I ordered food dehydrator. How do I make beef jerky?

[ponyo]

I just ordered Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator. I also have charcoal smoker. I want to try making some beef jerky. How do I go about it? Do I slice the beef into thin strips, marinate, smoke, and then dehydrate? Or smoke large chunk of meat and then slice, marinate, and then dehydrate? Or is there some other way?

What are some good recipes or food items to dehydrate?

 

[SKORPI0]

https://www.jerkyholic.com/how-to-make-beef-jerky-with-a-dehydrator/

 

[Ken g6]

What are some good recipes or food items to dehydrate?

https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-dry-fruits-and-vegetables-with-a-dehydrator-1388312

 

[nutxo]

Im surprised you dont have a gas stove. You seem to have a well equipped kitchen if I remember right. Do you have a dehydrate setting on your oven?

 

[AreaCode707]

I marinade at least overnight and then dehydrate with some heat. Use a marinade that has some sugar, some salt and some acid. Soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar and red pepper flakes. Fish sauce, lime, palm sugar, ginger, Thai pepper. Soy sauce, pineapple juice, lemon juice and cayenne pepper. I've never smoked my jerky so I'm no help to you there.

Most grocery deli counters will slice the meat for you if you ask. Get a very very lean cut.

 

[Kaido]

I just ordered Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator. I also have charcoal smoker. I want to try making some beef jerky. How do I go about it? Do I slice the beef into thin strips, marinate, smoke, and then dehydrate? Or smoke large chunk of meat and then slice, marinate, and then dehydrate? Or is there some other way?

What are some good recipes or food items to dehydrate?

Nice, I have the same one. It's a beast! I recommend picking up some Paraflexx sheets (knockoffs are available for cheaper FYI) if you plan on doing wet stuff like fruit rollups; you can use parchment paper in the meantime to experiment, however. A mandolin is also a good idea for getting even cuts, as is an ultra-sharp knife, if you don't already have one. A vacuum sealer (like a FoodSaver) is also good if you plan on getting serious with dehydration, especially if you end up doing a lot of jerky. Anyway, some recipe ideas:

1. Jerky (not just beef! ex. turkey jerky)
2. Fruit rollups (protip: add Jello powder for texture/flavor bonus)
3. Dried fruit (including sun-dried tomatoes! also banana chips, cinnamon apples, etc.)
4. DIY spices (grinders are $20; great for homemade chili powder, dried spices, mushroom powder for gravy & secretly spicing up foods with umami flavor, etc.)

I do other random stuff with it (ex. yogurt drops, granola, crackers, nuts, DIY dried parm, drying homemade pasta, etc.), but those are mainly what I use mine for. Jerky is a great snack, rollups & dried fruit are great, and if you like a lot of flavor in your food (I am a non-taster, so I like a lot of flavor), you can't beat homemade spices for putting an extra punch in your meals. You can do unique stuff too, like ketchup leather:

http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/20/man-c...e-burger-problem-no-one-knew-existed-5514822/

Tomatoes are actually pretty versatile in the dehydrator. Tomato bombs are pretty interesting:

http://www.wellpreserved.ca/the-tomato-bomb-intense-tomato-treat-for-1000/

Or if you don't mind a slightly labor-intensive recipe, homemade Lay's baked potato chips:

http://www.joyfulabode.com/homemade-baked-lays-potato-chipsbut-better/

If you're into hiking/camping/backpacking, you can dehydrate a lot of stuff for DIY meals & snacks. Frozen veggies are popular to dehydrate, as are things like soups & sauces. For example, here's an A to Z video of dehydrated meat sauce with pasta:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgsQZzgkF1Y

As far as jerky goes, just start experimenting...everyone has a vastly different palette & most people I know develop their own personal recipe after a bunch of experimentation. You can slice (or shred) up steak or do ground beef jerky (by hand or with a jerky gun, I've done both ways). You can do beef, fish (for reals), chicken, and turkey jerky (or even stuff like lamb, like they do with Epic bars). Tons of flavors available, even if you're only doing beef. You can also do left-field stuff like candied bacon jerky:

http://www.wellpreserved.ca/how-to-make-candied-bacon-jerky-recipe/

Here's a basic workflow to give you an idea of the process of doing beef jerky: (just remember, fat is bad because it goes rancid, cut it off!)

http://www.dehydratorbook.com/jerky-recipes-dehydrator.html

There is an active beef jerky review blog called Best Beef Jerky; you can look on the manufacturer's sites to steal recipe ideas from:

http://www.bestbeefjerky.org/

Here is a good starter recipe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlZwTnbXqTg

