I'm thinking about trying to make my own. Anybody have experience with this? I'd like to see some opinions on dehydrators, spices and jerky guns. From what I've researched, it seems like you can go to the store and buy some ground meat and throw it in the jerky gun. I thought you had to buy the meat and slice it yourself. I'm not sure if there's a huge taste difference or not.
Homemade Beef Jerky
- Thread starter AllBizNiz
- Start date
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp9To4L3s7A]Good Eats - S09E03 - Urban Preservation II The Jerky [HD] - YouTube[/ame]
The alton brown (non cooked) method is almost perfect.
What I do is process my venison in a food processor with spices. Then I take a rolling pin, roll it till it's 1/4th" to 1/8th" then put it on a wire rack in front of a fan. 2 days later I have glorious deer jerky!
What I do is process my venison in a food processor with spices. Then I take a rolling pin, roll it till it's 1/4th" to 1/8th" then put it on a wire rack in front of a fan. 2 days later I have glorious deer jerky!
That Alton Brown recipe rules - I've made a dozen or so batches and turns out fantastic every time. Really can't fuck it up and no dehydrator needed.
I've made a lot of different varieties of jerky out of venison, beef, turkey, and ground meats in the smoker and dehydrators and the dehydrator gave the most consistent results, especially for the ground stuff.
The first dehydrator I used was a Nesco and it did okay but it was more like cooking than drying it out. I bought an Excalibur which cost quite a bit more but did a great job because there's a temperature control and the fan and element is at the rear so you can dry the jerky at a low temp. I also used it for making dried apples, banana chips, apricots for my kids and it worked great for that too.
I used the guns quite a bit but the best ground jerky I made was jalapeno and for that I'd mix the seasonings and diced jalapenos and then pack it into 1 or 2 lb game bags, like Jimmy Deans comes in. Then after it was frozen I'd slice it on an electric slicer about 1/8 - 3/16 thick and put it on the racks. Completely different texture than from a gun, more like a chewy salami. If you like jerky, making your own is a helluva lot cheaper than buying it and you can tweak the recipes to your own taste.
I use the smoker for things like sausage, venison salami, smoked salmon and jerky but it's a longer process and you need to add cure to prevent botulism.
The first dehydrator I used was a Nesco and it did okay but it was more like cooking than drying it out. I bought an Excalibur which cost quite a bit more but did a great job because there's a temperature control and the fan and element is at the rear so you can dry the jerky at a low temp. I also used it for making dried apples, banana chips, apricots for my kids and it worked great for that too.
I used the guns quite a bit but the best ground jerky I made was jalapeno and for that I'd mix the seasonings and diced jalapenos and then pack it into 1 or 2 lb game bags, like Jimmy Deans comes in. Then after it was frozen I'd slice it on an electric slicer about 1/8 - 3/16 thick and put it on the racks. Completely different texture than from a gun, more like a chewy salami. If you like jerky, making your own is a helluva lot cheaper than buying it and you can tweak the recipes to your own taste.
I use the smoker for things like sausage, venison salami, smoked salmon and jerky but it's a longer process and you need to add cure to prevent botulism.
Don't you need to heat it a little? Sounds like you could be in for the shits if you don't do that right.
Thanks for the input. I was actually looking at the Nesco dehydrators. The more expensive ones have the temperature control. I'll probably just get their best one.
I make mine in the oven. Slice up some decent meat, soak it in your favorite recipe overnight then I put it on a baking rack on top of a cookie sheet and leave it in the oven on the lowest temperature for 6-8 hours. Prop the door open slightly so moisture can get out. If you want a good recipe pm me and I'll dig up the PDF and send it to you.
Bacteria needs moisture to grow. No moisture - no bacteria.
On top of that, typically you use venison or beef. Both carry very little in the way of harmful bateria even if you don't dry the meat.
To make things even safer, regular jerky ingredients - Salt, sodium nitrate, honey, sugar are all anti-bacterial.
What schockergd said is explained starting at about 4:56 in the video that I posted above.