Make Your Own Meat Jerky At Home

Make Your Own Meat Jerky At Home
In the old days, there was no electricity nor were there chemicals that could preserve food for the people. But, they came up with a process to do so and that is turning raw meat into jerky. The best thing about a jerky is that fats are removed from the meat which makes it healthy to eat. To insure that you’re eating a healthy and safe jerky, try making some at home.
Step One:
Select the best cut of meat. Most people choose the sirloin part because it will save you more time from cutting. But there are other options too, like the flank steak and the top round. Remember that there are verities of jerky now a days, so your choice will not be limited to beef alone. You can have turkey or deer and a lot more.


Step Two:
You have to remove the fats attached on the meat. Fats will spoil the jerky faster so it needs to be removed and it will add more flavor to the meat. You can remove the fats while cutting the meat.


Step Three:
Marinate the slices of meat with a seasoning of your choice. Make sure that you soaked or massaged the meat into the seasoning, to insure that the flavor sinks in, before putting it in the fridge. Let it marinate for 12-24 hours but this is optional. Just know that the longer you marinate the meat the more it absorbs the flavor.


Step Four:
Using a dehydrator, remove all moisture and juice from the meat. If you don’t have one, you can use an oven. The cooking time varies on the size of the meat so watch and observe the consistency of the meat while you’re cooking it.


Step Five:
After coking, you can now place the jerky on a dry plate. For storage, you can use a mason jar and refrigerate it. Enjoy eating your homemade jerky!


Note: Home made Jerky spoils within 2 weeks.
If you have a recipe for any kind of jerky please leave a comment!
Thanks!

Don't forget to save all that good fat (especially if it's from grassfed animals) to render tallow! Nothing better than good fat.

Homemade jerky shouldn't spoil within 2 wks and if it does, you are doing something wrong. The whole object of curing/jerking meat is to preserve it and you do this by using salt and by removing liquids. You can even dry meat without salt and it lasts longer than 2 wks. If your meat is spoiling after 2 wks you have not used enough salt or you have not removed enough moisture.

I have made jerky many times with beef, goat, venison, fish, even goose....in a greenhouse with a fan on it, in a solar cooker with the lid propped open, on a screen in the open sunshine, and over a smoky, cool campfire....and then let it sit in jars on the shelf. The batch done in cloudy weather over the campfire did not dry as well as the other batches, and mold appeared within a few weeks. Some of the sun-dried stuff was still edible four or five years later.....

We don't seal ours up in jars....any change in temps can cause slight condensation in that jar and create moisture. We either keep it in a zip lock bag~these aren't air tight~ or even in a cloth bag...and we never refrigerate it. Kind of defeats the purpose of drying it to preserve it if you place it in the fridge also.

Has anyone tried biltong? It's a method of drying from South Africa.

I cut my jerky with a meat slicer. Though sometimes I do chunks.

I've found the best way for me is to smoke it with manzanita and black oak at around 150-170f. The flavor of the smoke combined with the salt and grass fed beef is fantastic. I do on occasion add homegrown and ground chili powder for some spice.

The problem with jerky is it takes all day to make it and it's easily eaten in a matter if hours.

Oh yea biltong is excellent, acrually its really really good.