Gaby] Thank You...B+?

[peppy interlude music]

Right behind you, Morocco.

Oh, smells delightful down here.

It's a mad house in here. Everyone's mad at us.

Oh, Claire. We're not done yet.

So we're making salmon jerky.

I thought we were making popcorn.

I did that all ready.

Oh. All right, well, hold on.

Oh yeah, have a snack, and we'll talk about it.

Look at that, nice, I'm just gonna do it like that.

It's cause they're a little thick,

I think they can take it.

I like it spicy, ya know, it's like fish jerky,

you can get away with, it can take a good, a good marinade.

Right. Then how long in the dehydrator.

We do it at 135 for, ya know, around four, five hours.

[Claire] Oh. Not that long.

[Brad] No, not that long.

Brad.

Yeah.

I was at the microwave earlier.

Yeah.

I couldn't help but notice that that bag of, uh--

Oh, the egg yolks.

egg yolks, has been there since April.

Yeah, it's now just a novelty.

It's just a fun little thing. It's a beautiful color.

Are you gonna open it?

I'll open it one day.

Let me know how it is.

Oh, these are gonna be spicy,

they're gonna be flavorful, little boogers.

[ominous music]

I think buggers is the, what people say.

Ew, I saw my kid eat a booger the other day.

[Laughs] I can't even, like, I'd never been so disappointed.

And like, he goes, What?

I'm like that is the most disgusting thing.

I was never a booger eater as a kid.

Claire, maybe you were?

No.

No, you were no booger eater.

Look, she's acting weird, she might have been.

All right, this might take a little while,

cause they're a little thicker

than when I did this the first time.

But I like that because I kind of

like them a little meaty like that.

So we'll just set it 135.

I'll set the timer for eight hours.

I'll check this by the end of the day.

Maybe it'll be done, ya know,

what time is it, quarter to two...probably won't be.

But before I go home, I'm gonna drop the temperature,

and probably just let it hang out.

I'll have to assess the situation then.

But, till then, we'll pop these in the dehydrator, huh?

It's gonna be spicy, tangy, nice,

we should put some of them fermented powders on this, ohhh.

[bright idea dinging noise] What a great idea.

All right, so I'll keep an eye on those.

Hunzi, if you're around, I'll come

grab you when I test these out later.

But if you're not, no big deal,

I'll just fill you in tomorrow.

And we'll nibble on them, we'll taste them,

we'll have some fun, we'll check it out.

So, see you in a little bit, huh?

Bon appetite.

[Hunzi] Bon appetite?

Oh yeah, we're not done yet.

We'll see tomorrow. Just get outta here.

Claire's mad, everyone's mad. Dan's mad.

Are you kidding me I couldn't be happier

[Brad] [laughs] Fine, Dan's mad.

Let's go, let's go, let's go!

Whatever Dan.

[peppy interlude music]

So I'm hoping the new added

reinforcements will help the fermintation.

And we'll check it in a few days, right Hunzi?

To the next one. Hey guys, [laughs].

No, what are we doing now, Hunzi, we're gonna do?

Oh, you want to talk about fish jerky, do ya.

So, have we addressed Kevin at all yet?

Kevin. [ominous music]

So we made the fish jerky.

Marinade, beautiful. Fish, it was beautiful.

We had it in the dehydrator. The team,

the production team, from one of the other shows,

I think Claire was shooting or something.

Kevin, he's a great guy, camera operator.

One of the best in the biz.

But, he made a, he really pooched me.

[Dog barking noise].

He was unplugging his little light system,

and he unplugged the dehydrator.

Something happened, he called me like five times.

This was like a Friday at like 7:30,

the poor guy. Eventually I got back to him,

yada, yada, he plugged it back in.

Long story short, it's dehydrated.

It's a little [laughs], it's,

I don't think there's any moisture left.

Let's take a look. Kevin.

If I didn't like him so much,

I'd be pissed. Oh, Delaney.

