I put mine in the freezer if it doesn't get eaten within a couple of days. I usually make a dehydrator full at a time, so it's quite a lot to just eat.

Beef jerky is not preserved, at least the homemade stuff isn't, so you have to refrigerate or freeze it, it's meat.

The commercial stuff is full of all kinds of chemicals that homemade isn't, so they can vacuum seal it when we can't, and they have equipment we don't have at home. That's how they can keep milk on the shelf without spoiling, aseptic packaging.

I don't really care for it, even my homemade stuff tastes too salty for me, so I just quit making it. I liked the stuff that was made with strips of meat better than the ground meat kind, but neither was as good as the stuff Carl used to make when he was still packaging meat. Darn, I miss him!

Annie

Ew, I don't think I could do the ground meat version. I bought a couple of grass fed top sirloins and partially defrosted them, cut as thin as possible and started my dehydrator at 8 this morning. I did try a piece and, wow, pretty spicy, 1/2 tbsp of cayenne will do that I guess. I do have a food saver - that isn't the same as the commercial airtight, is it?

I find that one Nesco dehydrator tray full of jerky can fit into one quart sized ziplock bag. I store those bags in the freezer, moving one bag at a time to the fridge when I want some; I'll usually eat the stuff in the fridge in a few days. Doing it this way I've never had any go bad. I don't use nitrites or nitrates.

You didn't ask, but here's my favorite formula for jerky:

Guinness Beef Jerky Marinade

(This amount of marinade is sufficient for about 5 to 6 pounds of beef, which I find fill my Nesco dehydrator's eight trays fairly full)
5 to 6 lbs lean beef, sliced thinly--see Note 1
2 bottles (12-14 oz each) Guinness Stout
2 tablespoons kosher salt OR 3 to 4 tablespoons soy sauce--see Note 2
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2-4 tablespoons hot stuff --see Note 3
optional: liquid smoke, 1 to 2 tbsp

In a large bowl pour stout and add salt, whisking to dissolve salt and decarbonate the stout. Add the garlic powder and hot stuff and mix well. Put the beef strips in the marinade by handfuls, swirling around to make sure all surfaces have come in contact with the marinade. Place the beef in a nonreactive container (a stainless stockpot works fine), pour the remaining marinade over the beef, mix well and refrigerate for at least an hour (more is better--overnight is fine). If you have time, mix up the beef strips every so often in the marinade.
Place the strips flat on the trays and dry to your desired amount of dryness. I prefer crisp to leathery, but do it however you want.
Note 1: Before slicing the beef, trim all extra fat off the surface of the meat. I like to use round roast because it's very lean; whenever possible, slice the strips across the grain. Slicing it with the grain results in a stringy final product. Eye of round costs a little more, but is very lean and also is very easy to slice across the grain, and that yields a less stringy product. Don't use a fatty cut of meat because it won't dry as thoroughly and won't have the storage properties of a leaner cut. (The fat can turn rancid.)
Note 2: I have found mushroom flavored soy sauce at an Asian market. It works great in this recipe.
Note 3: For the hot stuff, cayenne works well; you have to judge for yourself how hot your particular cayenne pepper is. (Mass market cayenne from brands like McCormick is relatively mild; powdered chili peppers from a Mexican or Indian market will be much hotter.) If you’re unsure, go easy with the hot stuff. You can always sprinkle a little more hot stuff on the finished product if you wish. I have used chipotle powder with good results; 4 tablespoons in this recipe makes a quite hot product, and 2 tbsp makes a pleasantly zingy one. If you want something quite mild, use sweet Hungarian paprika which would make a product not at all hot but would still have a good flavor. You can also use smoked Spanish paprika (‘pimenton’) which comes in three degrees of hotness (sweet, bittersweet & hot). If you use that, though, or chipotle powder, don’t use any additional smoke flavor. --Don't use a hot sauce that's vinegar based (like Tabasco or Sriracha)--the vinegar taste will be concentrated in the finished product.

I just store mine in ziplock bags in the cupboard, it lasts a couple months and is eaten by then. I've found it there six months later and eaten it happily, but that's just me. For longer storage, I freeze.

My jerky is flank steak, thin sliced across the grain, marinated in a mix of hoisin sauce or Yoshida sauce, soy sauce, Worchestershire sauce or Chinese black vinegar, plenty of brown sugar, a little hot sauce, sometimes commercial BBQ sauce. Placed in the dehydrator, well coated with the sauce mix. Dehydrated 15+ hours no heat. The result is chewy but not stringy, with a slightly crisp coating (from the sugar crystallizing).

The commercial jerky is leathery, dry, stringy, much more dehydrated than my homemade stuff.

Even though you use lean meat, there is enough fat remaining that can go rancid when exposed to oxygen and warm room temperature with enough time. It's suggested at the National Center for Home Food Preservation that you can store it at room temperature (70-degrees) in an air-tight container for two weeks (a canning jar works great). For better taste and texture, refrigerator or freezer storage is recommended.

-Grainlady

My husband, Don, and our son, Jim, are the beef jerky lovers in our family. They take it with them fishing so the majority is made in the summer/fall months (hot/humid). As such, I vac-pac and store in the freezer. We use a deli slicer for cutting the strips so it's thin enough thawing doesn't take more than a few minutes. I've never made jerky using ground meat. We use a marinade similar to arley's.

/tricia