Home Beef Jerky Maker

2007-05-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

(Click on Pictures for a full size view, use your browser's Back button to return)

Visit my other "Home Maker" Pictorial "How To" Sites.

Go to the Home Sausage Maker

Go to the Home Corned Beef Maker

Go to the Home Sausage Fattie Maker

What is Jerky?

2007-05-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

Jerky is simply meat which has been preserved by drying to remove it's moisture. Jerky is one of the easiest snacks that you can make at home. These days, Jerky is usually made with lean cuts of beef, but many other meats can be dryed into Jerky as well. The only thing that you need to do to make simple Beef Jerky is thinly slice up some selected lean Beef and dehydrate or dry it. If that's all you do, it may be a little bland, but you will have a meat snack that can be stored for some period of time without refrigeration. Take the process a step further and add common salt, and the preservation time will be increased, and the chance of cultivating bacteria during the drying process will be reduced. This is what our ancestors did prior to the invention and common availability of referigeration.

Jerky is one of the earliest applications of food preservation. It was usually made from the animals that our ancestors hunted or maybe even raised themselves. Throughout human history, drying meat has been a common method employed to preserve food for long term storage. The meat was usually dried in the open air in the sun. The strips of meat were placed close to an open fire where the smoke from the fire flavored the meat, but more importantly, the smoke repelled insects which might spoil the raw meat.

Today we use safer, more modern methods and tools, and most of us prefer to flavor our Jerky beyond simply salting and preserving it.

Next Page

The Two "C's"

2007-05-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

Clean and Cold.

Clean.

If you will keep your work preparation area Clean, all of your kitchen tools and containers as Clean as possible, you are unlikely to have any problems with bacteria growth and sickness from eating the food you will be preparing. Use paper towels to wipe up spills, discard them after use. Use lots of paper towels as you go. If you use cleaning cloths repeatedly, it is likely that you will spread bacteria from one swipe to the next. It’s not worth the possibility of getting sick, and having to make a late night visit to the emergency room. Paper towels are cheap, much cheaper that any doctor’s bill. You might consider keeping your favorite spray cleaner handy, and add a small amount of laundry bleach to help control bacteria.

Cold.

Any food product kept cold is less susceptible to bacteria growth. If you are taking a break, or working on something other than the fresh meats, slip it back into refrigeration until you are ready to work on it again. Cold meats are also easier to slice and work with than meats that have reached room temperature.

Always remember the Two "Cs" and Stay Healthy!

Next Page

A few Things You Need

2007-05-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

Modern Jerky making uses our current technology to improve upon the process, make it safer, and speed up the whole process. Most of us also prefer to flavor our Jerky rather than simply salt it. In this step by step tutorial, we will be using the process suggested by the Morton Salt Company, using one of their products called Tender Quick which is used to cure raw meats, preventing the cultivation of harmful bacteria. Pictured is the booklet available from Morton Salt Company with instructions for curing many different kinds of meats. I highly recommend that you go to Morton's website and purchase the Meat Curing Booklet to learn how to safely cure meats. We will be following the instructions and recipe for Beef Jerky in the book. You will also want to locate additional spice recipes to use with the Tender Quick. This is one of the advantages of making your own Jerky; you can try out various flavors. You may need some of the spices and liquid flavorings shown in the picture, of course depending on the recipe you choose to try out. Search around the internet, there are literally hundreds of Jerky marinade recipes to choose from.

You will need a minimum of kitchen tools, primarily a sharp knife and a cutting board or a surface upon which you can slice the meats, and keep things organized and clean.

We will be using a multi-tray electric dehydrator. They are relatively inexpensive and can dehydrate many other foodstuffs besides our Beef Jerky. Search for one that allows you to clean the trays in your automatic dishwasher. The dishwasher is a safe way to maintain cleanliness and food safety. Plus it’s a lot easier than hand washing all those little surfaces.

(Click on Pictures for a full size view, use your browser's Back button to return)

Next Page

Let's Get Started!

