What timing! I just last evening took my first batch of jerky out of my Christmas gift Excalibur dehydrator.

Gotta say--I'm not thrilled with the results.

I'll be watching this thread for recipes to try.

Its been a while since I made jerky but I used to like to marinate in a mixture of mango nectar, soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder et al. I think that I also added brown sugar too. I remember the sugary mixture drew out a good bit of the water before the drying process began.

I used the oven on low so the jerky was actually cooked but my brother used to make dehydrator jerky and I remember it as being alot like dried red/raw meat. If this is a problem you could precook the marinated meat befor drying.

I make deer jerky several times a year. The marinade I use is roughly 70% soy sauce and the remainder a combination of the following: worcestershire, liquid smoke, coarse black pepper, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes. Sometimes I play around with the sweet components and use molasses, honey, or teriyaki. You can play around with all the ingredients until you get a batch that suits you. Marinade for at least a half hour before dehydrating. A beef sirloin roast is a good cut to turn into jerky as it is nice and flat and lean.

Brook

This is making me hungry for beef jerky. I love the sound of all these recipes because I like a sweeter type. It is hard to experiment due to the cost of the meat so I like to hear about tried n true recipes. Lori

I got the coolest thing for Christmas this year, a Jerky Shooter. Looks like a caulk gun, 'cept you load it with seasoned ground meat and extrude directly onto dehydrator trays. Comes with a variety of seasoning blends, or you could make your own. Instead of having to cut up meat primals and make sense of the grain, you just grind up as much as you want and season to taste, or you can use ground meat from the grocery. It came from Gander Mountain, but I have seen similar ones at Cabellas also.

I also like the ground jerkys, and you don't have to have the gun to make them. Simply put your ground, seasoned meat between two sheets of waxed paper and pound it to your desired thickness. Cut it into strips and throw the paper away. No clean up.

Thanks for the ideas so far! Brook, your recipe sounds quite similar to what I've been doing, except I've skipped the sugar entirely. I'll add dried red peppers next time - that sounds good!

I remember years ago making jerky with a Guiness base that was really amazing (past life, had a smoker back then) that did contain sugar but wasn't 'sweet' - same with some wine-based jerkys we did back then. Not enough sugar to taste sweet. I like jerky that isn't sweet and I ENJOY chewing. I far prefer meat to taste savory rather than sweet or fruity, although I'm not averse to trying something new. It's jerky - there's no way it wouldn't be good, right?

I wish I still had that old meat smoking book, or remembered what it was called; it had lots of amazing jerky recipes. However, that was 15-20 years ago.

Jerky has some special safety things that need to be followed if you want to be sure it is safe to eat.
It is recommended that you heat the brine and put the jerky in that before drying.
Also, no ground meats are now considered safe to dry, not even into jerky. Sorry, but that is the current, safe guideline. Ground meats have millions of surface areas that are contaminated by bacteria, unlike a solid slice piece of meat.
If you are interested in what is now considered safe, I am sending the link.
The vinegar dip does leave a vinegar taste, but I acutally like it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Safe jerky methods.

Thanks, Linda Lou - I had seen the current recommendations, and perhaps you could clear up something I am confused about? For some reason I had gotten the idea that precooking or vinegar-dipping solid beef pieces was unnecessary if you dehydrate/oven dry at 160 degrees. Mine goes to 160, so I didn't think the dipping was necessary. Have I misunderstood?

I've been following the procedures on the NCHFP website - I thought they were reliable.

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Drying Jerky

The meat needs to be preheated to 160 before drying.
The site is still being updated. There is more current info at the one I sent on the beef jerky.

One other thing that greatly increases meat safty when smoking or drying is the use of a cure such as sodium nitrite particuarly on meats that will be under 140 degrees for a lenth of time to prevent botulism cures somtimes come in jerky seasoning kits or near sausage making supplies

My favorite recipes usually are salt sugar a little soy sauce and some kitchen spices oh and ground black and red pepper sometimes course ground pressed on top or a sprinkle of garlic I make it a little differnt every time oh and in the smoker it is so darn good!

Robin there are a lot of ideas online to make really simple smokers from things at hand if you have an electric hot plate or frypan even a cardboard box will do

I made mine out of the oven under my canning stove outside I pulled the oven elements out and put a stove top element in with a cast iron fry pan of wood chips on it works great and is well insulated for winter use I did venison tenderloins last weekend when it was 15 below

Thanks so much for the clarification, Linda Lou - I appreciate it.

Wow, Jonas, your McGuyver smoker sounds really interesting! I envy you the venison almost as much as the smoker. :-)