There are some good general guidelines at the link below.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - How to dry jerky.

I used my dehydrator and made beef jerky, it was delicious, but within a week it started to go bad and I had sealed them in those vacuum bags. I might not have dried it long enough but I noticed in the link given by Grainlady that it only keeps a couple of weeks when home-made.

The primary concern in making jerky is destroying microorganisms that cause foodborne illness. In order to do this, the meat and poultry must be heated to 160-degrees F to destroy microorganisms.

There are two methods for doing this. If the meat I use for making jerky is in solid strips, I use both methods. If the jerky is made from lean ground meat (I usually use ground bison because there is very little fat in the meat and extrude it through my Nesco American Harvest Dehydrator Jerky Maker), I use the second method because ground meat isn't marinated.

1. If the meat is marinated, heat the meat in the marinade prior to drying by bringing the temperature of the marinade and meat up to a temperature of 160-degrees for a few minutes. Stir the contents in the pot occasionally to make sure each piece is thoroughly heated through. Then place the meat on the dehydrator trays.

2. The second method is to heat the dried jerky in the oven in a single layer in a 275-degrees F preheated oven for 10-minutes AFTER the dehydration process.

There also needs to be sufficient drying temperature during the drying process to prevent bacteria growth. Meat, poultry, and fish should be dried on the highest temperature setting of your dehydrator. This is especially important during the first stages of drying when bacteria tend to multiply in the moist environment.

The combination of heat AND air flow are also important for proper drying. If you use an oven for drying, you can actually cook the jerky before it is thoroughly dry without proper air flow. Using a dehydrator, which incorporates both heat and air, the jerky dries from the inside out. In an oven you can cook and dry the outside of the jerky first (which is called hardcasing), leaving the inside still moist with the potential for spoilage. Hardcasing can also be a problem when dehydrating potato slices, but that's another topic for another day.

Because there is still plenty of fat in the dried meat, even when you choose extra lean cuts, it is really best to refrigerate it if you are going to use it quickly, and freeze it for longer storage.

-Grainlady

Here is the recipe we have used for years. We use two dehydrators at a time.

Hatch’s Jerky

3.5 fluid ounces Liquid Smoke (just under 1/4 cup)
5.0 fluid ounces Soy Sauce (just under 2/3 cup)
5.0 fluid ounces Worcestershire Sauce (just under 2/3 cup)
10 tbl brown sugar
1/4 cup horseradish
1 tbl garlic salt
20 shakes Tabasco

Marinate overnight. Pepper (optional) before dehydrating. Dry for 12 to 16 hours (1/4 inch thick) - depending on how ‘dry’ you like it.

Yes, I do. I have made both lamb and chicken jerky. I use the Excalibur dehydrator on the highest setting.

You DO have to cook the chicken first. I thinly slice all the meats, and saute in a sauce of my own choosing (it varies, but it never contains sugar -- which is one reason I dehydrate my own food!) Realize that what tastes great before dehydration will be really intensified after the water loss and shrinkage after dehydration.

Dehydrate for as long as it takes -- air moisture and ambient temperature means the amount of time will differ from batch to batch.

When I store it, whether vacuum packed or not, I store it for long term use in the freezer. It can last without the freezer for a certain amount of time, but I don't feel comfortable guessing how long.

I also make unseasoned chicken breast meat jerky for the cats. Also frozen until use, unless use is within a couple of weeks.

Here's my basic recipe, which you can vary as to the amount of spiciness desired:

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.

The finished product can be stored in plastic ziplock bags in the freezer, and can be moved to the fridge when you open one. I find that a quart ziplock bag holds one Nesco tray's worth of dried jerky. Note that this recipe does not contain any curing agents like nitrates or nitrites, so I can't vouch for what would happen if you left this jerky at room temperature for several days. Storing it this way, though, I've never had any of it go bad. That's partly because it tastes so good, a bag never lasts that long once I open one.

Yes, I've made it, both with slices of meat and the ground meat kind that you spread out. I dehydrate both in the Excaliber dehydrator.

That said, I haven't made any I've liked yet. (shrug) Elery eats whatever I make and says it's good, but I just haven't gotten it right yet.

Annie

I make jerky as follows: flank steak, half frozen, sliced to 1/8" or close enough. Mix up a marinade of soy sauce, bbq sauce or teriyaki sauce, Worcestershire sauce, plenty of sugar, salt and pepper to taste - I like a sweet tangy, sort of Korean BBQ-ish result. Put sliced meat in a gallon zip lock, pour the marinade in, mix it all up, press excess air out of the bag, seal it and refrigerate overnight. Lay the meat on dehydrator trays, with plenty of marinade coating the pieces. Dehydrate about 14 to 18 hours, depending on your machine. I stop when the jerky is firm and stiff, quite dry, a bit crystalline from the sugar, but not rock hard. Held at one end, a piece won't bend at all of its own weight. Store in zip lock bags, keep it dry. Usually the stuff gets gobbled up in a couple weeks, but I've found bags a few months later and the jerky was exactly as it was when made, and those bags get gobbled up too. I doubt the shelf life would be more than six months, but I've never tested. I've been making this jerky for about ten years, my kids brought it to school, I mailed bags to them at camp, all their friends scarfed it down, no dissatisfied customers . . .

I think I'll make a couple bags for Daughter at college.

We were given venison, frozen, by a butcher who hunts. He definitely knows what he is doing, in terms of hunting and field dressing, and so on. If the meat is already frozen, would it be okay to defrost some and then follow one of the recipes above? Or should the venison be fresh before making it into jerky?

kitchendetective, I nearly always make jerky from meat I have thawed from frozen, both beef and venison.

Somehow I seldom have time to make jerky or sausage or whatever exactly at the time I get an entire animal for the freezer, go figure. So, mine is nearly always from a frozen state.

Annie

Well, as usual, I love this forum. You are the greatest. Pardon the ongoing questions, but what is "thin" in the context of slices of meat for jerky? 1/8" ?

1/8" works for me. If using flank steak, cut across the grain, which makes the pieces easy to chew. If you cut with the grain, then I'd think you'd want to slice thinner than 1/8".

Anyway, I find it hard to consistently slice a big piece of meat thinner than 1/8", and I don't have a butcher's meat slicer.

1/8" works for me. If using flank steak, cut across the grain, which makes the pieces easy to chew. If you cut with the grain, then I'd think you'd want to slice thinner than 1/8".

Anyway, I find it hard to consistently slice a big piece of meat thinner than 1/8", and I don't have a butcher's meat slicer.

Johnliu, your marinade sounds great, would you share rough proportions for that recipe? We just purchased a dehydrator and have yet to try it. I have some flank steak in the frig for that purpose and your jerky sounds perfect. Thank you!

Johnliu, your marinade sounds great, would you share rough proportions for that recipe? We just purchased a dehydrator and have yet to try it. I have some flank steak in the frig for that purpose and your jerky sounds perfect. Thank you!