Homemade Jerky - Beef, Poultry, Venison, Bison, You Name It!

Discussion in 'The Great Indoors' started by Durchii, Sep 3, 2008.

  1. Well, after this past fishing trip out west with us hauling a sizeable cooler along with us in a Mazda 3 with limited trunk space, I decided to dedicate about $40 of my money to purchasing a Food Dehydrator and making my own Jerky. I picked up a very basic, four tray Nesco model at Wal-Mart along with a London Broil and put together a marinade that I found on another site.

    Has anyone ever done this? It really beats the hell out of paying a fortune for store-bought jerky and you can tweak any marinade to taste exactly the way you want it to (which is perfect for me, since most supposed 'Spicy' jerkies are very mild to me). I put this marinade, along with the sliced beef in the fridge about an hour ago, and at about nine tomorrow morning the meat will be transferred to the Dehydrator.


    • 2/3 cup Worcestershire Sauce
    • 2/3 cup Soy Sauce
    • 1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
    • 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
    • 1 Teaspoon Onion Powder
    • 1 Tablespoon Salt
    • 1 Tablespoon Liquid Smoke
    • 3 lbs sliced beef
    I'm planning on making quite a bit of jerky through this machine, however I have hundreds of ideas in my head for trail mix with dehydrated fruit and nuts. A friend of mine said he would be bringing over some Venison tomorrow for us to experiment with in finding the best recipe we can for it, as we'll probably be hunting some time this season and have at least five pounds of meat to spare for drying, maybe a bit more, depending on the size of our catch.

    I'm sure most blades form the Hunting thread will relate to me on this one, but I'm sure we have quite a few Grasscity chefs that would, without complaint, take advantage of the opportunity to dry out their own food. I'll probably be posting pictures of the meat as it is going into the dehydrator, as well as a few of it coming out.

    Cheers everyone!

    :D

     
  2. Yo ya dude i do this all the time I shoot does and bucks and turkeys out here all the time same recipe and everything...I like it better than story bought cause its not all beef and its has a nice gamey spicy taste to it Its so delcious.
     
  3. #3 Durchii, Sep 3, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 3, 2008
    Well, I woke up late today by about four hours, so the meat was sitting in the marinade for a bit longer than I anticipated... but who ever said that was a bad thing?

    One of the important techniques in making your own jerky is, before you put the meat into the dehydrator, making sure to pat it down on a paper towel or napkin to remove the excess juices. This will not diminish the flavor in the slightest, but it will significantly reduce the drying time by at least four to five hours. After doing that, you will have a scene that looks strikingly similar to this:

    [​IMG]

    Once that is over with, place the meat on the trays in a fashion where they aren't coming into contact with each other at all and stack the trays to where you will achieve optimum air flow. This is pretty much guess and check, but it doesn't have to be perfect, so don't break a sweat over it because you might be an inch or two off.

    [​IMG]

    After that, just cover the dehydrator, mark the time, and flip it on! I'm pretty satisfied with this model, and about the only canarde that I have with it is the noise the fan puts out. I may record a video for everyone later... it's quite loud, which is no problem during the day, but after about ten when at least one person in your house is asleep, it tends to be a bit irritating. I'll be running this machine to at least midnight, so we'll see where that goes. Luckily, it takes up very little counter space, but I would highly recommend that if you buy this, or any, dehydrator, that you buy an extra set of trays with it. I have at least ten or twelve slices of meat that didn't make it to the racks because I ran out of room.

    [​IMG]

    Other than that, things are looking good over here in the Rockies! I'll be back in twelve hours with updated pictures of the finished product.

    :D
     
  4. cure some bud in that thing! :D
     
  5. holy shit about to go get some jerky :D
     
  6. wow, thats loud haha, how long will it stay on for? Sounds very similar to my vaccum..
     

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