Dehydrators for Jerky

[Eye Slayer]

I am looking to get a food dehydrator to try and make a couple of small batches of venison jerky for the first time.

I am wondering if the round dehydrators like the Gardenmaster or Open Country ones on Cabela's.com are decent or is it really worth investing in the more commercial grade dehydrators.

I also saw that Fleet Farm had a 4 or 5 tray round dehydrator with the jerky gun and a couple of cure/spice kits included for about $60. I want to make sure I am not wasting the money going with something like that...

[Deitz Dittrich]

I have 3 of the round style ones.. the only thing you really need to look for is the ones that have a fan.. I have been doing jerky in the dehydrator for a few years now and they work great! I think the one I like the most is an American Harvest?

[Sutty]

If you want to try to make it the first time without buying a bunch of stuff you can use your oven. I don't know about using the jerky gun I haven't tried that way yet but using thin slices of meat works OK. I usually spray down some cookie drying racks with some spray oil put the meat on there and put a cookie sheet underneath to catch the drippings. The downside is you can smell up the house real well...

[irvingdog]

From an earlier thread:

Cure can, and does come from salt, acids or both. The best and most enoyable way to make jerky I've ever seen comes from a method by a guy named Alton Brown from the Food Network. He cures with Soy Sauce and Worchestershire sauce (yum!) and then dries the meat (Thats what dehydrators and ovens do) using a box fan and furnace filters. I've done it. It works. Super fast, cheap and really fun gadgety kind of stuff. Here's the whole shebang:

1 1/2 to 2 pounds flank steak

2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

2/3 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon liquid smoke

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Special Equipment: 1 box fan, 4 paper air-conditioning filters, and 2 bungee cords

Trim the flank steak of any excess fat, place in a zip-top bag, and place it in the freezer for 1 to 2 hours in order to firm up.

Remove the steak from the freezer and thinly slice the meat with the grain, into long strips.

Place the strips of meat along with all of the remaining ingredients into a large, 1-gallon plastic zip-top bag and move around to evenly distribute all of the ingredients. Place the bag into the refrigerator for 3 to 6 hours.

Remove the meat from the brine and pat dry. Evenly distribute the strips of meat onto 3 of the air filters, laying them in the grooves and then stacking the filters on top of one another. Top these with 1 empty filter. Next, lay the box fan on its side and lay the filters on top of it. Strap the filters to the fan with 2 bungee cords. Stand the fan upright, plug in and set to medium. Allow the meat dry for 8 to 12 hours

Like I say, I've done it myself. Now I want to build lots of my own re-usable racks and have fans going from both sides to increase capacity.

Want more? Search engine Alton Brown and Jerky.

You'll be glad you did.

[Jim Almquist]

I like to use my charcoal smoker cause of the extra flavor when I use the high mountain pepper blend. I think that if you had a weber you could do it with indirect heat and it would take about 2 hours depending on the thickness.

[BigWadeS]

My father-in-law has a jerky gun, we used it this week to try our first batch of ground jerky. What a slick tool, we used the oven as he had a three tier oven rack system. One thing we learned is that you can place the strips of jerky very close together as they shrink considerably, but I definitly liked using it and easy to use and easy to clean

[jigguy]

Jerky gun does work well, I used it a couple of years ago, and I now have lots of ground venison that is going to be made that way. I just place it in the oven and the jerky comes out great, I use the Hi mountian seasonings, lots of different varities.

[loosegoose]

Don't bother with a dehydrator if you're planning on using it mainly for making jerky. An insulated smoker of whatever type is definitly the way to go and I also second using the High Mountain seasoning for what ever type of smoking/curing that you'll be doing.

[coolhand]

We just bought the gas smoker from Menards. Works great. I have found that the best thickness for cuts of meat are between 1/4 and 3/8. You retain more moisture in the meat. I have also used a recipe like the one above and a hi mountain blend. Both are good. Hickory is the best. Make sure you wet the wood for atleast one hour. Gives you a longer smoke time and don't apply smoke until after the first hour of cooking.

[BradB]

I make a ton of duck and goose jerky every year, and have done so for a decade. The best advice I could give you is to get a flat dehydrator with the fan and heating element at the back, like an Excalibur. I burned through 3 of those round white ones (with bottom heat/fan) before I learned my lesson. The goo drips down and fouls the works, and you can't clean it out. If you are only going to do a batch or two, then anything would be fine I suppose. But the Excalibur does a more even job and is much more durable.

[Eye Slayer]

When making jerky in the dehydrators, how long do you leave the jerky in there? I am making a couple of batches - one made from sliced round meat, and one from ground. Both are curing right now but I was curious how long I should plan on leaving the batches in the dehydrator drying out?

[metrojoe]

I picked up one of the round ones from Fleet Farm. I think it was $25. The jerky guns are a must(IMHO). The ground venison jerky come out fantastic. I can make 3 pounds at a time and it's usually gone the next day, unless I hide some.

I like to let it run about 6 hours. Any longer seems to dry it out too much.