2007-05-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

Select a cut of meat that is as lean as possible. Some internal fat marbling is OK. Any fat on the cut of meat will need to be trimmed off, so you might as well buy it without fat and avoid paying for something you will be trimming off and discarding. Fat does not dehydrate well, in fact it will become rancid, so you don’t want any on your finished Beef Jerky.
I have used various cuts of meat, such as Round Steak, Brisket, and London Broil. They all make good jerky meats, but I have settled on London Broil as my favorite cut for Jerky. Round Steak is usually packaged with a fair amount of fat that will have to be discarded. Brisket works well, but can be pretty tough and stringy, as well as having a thick layer of fat to remove.

On a cutting board or mat, trim up the meat, removing as much of the fat as you can. I am working with a London Broil steak here. Slice the steak up into thin strips. The thickness is up to you, as to how you like your Jerky. Thin strips dry quicker and more thoroughly. Thicker strips stay a bit more moist and chewy. You have the option of making some of both of course.

Make up the Marinade according to the recipe in the Morton Salt book, using the Tender Quick product to cure the beef and prevent bacterial growth. You may add or subtract spices with this recipe. My favorite Marinade is a combination of the Morton’s recipe and another I found on the internet. You may want to try different recipes to keep things interesting. I advise using the Tender Quick in any case.

Place the sliced up meat strips into a Food Saver Bag.

Pour in your Marinade mixture.

Make sure that the meat strips are mixed well into the marinade.

Vacuum Seal the bag with the Food Saver machine.

It’s not a bad idea to label the Food Saver Bag with Contents and Date. If you happen to get too busy to dehydrate the meat for a few days, you can just pop the bag into the freezer after the curing time, and dehydrate it at a later date. The vacuumed sealed bags offer a lot of flexibility.
Place the bag into your refrigerator following the Morton Salt recommendations.
This is where I diverge from Morton’s recommendation. I leave the meat bag in the refrigerator overnight, usually for 24 hours. If in doubt, follow Morton’s steps including the baking time in your oven.

(Click on Pictures for a full size view, use your browser's Back button to return)

Next Page

Dehydrate and Package your Jerky

2007-05-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

After you have allowed the meat strips to marinate in the spice mixture for a few hours, (or maybe overnight), you are ready to dry the meat into Jerky. Arrange the meat strips on the dehydrator trays. Make sure that the strips do not overlap or touch each other. Air must be able to flow all around each strip.

Follow the directions provided by your dehydrator manufacturer (they all vary somewhat) as to how many hours will be required to fully dry your Jerky. With my dehydrator I have found that I can start it up before I go to bed, and it is usually ready by the time I wake up in the morning. It's not a bad idea to schedule the drying over a week-end or when you don't need to leave to go to work, so that you can finish off the drying for a couple more hours if needed. The humidity in the air can affect the drying time. Here where I live, humidity varies a lot, so it's a good idea to pay attention to the humidity level in your area.

A tip: If you feel that your Jerky is almost dried enough, but not quite, you can place it into a paper sack, and place the sack into your refrigerator. It will continue to slowly dry for as long as you leave it in the paper sack in the frige. Maybe some of the thinner strips are just right, but the thicker ones need a little more drying time, try the paper sack tip for them.

Once you have removed the dried Jerky from the dehydrator you don't have to do anything special to package it. You may store it in a jar with a lid, or in a zip lock bag. You do not have to referigerate it, but I usually do if I have room for it. My thought is that it always pays to be careful. If you take the jar route, put a couple of tablespoons of uncooked rice in the jar to help keep the Jerky dry. Minute Rice works as well as raw rice, by the way. If you are going to take some Jerky with you for your outdoor activities, you may want to vacuum package a few before you throw it into your backpack. I have included a picture or two of packaging with the handy Food Saver. Label and date your packages. Be sure to take something with you to cut the package open, the plastic in the Food Saver bags is too strong to rip open with your hands like commercial packaging on the Jerky you get at the store.

Enjoy trying many different flavors of your Home Made Beef Jerky.

Return to First Page