Oh, and veggies. I got veggies, too!

It's not just for jerky, y'know. Drying food has been around for a long while as a preservation technique — for many things.

Help me out, please.

You can make a really good, spicy jerky by slathering the sliced meat strips in curry paste and marinating it for a few hours before you smoke it.

How do I know when the meat is safe — when has meat been preserved by the drying?

There is another approach to making jerky. Example. First moosh down some ground turkey sausage into a large, very thin patty. Then cook it up in the usual way. Then put it into the microwave on the lowest possible setting. It is done when there is just a little flexibility left. You don't want shoeleather!

Venison jerkey, yum, my favorite. Here is a simple yet good recipe.

First cut your venison in strips, not to thin, not to thick, about 1/4-1/2" , they can be as long as you want.

Mix in a seperate bowl equal amts. of worchestishire and soy sauce. Enough to completely cover the amt of venison you have. Add a few cloves of garlic, or garlic salt. Salt, pepper corns, and any other spice you would like. You can expierment with this, and make spicy pepper jerkey, or mild eat all day long jerkey.

Put your venesion in the marinade for at least 24 hours in the refrig. Filp the mixture every couple of hours.

If allowed hang in the dehydrator. I always used to use an oven, and i would hang the jerkey from the racks with toothpicks, on the lowest oven setting for about six hours with the door cracked open. You'll have to make the proper adjustments with a dehydrator. It is pretty hard to screw up, just make sure it is cooked all the way!! Make yourself bloody marys with all the fixings, pickle, celery and celery salt, pickled mushrooms, black and green olives, slice of lemon and a slice of lime. The bloody marys are optional, yet, it is a tradition for me, and I think the jerkey cooks better while enjoying a bloody mary and a beer!!!

Enjoy!!

Lotsa good ideas, for sure. I've been doing the Pavlov's dog thing, again!

Oh, and bloodys! *grin*

I found some links, and everything I was looking for re food safety.

tribes.tribe.net/campfirec...dbfbd8462a

Cheers,

Johnny

A friend of mine buys deli pastrami and dries it to make a quick and easy, though more expensive, jerky.

A member of my medieval reenactment clan makes a really good jerky from Bison.

The marinade includes soy, beer, worstershire sauce and garlic.

The flavor makes you drool so much there is no problem with it starting out as dry meat.

Oh, and don't forget folks.... CUT ACROSS THE GRAIN!!!!!

I can't emphasize that enough.

By the way, a hot attic in summer months makes a great dehydrator. You can put out large batches on cardboard covered with paper towels and then cover that with either cheese cloth or paper towels too.

I've done whole bushels of apples that way in no time and once dried you can make little bags from squares of the cheese cloths by just tying the corners together and hanging them from the rafters. The last for years stored that way, if they don't get eaten first of course.

-i second partially frozen meat for the slicing stage, it really helps! go as thin as you can.
-also, always cut against the grain, this will give you more tender pieces of jerky.
-it is also very important not to put any oil in your marinade, and to trim as much fat as possible...
-a vaccum sealer for the finished product keeps it nice!
home made jerky is 1000000x better than anything you will see on a shelf! it is soooo worth it.

Boy, this has been a fascinating topic to research — I am learning a lot from the members of this forum.

The side trips to find out more about related matters.

It was a surprise, first, to look at ground meats. I had never thought about it before now, thinking that formed or otherwise-heavily-processed meats would be inferior and not worth the effort. I admit that I have learned a bit more, and I want to try some.

Pastrami was another unanticipated side trip, I did not really know the relationship between corned beef and pastrami — although I do love NY-style deli pastrami sammiches, and corned beef and cabbage will become a favorite dish in about two weeks. I am not sure about using pastrami as a short-cut to jerky, but after finding out that pastrami is corned beef (brisket that has been preserved in a salt brine) that has been further preserved by smoking certainly makes it interesting.

I will report on making my own corned beef and pastrami soon (and will probably turn some of it into jerky, just cuz Paige is full of good ideas).

I agree that partial freezing is very helpful for slicing lots of foods.

I am not sure that I have ever tried bison. If I did, it would have been as a guest among reenactors during some festival — and many of you may know how unclear the pedigrees of some food may be, when you are anxious to try as much as you can over the week. Here in NorCal, I am only finding ground bison so far. I'm sure to report on this, as well.

It's not as it may sound — I really do want to try as much as I can, and bison is a taste I should remember. I have an addiction, however, that I am obsessed with among the reenactor kinda campers.

I simply love rabbit stew, and getting to taste three or more stews over a week eclipses all other food memories.

Sorry. It's an old addiction from small-game hunting of my youth.

But it's a good one.

And one other extra-topical excursion took me to pastrami (thanks, Paige).

tribes.tribe.net/campfirec...bb96713ca5

Some thoughts on jerky after reading this thread.

Don't use a dehydrator if the sun is shining. Nonrenewable energy sources are running out. We might as well start living as if that were true. The sun works great, and probably better due to the destructive properties of UV light on bacteria. Air movement helps too. For people without any other technology to dry meat, putting a tripod up over a fire can work well. Put the meat on peeled skewers tied to the tripod. If it's not sunny, build a wee fire and wrap a tarp or old blanket around the tripod. This funnels heat up through the drying meat like a chimney, and any smoke will help preserve the meat if it's taking a long time to dry. Smoke is pretty tasty too.

For optimum tastiness a high moisture content is better in general. You don't want gooey spots, but it is surprising how wet it can be. Also, once you put it away, the moisture is going to redistribute to an extent. Therefore some can be a little dry or a little wet. It's something you can get a feel for with just a little experience.

Drier meat will keep better in humid conditions

Salt is not necessary for dried meats, but it does taste awfully good! It also draws moisture from the air which can be an issue in a very humid climate if there is no vapor barrier. (Probably not a concern on your average camping trip).

I always cut jerky with the grain. I think it keeps better and this is more traditional. Indians and frontiersmen cut it this way and they knew what they were doing. When dealing with muscles, they can be unrolled like a roll of tape or something like that into a broad sheet. I just dry these whole and tear them up as needed after drying.

If you want to cook with jerky, pound it up first. it never rehydrates enough to be like fresh meat.

For flavor, I like black pepper and salt or black pepper, shoyu, ginger and hot chilis.

Freezing kills parasites, not bacteria.

I think of red herbivore meats as the best to dry in terms of disease and taste. Maybe I'm full of it, maybe not!

I'm getting the feeling I already typed this stuff out for another thread.........Deja Vu? or Once more for good measure? :)

Dried meat is good food! Wish I had some right now.

Drying can be great for preserving foods in terms of energy and technology use v.s. effectiveness. However, if you plug your dehydrator into the wall and let it run for a couple days it pretty much negates that potential. Some foods are great dried. Others are a lot tastier frozen or canned or whatever. I like to dry fruit, meat and herbs mostly. Vegetables are often a little disappointing, but they are light weight and keep well. That, of course, is just my considerable opinion:)))

Happy dehydrating!

Alton Brown of Good Eats on The Food Network did a coupke of shows on jerky and dried foods and they are well worth checking out.