Dehydrators are nice because they are like using an Instant Pot...dump stuff in, press a button, and let it work its magic. I like the Excalibur a lot because it not only has a temperature adjustment dial, but also a timer, so you don't have to be around to turn it off, plus a side-mounted fan, which does a better job than the bottom or top-mounted fan models do. Since I use mine a lot & am slightly paranoid, I have a cheap wireless webcam with an Internet-connected fire alarm to monitor it. Although, I typically don't run it awhile I'm away from home, usually just after work or overnight or on weekends, since I don't like leaving appliances running when I'm not home, should anything go haywire. Never had an issue with it, but that's just me. Probably should have just sprung for a steel dehydrator, but eh.

Pinterest & Youtube both have a ton of ideas for what to make. There are a few good books on Amazon as well. Some good articles here:

http://www.wellpreserved.ca/category/preserving-food/how-to-preserve-food/how-to-dehydrate-food/

A bunch of good recipes on that site as well:

http://www.wellpreserved.ca/category/preserving-food/preserving-recipes/recipes-dehydrating/

Anyway, dehydrators are pretty nice because they make great snacks, and you can use it all the time because you can basically just throw whatever extra crap you have leftover into it to make something yummy...meat that is going to go bad, fruit that is going to spoil, that bag of peas that has been in the back of your freezer for a year, etc. lol.

 

[ponyo]

Thanks for the suggestions. And big thank you to Kaido for the book he wrote. Those are some excellent suggestions and websites and I did lot of reading this morning. I have mandolin, electric slicer, knives, and vacuum sealer so I shouldn't have any problem slicing and storing anything. I plan to buy and use beef eye of the round from Costco which is really cheap and lean cut of meat. I want to make some jerky for my family and also for my puppy. The one for the puppy I'll probably just do meat only and no seasoning or spices. The one for my family, I'm going to experiment with different marinade and seasonings. I'm thinking homemade korean kalbi marinade will work really well. I like spicy and teriyaki style jerky so those are the two styles I plan to make. It seems like not too many people smoke and then dry in the dehydrator. Maybe there is a reason. I want to incorporate smoke into it and I rather not use liquid smoke so I guess I will have to experiment with smoker setup and moving the meat back and forth. Maybe people prefer the taste of non-smoked jerky.

As for the fruits and veggies, I'll let my wife mess with it. But it should come in handy during the peach season when we end up with hundreds of peaches from our peach trees.

 

[Kaido]

Thanks for the suggestions. And big thank you to Kaido for the book he wrote. Those are some excellent suggestions and websites and I did lot of reading this morning. I have mandolin, electric slicer, knives, and vacuum sealer so I shouldn't have any problem slicing and storing anything. I plan to buy and use beef eye of the round from Costco which is really cheap and lean cut of meat. I want to make some jerky for my family and also for my puppy. The one for the puppy I'll probably just do meat only and no seasoning or spices. The one for my family, I'm going to experiment with different marinade and seasonings. I'm thinking homemade korean kalbi marinade will work really well. I like spicy and teriyaki style jerky so those are the two styles I plan to make. It seems like not too many people smoke and then dry in the dehydrator. Maybe there is a reason. I want to incorporate smoke into it and I rather not use liquid smoke so I guess I will have to experiment with smoker setup and moving the meat back and forth. Maybe people prefer the taste of non-smoked jerky.

As for the fruits and veggies, I'll let my wife mess with it. But it should come in handy during the peach season when we end up with hundreds of peaches from our peach trees.

Excellent, you are well-prepared! The electric slicer is also great - tip: freeze your meat for about 30 minutes (or if frozen, only let it partially thaw) for easier slicing:

http://lifehacker.com/give-meats-a-quick-freeze-for-easier-slicing-512700996

The three main ways to do jerky are in the oven, in a smoker, and in a dehydrator. You can do perfectly good jerky in an oven, although most don't go very low (temperature-wise), which is where smokers & dehydrators excel. Smoked jerky is great (I've done it on my Traeger pellet grill), but it requires fuel & you have to babysit it (plus it doesn't do a truly cold smoke, it's like 180F). With the dehydrator, you just put the meat on the trays, set the temp & time, and let it do its thing. As far as liquid smoke goes, that's actually what a lot of smoked jerky & cheeses use. I use it from time to time (moreso with my Instant Pot cooking), but usually if I'm doing smoking I just leave it to the pellet grill so I don't overdo it, haha. You can absolutely smoke + dehydrate jerky; here's a step-by-step pictorial:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/163853/smoked-then-dehydrated-beef-jerky

If you like smoke, it does add a good quality to the flavor & can penetrate the meat better than liquid smoke can (flavor-wise, imo). The big thing is just to experiment by following existing recipes, then mix it up by tweaking it to your personal preferences. It's easy to get rid of any excess jerky, whether you eat it, your family eats it, your dog eats it, or even if you bring it to work, it'll disappear lol.

