Silent Creations produces buffalo jerky the traditional way
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RONAN — Buffalo meat, sliced thin, marinated and dried the traditional Indian way, is “a real testament to Indian technologies,” Matthew Silent Thunder said, describing the tasty jerky his company produces.
Using meat preservation methods learned from his family, Silent Thunder and his crew turn out about 6,000 pounds of buffalo jerky and meat sticks each month at the Mission Mountain Market, Lake County Community Development on Main Street.
From New Mexico originally, Silent Thunder said he remembers his family cutting and drying meat as long as he’s been alive, and they’ve been making jerky for many generations before that.
Although he’s a silversmith by trade, Silent Thunder started making jerky to sell after he was at a Tacoma, Wash., art show chewing on a piece of jerky and a guy asked for some. When the man tasted the jerky, he asked to buy some. The word spread and Silent Thunder started making jerky for sale instead of just for his family.
“I was hoping jerky would help support my jewelry habit,” Silent Thunder said. “ Now jerky is pretty much all I do.”
Silent Thunder buys his buffalo locally from White’s Meats. White’s gets their bison ranch-raised with no hormones or antibiotics, he said. Occasionally White’s runs out of meat, and he purchases the staple from Rapid City, S.D.
He likes jerky cut from a single muscle so he uses hindquarter roasts and slices the meat with the grain. A giant slicer at the MMM saves lots of labor, Silent Thunder said. It can slice as many buffalo roasts in 15 minutes as a crew could in six or seven hours by hand or in three hours with a deli slicer.
Silent Thunder constantly checks the low-fat bison as it runs through the slicer to make sure it’s cut thin enough.
Then the meat is loaded into a vacuum tumbler with marinade, and the machine infuses the meat with the marinade in 12 minutes, a process that takes at least a day or two if done by hand. As well as his original, Silent Thunder has developed teriyaki, black pepper, crushed red pepper and habenero marinades. The original marinade is an attempt by Silent Thunder to replicate the flavors in his grandmother’s chili verdi.
After the meat finishes absorbing marinade, Silent Thunder’s crew starts laying out the thin slices of buffalo on trays to load in the smoker.
Worker David Altamiran said it’s like putting together a big puzzle. The strips of jerky need to be straight with the grain of the meat flat on the tray with no corners turned under, no overlapping strips, with as many pieces of meat on each tray as possible, and Silent Thunder is picky about this because it can affect the drying time.
Silent Thunder calls this process “hanging the jerky.”
After a batch of jerky is spread out and ready to go into the giant smoker, the trays are loaded on four “trucks” with many wire shelves.
Silent Thunder hauls mesquite wood from New Mexico to smoke the jerky. He has a chipper that grinds the wood into crumbles that burn completely so no precious mesquite is wasted.
“There’s an element in mesquite smoke that acts as a natural preservative,” Silent Thunder explained.
The mesquite smoke circulates crosswise in the walk-in smoker as well as in a circular motion to allow the smoke and heat to reach all the meat. But there are a couple of “hot spots” in the smoker so the trucks and trays need to be rearranged during the six- to seven-hour smoking period.
When the smoking is completed, Silent Thunder fills clean tubs with piles and piles of jerky as he checks each piece for doneness. His product is United States Department of Agriculture compliant, and a USDA inspector checks the facility daily.For every eight hours of processing time, Silent Thunder spends two hours on paperwork. He works 55 to 60 hour weeks and works on weekends, too. One of his goals is to develop a meat stick to market for the Department of Defense. Called Meals Ready to Eat, the contracts require 300,000 pounds per year so he would have to increase his work force.
But for now it’s time to package and ship Silent Creations Buffalo Products around the world.
“Once you taste it, I’ve got you hooked,” Silent Thunder said with a grin.
Contact Silent Thunder at www.indianbuffalojerky.com or thunder_97355@yahoo.com or 406 381-1498.
