Captain Clark spelled it “jurk” and sometimes used it as a noun and sometimes as a verb. It came from an Indian word for sun-dried meat, charqui. I’ve a number of hunting friends who make venison jerky by cutting the meat into strips, brining them, and then smoking them instead of sun-drying them. Cooking Alaskan warns against jerking game like bear, walrus, or wild pig because of the danger of trichinosis, but theoretically an