 

[Kaido]

Are you familiar with the Quick Marinator for the FoodSaver?

http://www.foodsaver.com/food-stora...r/foodsaver-quick-marinator/T02-0050-015.html

Lets you marinate in a couple hours instead of overnight. Good buy for ten bucks!

 

[lupi]

Had some pork jerky last week, was quite good.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I used to like beef jerky more as a kid....I'm not even that old, but bought some in bulk a few years back. My jaw gets tired/cramped just thinking about chewing that stuff.

 

[zinfamous]

Are you familiar with the Quick Marinator for the FoodSaver?

http://www.foodsaver.com/food-stora...r/foodsaver-quick-marinator/T02-0050-015.html

Lets you marinate in a couple hours instead of overnight. Good buy for ten bucks!

I have been thoroughly convinced by Kenji and the other food lap testers that there is no need to marinate anything beyond 3 hours. There is simply no discernible penetration beyond the crucial layers of your meat that will be achieved after 3 hours...and I think 30 minutes is sufficient in many cases? Still, I find myself marinating for much longer, but mostly due to laziness or plans to cook in batches over a few days. Point being...I can't see this device serving any actual purpose beyond simply leaving the food to marinate in an ~airless bag.

 

[Kaido]

I have been thoroughly convinced by Kenji and the other food lap testers that there is no need to marinate anything beyond 3 hours. There is simply no discernible penetration beyond the crucial layers of your meat that will be achieved after 3 hours...and I think 30 minutes is sufficient in many cases? Still, I find myself marinating for much longer, but mostly due to laziness or plans to cook in batches over a few days. Point being...I can't see this device serving any actual purpose beyond simply leaving the food to marinate in an ~airless bag.

The quick marinator sucks the air out, which I guess more or less pressurizes it (without added heat, like a pressure cooker), which decreases how long you need to marinate stuff for. I've had good results with it, at least.

Generally I go by Kenji's stuff because he pretty extensively tests stuff in real-world scenarios, although I'm not quite convinced on some things - same as Amazing Ribs. I've had some meats that have been injected or brined that are amazing, even though several articles say those methods are bunk, but going to the BBQ fests & stuff, the results pretty much speak for themselves. Guess I'll just have to keep trying out all of the various ways on my grill

 

[Scarpozzi]

The quick marinator sucks the air out, which I guess more or less pressurizes it (without added heat, like a pressure cooker), which decreases how long you need to marinate stuff for. I've had good results with it, at least.

Generally I go by Kenji's stuff because he pretty extensively tests stuff in real-world scenarios, although I'm not quite convinced on some things - same as Amazing Ribs. I've had some meats that have been injected or brined that are amazing, even though several articles say those methods are bunk, but going to the BBQ fests & stuff, the results pretty much speak for themselves. Guess I'll just have to keep trying out all of the various ways on my grill

Marinators that use vacuum really only help speed up the marination process when you aren't totally submersing your meat in the marinade. It's really about surface area of the meat coming in full contact with the marinade and not having part of the meat not full touching the marinade for some reason. If you make jerky often enough, you may be able to get the marinade to beef ratio just right so you get good flavor with less waste. It's probably not worth having the extra gadget though. I know a lot of people use Foodsavers for this.

The key to bbq is always getting the right texture, moisture, and flavor. I'm not a huge fan of injected meats because of the tissue damage, but think brined is the way to go for poultry. I've brined and smoked a few chickens. Brown sugar and salt in the brine helps fill in flavor, but then I don't hit it with much hickory smoke and try to stick with milder woods to keep it from getting too bitter.

For beef or pork, they stand alone and it's all about the cut thickness or fat marbling. This weekend I grilled a couple of T-Bones that were 3/4" thick or more....not marinated, I just used my typical steak rub that I make and the best part of the steak was that tender part next to the bone. They were beautifully done.... Saturday, I cooked pulled pork bbq for 30 people...I used an over the counter cajun seasoning on it, but hit it with a ton of hickory smoke....I had plenty, but ran out because people kept going back for more. (which was my plan...I hate having leftovers of that stuff)

 

[ponyo]

Regular ziplock bag, plastic container, or foil pan works fine for marinade. How long I marinate depends on the meat and what I put in the marinade. If I put something like pineapple or kiwi in the marinade, I don't keep in it long. And I don't marinade chicken or fish for long especially if I'm using soy type liquid.

