I've grown impstient waiting for on topic answers so I'll jump in.... I have no experience making such things, and am interesting in reading, but not doing, but, like, last week-ish, I discovered a commercial product, Baja Jerky, that I kind of love, It uses those modern, unfortunately non-recyclable, many layer, soft zipper packs to stay fresh, so the "jerky" is low salt (for its kind), no celery or any othe nitrates, (no headaches!), no sugar, not too dry to bite or chew though the sensation of eating jerky, just not having to rehydrate with saliva and get more wood from toothpicks than actual beef. Nice little pick-me-up,

Probably due to the paleo crowd, there's a whole shelf's worth of organic and nutritionally better, sometimes tastier meat snacks, from jerkys to meatsticks, and stops in between. Many are more traditional, with the celery nitrates and all, but the ingredients read like recipes, not the basement of a chem lab.

For the (tiny) amount I eat of it (one minion actually screwed up her nose!) it wouldn't be worth making it, but I'm looking forward to people's stories of what they make.

I made jerky once in my little home dehydrator, using ground beef. It was OK, but not really worth the effort or expense, I decided. I occasionally buy Aldi's organic jerky and it's pretty good and comparatively inexpensive. Any jerky has a lot of salt tho. I've had salmon jerky before, and while it was very tasty, it was so damn hard it was dangerous for anyone with dental work.

I've never tried. I like the idea of dried beef as dog treats but not with salt. Does it need salt or can you just dry it?

I cook beef liver treats for my dog and the smell is nasty LOL I have to do it on a day when I can air the house out really well!

Salt is part of the drying and preservation. The new one I like has salt, just not enough for preservation, so you et 57g in an airtight package with the warning to use within a few days of opening. You can substitute cold for salting. Even vacuum seal and freeze?

I have the old style food dehydrators. Currently NOT eating beef...but I used to make it with 7 bone chuck roast. It was cheap and lean...and tough. Never used actual sugar. I used soy, lots of salt and worcestershire sauce...marinated over night....then 8 hours of drying. Liquid smoke....no....never.....and it wasn't rubbery like store bought....or sweet. More beefy tasting....we liked it. I've tried store-bought shark jerky...did not like it.

Surprisingly to me, I’m not finding reference to dried fish jerky in traditional cuisine. Dried fish, sure, in island and other cultures, but it is cooked before eating.

Smoked fish is traditional too; I guess that qualifies as jerky using my definition, but I don’t have a smoker.

I see plenty of recipes for salmon jerky and pork jerky; time to find the dehydrator and try some!

I used to dehydrate fruit to chewy snackage, for backpacking. Hmm, suppose I make a sort of thin lamination with pounded pork and thin sliced apple, and jerky those together?

Oooo, how about shrimp jerky?

It’s gonna be a long winter . . . plenty of time to make inedibly but indelibly interesting food.

I used to make a lot with ground venison, but he quit hunting. I even had a jerky shooter. I used a package of seasoning that was bought at Bass Pro Shop, I cannot remember the brand.

Lem Backwood's Original was the brand.

I've never tried to make it myself. Something DH might be interested in, he likes jerky; I should mention it to him.

At first thought, shrimp jerky sounds kind of gross, but then I remembered how I used to enjoy snacking on those tiny dried shrimp from the shops in Chinatown.

And I was considering the price of beef these days - I think Aldi's packaged organic jerky costs less than it would for me to make jerky from conventional beef now.

What is a jerky shooter!?

I dehydrate a fair amount of different foods but I haven’t tried jerky. I do like jerky occasionally especially when someone’s makes a good venison jerky. It is officially hunting season in Maine.

I used to work with some Cambodian and Laotian folks. They would occasionally bring some incredibly spicy dry meat - not sure if it was traditional or a mix of American hunting culture with their own cuisine. I really liked that.

I once went to a store in coastal Massachuesetts called Portulgalia that had an entirely separate gigantic section just for many forms of salted cod. As in double doors and some kind of forced air barrier. I would call that jerky adjacent.

Mine came with a flat wide nozzle also and that is what I used.

I have never made jerky but this thread caused me to notice that I have been getting email ads from jerky.com for a while now. This week‘s new flavor is spiced apple pork sticks.

I went to the website out of curiosity and was really impressed by the variety and that they take flavor suggestions. The also have a customer taster program. You should check out their offerings for the flavor combo ideas. I might have purchased something from them as gift of something. Now I want to try these flavors.

link to limited time flavors page

Agmss,

Fall River, Massachusetts

🔹https://portugaliamarketplace.com