I got into beekeeping last year (after putting it off for 20 years) and part of my final impetus was that nearing 50 means my physical capability will eventually restrict the amount of hobbies I can meaningfully engage in since I’m not getting any younger. (unsurprisingly 🤦♂️)
As a result, I’ve started thinking more intentionally about developing hobbies that I can continue well into old age. Beekeeping has been a great addition because it gets me outdoors, gives me something to learn, and provides a tangible reward at the end. But what about making beef jerky? Is it similar to beekeeping in that it yields a tangible reward but only incidentally and not guaranteed to be pleasing/edible until you’ve mastered the flavor and safety techniques?
Part of me sees it as a hobby because there seems to be a lot to learn: selecting cuts of meat, experimenting with marinades and seasonings, mastering dehydration techniques, food safety, and constantly refining recipes. I can imagine spending years (possibly decades) trying different approaches and enjoying the process. I saw an old youtube account of mine recently that had a 15 year old video of me making Cuban sandwiches, which I’ve been honing/improving over the last 18 years and have never lost the obsession!
If beef jerky making is a hobby then I plan to pursue it. If it’s more akin to a culinary skill, then I plan to go on a deep dive to the back bottom corners of my closet to find my rock wool cubes and plant 20 hydroponic tomato seeds before the end of this weekend. (I have a ton of hydroponic equipment but it’s all been sitting in my closet unopened for the better part of 8-10 years)
Dude a hobby is anything that makes you happy. If you like meats there is a huge cured meet community. You can learn every on youtube (things I’ve watched at 3am when I should have been sleeping)
I don’t have anything constructive to add, so here’s this:
Hey everyone…
We are live from my back yard where I am
Smokin’ these meats
Meat like a brisket
I’m makin’ meats now
Someone asked me, do I smoke meats?
It’s gonna be delicious
Yeah, I smoke meat
That’s what I’m talkin’ about, yeahGimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Say my name, baby
Gimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Smokin’ meatsHello to you
Thanks for hanging out with me
In my backyard
While I’m smokin these meats, tooThe thing about smokin meat is it takes a long time
Sitting around with my WiFiI like racing
Grilling meats, um, racing cars are
Two of the most fun things that you can doManual transmission, um, I enjoy that
Do I hunt, um, yeahSmokin’ these meats
Meat like a brisket
I’m makin’ meats now
Someone asked me, do I smoke meats?
It’s gonna be delicious
Yeah, I smoke meat
That’s what I’m talkin’ about, yeahGimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Say my name, baby
Gimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Smokin’ meatsYou smoke lemon chicken, smoked salmon
You’ll love it
Bison sirloin, ribs and sausage
We got some more of it
Pork ribs, we got a brisket
You don’t, you don’t, you don’t want to miss itWe have just applied the Sweet Baby Ray’s
I want my baby back, baby back ribs
You know, it’s a weekend man;
break out the purple shirt
I wear the grey shirt to workWhile I was smoking meats earlier in the day
I started a triathlon
Swam about a mile, it’s a long way
Biked about twenty miles
And then… I had to go deal with something
So I had to abortSmokin’ these meats Meat like a brisket I’m makin’ meats now Someone asked me, do I smoke meats? It’s gonna be delicious Yeah, I smoke meat That’s what I’m talkin’ about, yeah
Smokin’ these meats
Meat like a brisket
I’m makin’ meats now
Someone asked me, do I smoke meats?
It’s gonna be delicious
Yeah, I smoke meat
That’s what I’m talkin’ about, yeahGimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Say my name, baby
Gimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Smokin’ meatsGimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Say my name, baby
Gimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Smokin’ meats, babyBarbecuing counts as a hobby, as does cooking in general. I think that if you are doing it in a utilitarian fashion - like, in an assembly like exactly the same way each time for the purpose of saving money on beef jeeky - then I think it is just, like, a chore. But if you are doing it for the sake of experimentation or creativity, etc, then it’s a hobby.
Honing your skills to get better versus doing it to complete a task is the difference between a hobby and a chore IMO I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.
My take is a hobby is what you enjoy doing in your down time. Even if you made the exact same recipe the exact same way every week, so long as it’s the thing you choose to do to relax, I’d call it a hobby.
Why do you need other people to decide that for you? It is both culinary skill and hobby. Life does not fit in categories described by single words.
Why do you need other people to decide that for you? It is both culinary skill and hobby. Life does not fit in categories described by single words.
Mainly FOMO (fear of missing out on a more “valid” hobby) but also to get others perspectives, including those I might disagree with because I’m often wrong in my initial judgment about stuff. I don’t want to look back 20 years from now and realize I deluded myself into counting something as a hobby that isn’t one, when the opportunity cost might be a better hobby that I’ve also been putting off getting started for the past 5-10 years (hydroponic gardening, wall/rock climbing, telescope star-watching, learning violin, etc.)
You can just do like ADHD me and just get all of the hobbies. lol
You are massively overthinking it.
Just do what you enjoy and it is a hobby. You can always have more than one hobby if you have the time and can afford it. You can even switch between hobbies that you focus on at any point in time!
Nobody’s going to call the hobby police. Do what you want.
You have my permission to call whatever you’re interested in a hobby, if you feel like you need it.
Dude, I fucking love your head space. Choosing your next fun time thing to do based on a linguistics debate you started with your self.
That’s my kind of neurotic.
Hope you have a blast either way!
A hobby is whatever you decide is a hobby.
Absolutely. Even things you have to do, like laundry or cooking, are hobbies if you decide so. I’d say I repair cars for a hobby. Often they’re our daily drivers which often need to be back on wheels pretty quickly, so it can be stressful and annoying at times, but it’s still my hobby, even if I don’t enjoy doing it all the time.
The culinary arts can be a hobby
You can define anything as your hobby.
One of the most unusual ones I have seen is a guy who uses RV bulldozers and excavators and dump trucks to dig out his basement.
It is wild and incredibly involved.
Shit, ya got a link for that?
It has been a while since I watched his stuff, but I am sure that link is it. That video is a good example of him doing it but he has a heap on his channel.
As a vegetarian, I’m going to say yes because gate keeping is dumb.
Sounds to me like you are about to start two hobbies.
Definitely counts as a hobby. It just happens to be a hobby that requires and develops cooking skills.
Why don’t you consider culinary skills as hobbies?
I think learning how to make jerky is a perfectly fine example of a hobby one can take up. My father once went on a journey to make the best salmon jerky he could. He spent years trying out different smokers, different cuts of fish, different times, different wood chips, etc. I definitely consider that hobby activity!
Yes. Preserving food is literally a whole science
Imo, preserving is its own hobby. Beef jerky, biltong, pemmican, sauerkraut, kimchi, fruit leather, jams.
My reasoning: brewing beer is considered its own hobby by most. But it could technically be part of culinary > preserving > fermenting (yeast) > beer.
Sourdough is also in fermenting (yeast) as is wine, but people don’t expect a hobby beer brewer to try them out as well.
So within preserving we have fermenting (yeast), fermenting (lactobacillus), drying, canning, pickling, smoking,?salt brining, etc.
Culinary is so big, it’s like art. If I want to learn calligraphy, do I have to do portraits, photography, music and poetry too? Just a thought.
I would love to make pemmican sometime, would be a great excuse to force my family to go hiking