I finally bought injector to play around with for my BBQ. I haven't used it yet but I'm looking forward to injecting brisket and chicken and experimenting. I'm not really fan of Meathead or his Amazingribs site. He has loyal following but he's more my way is the best way type of guy and the stuff I've made following his recipe were pretty so-so. I'm turning more into turbocook BBQ guy and the recipe and techniques of competition guys appeal to me more. I prefer cooking hot and fast and Meathead caters to the BBQ must be cooked low and slow at 225 F crowd. So his style and mine don't really mesh.

I bought 8 lb Choice beef sirloin tip knuckle at Costco Business Center to use for the beef jerky. It was $3.29 /lb. I wanted to buy the $2.89 /lb Select beef sirloin tip knuckle but it was still in boxes in the back and not out on display. I also bought 120 mangoes from Sprouts. Sprouts is doing 72 hour sale on the mango so it was 4 for $1. At $0.25 mango I couldn't resist. I'm going to slice and freeze some for smoothies and dry the rest. Now I just need the dehydrator. Amazon is taking their sweet time shipping. I ordered on Saturday and they're not delivering until Wednesday. In the past it would've been Monday with the latest by Tuesday.

 

[Kaido]

Regular ziplock bag, plastic container, or foil pan works fine for marinade. How long I marinate depends on the meat and what I put in the marinade. If I put something like pineapple or kiwi in the marinade, I don't keep in it long. And I don't marinade chicken or fish for long especially if I'm using soy type liquid.

I finally bought injector to play around with for my BBQ. I haven't used it yet but I'm looking forward to injecting brisket and chicken and experimenting. I'm not really fan of Meathead or his Amazingribs site. He has loyal following but he's more my way is the best way type of guy and the stuff I've made following his recipe were pretty so-so. I'm turning more into turbocook BBQ guy and the recipe and techniques of competition guys appeal to me more. I prefer cooking hot and fast and Meathead caters to the BBQ must be cooked low and slow at 225 F crowd. So his style and mine don't really mesh.

I bought 8 lb Choice beef sirloin tip knuckle at Costco Business Center to use for the beef jerky. It was $3.29 /lb. I wanted to buy the $2.89 /lb Select beef sirloin tip knuckle but it was still in boxes in the back and not out in display. I also bought 120 mangoes from Sprouts. Sprouts is doing 72 hour sale on the mango so it was 4 for $1. At $0.25 mango I couldn't resist. I'm going to slice and freeze some for smoothies and dry the rest. Now I just need the dehydrator. Amazon is taking their sweet time shipping. I ordered on Saturday and they're not delivering until Wednesday. In the past it would've been Monday with the latest on Tuesday.

Yeah, most of Kenji's stuff I've made has turned out awesome, and with Amazing Ribs, there's a few things I deviate on.

I'm doing taco jerky tonight...was curious to see if taco seasoning would be good (or gross) on some beef round, haha.

Also dang on the mango deal! I was happy to get them for 75 cents at Walmart the other day. OT but I recently found some mango puree at a local restaurant store that I really like...makes amazing mango lassis at home! I don't mind making them with fresh mangos, but they're a lot of work to peel for maximum fruit flesh (I've since switched to using a carbon-steel Y-peeler) & they taste so good they usually don't make it to the freezer haha. Also, if you have a Trader Joe's near you & haven't tried it yet, try out the sugared mango (not the plain dried & not the chili, although the chili mangos are pretty good, but the sweetened dried mangos are like, really amazing). I haven't replicated their taste/texture quite yet...

 

[ponyo]

You can peel the skin with the potato peeler but what I like to do is leave the skin on and cut the two meaty flesh side cheeks and then make grid marks at the top with the knife. Then you can simply push outwards on the skin side and pop out the flesh. Easy and fast. You can slice off the remaining small flesh off the center pit seed and eat it like melon leaving the skin.

 

[Kaido]

You can peel the skin with the potato peeler but what I like to do is leave the skin on and cut the two meaty flesh side cheeks and then make grid marks at the top with the knife. Then you can simply push outwards on the skin side and pop out the flesh. Easy and fast. You can slice off the remaining small flesh off the center pit seed and eat it like melon leaving the skin.

