JERKY GREASE?

[MILLER TIME]

I made 10lbs of jerky from ground up hamburger through the jerky blaster then vaccum sealed it & froze it. but when i take it out and defrost it theres a ton of grease left on it and doesnt look very appealing, taste great though. What caused this? Did i seal it to early when it was warm, I tryed to soak up as much grease before sealing. Can I thaw it out rinse off and reseal them? Any info. would be great.

[MNmikew]

What did you use to dry it? Dehydrator or oven? I've had this happen when using a dehydrator before. Typically you can let it cool and wipe it down a bit with paper towels.

[MILLER TIME]

Used an oven. just wondering if I should Thaw out & rinse off then refreeze if that would help.

[prov1900]

This isn't a definate answer, but I do know that thawing out meat and refreezing is not a good idea. I think you face spoilage issues. I also think your odds of freezer burn would go up pretty quick. Sorry, I wish I knew an exact answer.

[thirdeye]

I agree that is sounds like there is a hitch in your processing, either drying time or temp or maybe both. I'm a whole muscle jerky guy, so can't really share anything about ground jerky.

I am curious ..... How are you defrosting it? A slow defrost in the refrigerator for a day or two will be much better on the product that trying to do it in a microwave.

[Surface Tension]

If you a microwave to defrost then you heated up the fat. Jerky is dried not cooked, so that fat is suspended in the meat and not dripped out. The microwave's defrost is hotter then a drier. If your using ground beef it should be lean.

Other things you don't want to defrost in a microwave are.

Pepperoni, beef sticks, and salami.

[MNHuntress]

I agree with Surface Tension, use lean meat. 90/10 hamburger is the lowest you want to go otherwise you have the grease issue. Also when it comes out of the dehydrator let it cool down for a few hours at room temp because if you put it right away in the fridge and cover it gets soggy. This will prevent any moisture when you vac seal it, which is another soggy mess. I do alot of ground jerky and I've goofed these things up in the past, the flavor is there but just not too appetizing.

[Mike89]

As said, it depends on the mixture of the burger. The thing to do is, when you are cooling it off, rince it under hot water. It will NOT do anything to take from the taste. Good luck!

Mike89

[MILLER TIME]

Thanks for the responses, I will try other methods next time. Its not all a bad thing, it just means more for me!