Well - Do you like a sweet teriyaki style with or without 'heat'. Or ???? I prefer Teriyaki style myself and add a bit of spice/heat with blk. pepper and/or a bit of red.

Some with heat...yes. Teriyaki will work, too. It just has to have a really good flavor-make your mouth water stuff. We buy the homemade a lot and they don't really have a name...it's just really good. Fiance doesn't like the store brands. Sorry, I don't know exactly what kind it is. If there is a flavor you think is pretty good, I don't mind trying that one.

Beef Jerky
Recipe Courtesy of Sara Moulton

3 pounds top round London Broil, trimmed of fat
3 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
Cut meat into strips a little less than 1/4-inch thick. Place strips in a shallow bowl. Combine salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder in a small bowl. Rub spice mixture into strips. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, and marinate for 48 hours in the refrigerator. Remove a rack from the oven. Preheat the oven to 115 degrees. Remove the strips from the marinade and lay them directly on the oven rack so that air can circulate around them. Line the bottom of the oven with aluminum foil to catch the drippings. Place the rack in the oven, leaving it partially open to maintain a constant temperature of 110 to 115 degrees. Leave the jerky in the oven until well dried, 6 to 8 hours.

Note: The USDA recommends cooking the beef jerky at 160 degrees for the first 4 hours and then reducing the temperature to 130 degrees during the dehydrating process.

Yield: approximately 1 pound dried jerky
Prep Time: 48 hours 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 hours

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.foodtv.com/foodtv/print/recipe/0,6255,11573,00.html

Been making Jerky for several years, usually from rump roast that I asked the butcher shop to slice for me or from wild game that was given to me. I used to trim off the fat, marinate the meat for 12 hours and then add spices and put in it my dehydrator. This year I purchased one of the NESCO Jerky Makers from Wal-Mart. It's easier, faster, cleaner, and makes excellent jerky. Looks like a small caulking gun and has three different attachments for different types of jerky (Large round, small round, and flat). Buy lean ground beef, mix in the spices and curing that comes with the unit (along with anything else you desire) pack the mixture in the gun and shoot out the product on wax paper. Lay the product in your dehydrator and dehydrate for approximately 10 hours (I turn mine over and move the trays from top to bottom about half way through the process). Tastes great, no waste, and easy clean-up! Good luck!

a South African speciality is air cured meat called Biltong

I made a drying box and started making my own and we always have a batch on hand..

the box can be seen here http://www.iris.com/web/daleweb/doings.nsf/1/20010902Biltongmaker

and the making of it is described here:
http://www.iris.com/web/daleweb/doings.nsf/1/20010903MakingBiltong

and here
http://www.iris.com/web/daleweb/doings.nsf/1/secondbatch

Here is a link that might be useful: Biltong

Dash of Liquid Smoke
2 parts soy sauce
1 part worcestershire (I've been cutting this part down alot)
black pepper
red pepper to taste
tons & tons of brown sugar (I've been toying with using bulk Splenda sweetender - you can cook with it as opposed to other types - and it has come out pretty decent).