Yeah, when I'm feeling lazy, I just slice off the two thick outside pieces, then the slimmer outside pieces, and shell it using a glass: (and then eat the remaining around the seed as a snack)

 

[walrus]

First you steal a cow...

 

[Kaido]

Marinators that use vacuum really only help speed up the marination process when you aren't totally submersing your meat in the marinade. It's really about surface area of the meat coming in full contact with the marinade and not having part of the meat not full touching the marinade for some reason. If you make jerky often enough, you may be able to get the marinade to beef ratio just right so you get good flavor with less waste. It's probably not worth having the extra gadget though. I know a lot of people use Foodsavers for this.

This was an eye-opening article:

Marinade Myths And How To Add Flavor More Effectively

Marinades work on some foods but not on others. A good marinade contains certain ingredients but not others. Here's the truth about marinades and brinerades.

amazingribs.com

I recently acquired a Chamber Vac, so I'm going through a jerky phase again:

How To: Make Beef Jerky with Hickory Using Your Chamber Sealer

Use your chamber sealer to marinate jerky, decrease marination exponentially.

www.vacmasterfresh.com

The only issue I find with marinades is that the length of time usually adds another day to an already lengthy preparation time, VacMaster® to the rescue! Vacuum marinating can dramatically decrease the standard refrigerated submersion technique. I’m able to approximate a standard overnight marination in my refrigerator in roughly 90 minutes using the marinade function on the VP112S! That means depending when I have my morning coffee I can have perfect jerky finished and packed all in one day!

Right now, I'm working on perfecting vac-marinated + smoked + sous-vide + dehydrated jerky. I've also tried some various alternative jerkies, such as mushroom jerky. I replaced my 9-tray Excalibur with my 5-tray APO, which has both sous-vide (bagless/bathless) & dehydrator features (fewer trays than the Excalibur, but the APO lives in my kitchen so I use it more!). My second post here has some interesting links on different mushroom jerkies:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombiSteamOvenCooking/comments/pgst1s/_/hbhj3ey

The chamber-vac also supports zipper pouches for stuff like jerky, where you can vac-seal it & then open it up to eat & re-seal it again by hand, so I'll probably pick up a box of those at some point, once I get good enough at doing different jerkies! I have a buddy who owns a smoke shop & makes chicken jerky, pork jerky, and even fish jerky, and everything comes out really fantastic, so I'm very excited to have the chamber-vac machine to help speed up the marinade process, which makes doing it on a regular basis more convenient! (aka then I'll actually do it lol)

 

[sdifox]

I marinade at least overnight and then dehydrate with some heat. Use a marinade that has some sugar, some salt and some acid. Soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar and red pepper flakes. Fish sauce, lime, palm sugar, ginger, Thai pepper. Soy sauce, pineapple juice, lemon juice and cayenne pepper. I've never smoked my jerky so I'm no help to you there.

Most grocery deli counters will slice the meat for you if you ask. Get a very very lean cut.

wait what? you take raw meat to the deli counter and they actually slice it for you?

 

[Scarpozzi]

wait what? you take raw meat to the deli counter and they actually slice it for you?

The meat they usually slice is cured, meaning they don't have to clean the blades thoroughly between customers. Slicing raw beef for cheese steak, for instance, would require some serious cleaning and probably disassembly of the slicer. I would also expect a possibility of some blood/juice to come out as a byproduct.

I think the deli thing may vary by store and wouldn't expect most to do it unless they don't mind the extra cleaning/cleanup. Some meat departments might have their own slicer if they do anything with ham. I agree though... a deli slicer is probably the best tool for the job. If you do a lot of jerky, it might be worth buying one for the house.

 

[waffleironhead]

This thread popping up is timely. I have about 400 lbs of ground beef in the freezer and have been toying with the idea of making jerky to use some of it up. Especially as I have 3 more steers heading for processing right before christmas I need to clear out freezer space.
Has anyone made ground beef jerky and do you have a recipe you like? I have an old circular dehydrator(Mr Coffee brand), or could use the oven. Planning on buying a jerky gun to help with making the strips.

 

[Captante]

Im surprised you dont have a gas stove. You seem to have a well equipped kitchen if I remember right. Do you have a dehydrate setting on your oven?

Yep .... except its labeled "low" on mine lol ...

I've never actually seen a specific "dehydrate" setting on an oven personally although it wouldn't be that surprising.

Seriously..... any oven with decent temp-control can be used to dehydrate.

 

[DigDog]

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com