[Villianous music]. Well, well, look who it is.

Well, this is--

A little jerk?

That's what we're gonna call it.

That was a good one, Delaney.

Hunzi just gave me, he's like, don't leave.

You wore shorts, huh?

It was like, over 90 degree forecast.

With matching shoes? Look at this guy.

All right, pay attention.

What's up?

So, Kevin, ya know Kevin, camera guy?

Yeah, camera guy Kev.

Yeah, he screwed me.

What happened?

He unplugged it, by accident.

He's the nicest guy in the world.

He unplugged it by accident and we troubleshooted,

long story short, we made salmon chips.

They're very, very dry.

Oh, damn.

Taste it, taste it.

Honestly, on a grain bowl or something--

They're, oh no, it's not a lost product.

As a garnish, it's tasty.

Now, you crunch that over a salad.

Dude.

Right, maybe, or like a salmon dip, or something

That, or over just fried rice.

Oh, now you're talking.

Right, right. Just fry a little rice. Scallion. Egg.

And let it come to, in like the,

oh that's a good idea.

So that's what we were trying to do,

thank you Kevin. [laughs].

No but, long story short,

it didn't taste bad right, it's just dry,

Not, it's not. It's just, yeah, texturally it's dry.

Don't move. [fast forward noises]

Oh yeah, all right I like it.

Let it roll. So this is a batch.

Look at the color difference.

Oh. Whoa.

Same marinade, same everything. Just didn't get Kevin-ed.

Yeah. That's totally different texture.

[Kevin] I heard that, by the way.

[orchestral nemesis music]

[Brad] You shouldn't have shown your face, buddy.

This is nice.

I could eat...I don't know how to phrase that,

I was gonna say I could eat the hell out of that.

I'd say that's--

That's fine.

I'd eat the hell out of it, yeah.

A little road trip. Oh, you're out on a boat.

Front seat of the car.

Front seat of the car, on a boat, you're going fishing.

Like when we were doing the

salmon fishing in Vermont.

That might be the best salmon

jerky I've ever had. [victorious music]

Thanks for swinging by bud--

Ahh yeah.

Really needed that. So, little happy accident.

Over-dehydrated, hey, this happens though,

know what I mean? You guys might have

a Kevin running around your in world too.

I don't know, either way, you might be Kevin,

I don't know, it's fine, this is

going to be fine. I'll throw that in a bag

let that hang out.

I'm gonna put this back in a Ziploc.

This one, I think Delany's on to a

good idea there, with making the...

Maybe I'll make it into a powder,

or just, like, chip it out, or chunk

it out and use it in like a fried rice.

I think that would be really nice.

Even when you make mistakes,

I think you can salvage it, like we're

gonna do with this, it's by no means garbage.

By no means. It's just not as tasty

to nibble on as that one.

You live, you learn, bon appetit.

We'll give these ones to Kevin.

To see how long they can stay shelf stable.

Wait we, got this going on now, too?

What the hell is this, Hunzi?

What is--? Hunzi, is--?

It's like the Truman show.

Is this you?

Our life's a lie.

Let me tell you, today's sound guy's a real prick.

Brad, let me shove this up your shirt!

Yeah

Put the battery pack down in your,

like [beep], tighty whities.

Tighty whities? Am I a tighty whitey

kind of guy you think?

I don't know. You're full of surprises.

I haven't worn underware in six years.

You're wearing a, you're a boxer guy?

I don't wear underware.

Oh, yeah! What am I saying?

No, in like six years I--

I knew there was some kind of mystery happening.

Sometimes when I wear a suit or

something you kinda have to sometimes,

'cause you know like, otherwise you're like,

what was that guy from mad men,

didn't he get like, he was always like,

his [beep], he always had like, pant [beep] going?

Pant [beep]?

[Brad] Pant [beep]. That's the thing right?

Today we're gonna show how to make pant [beep].

[ending music]