I'll check it again in another half hour or so and then every 30-45 min until like 4 hours from now. It won't all get done at the same time since I cut it all by hand and the top and bottom trays don't heat totally evenly. I switched the order a little bit ago. I started the night with a Blue Moon Cappuccino Oatmeal Stout, then a New Belgium Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale, went to the movies with the wife and had two Great Lakes Christmas Ales, and now a Fat Tire and Friends Fat Funk Ale. I'm ready for some jerky! I have 5:51 hours of Rizin FF 3 to keep me awake while I check the jerky.
You're a busy guy... I have off from work tomorrow so I will be up early, catch you then. PS how do I rename this thread... "beer and jerky" ???
I'm for that. Thread tools up at the top should allow you to rename it to your liking. First pull went better than expected. Cleared maybe 2.5-3/8 trays. Should be done within a couple hours.
Total time ended up being 6-8 hours from start with the dehydrator set at 160F. I don't dry the meat at all before putting it in the dehydrator. I've heard people say they blot it dry after marinating before putting it in the dehydrator but that would just waste some of the flavor imo. Had 61 Oz dry weight this morning. Prob ate around 3 Oz last night while I was taking it off. Four pound yield from ~ nine pounds of starting weight. Turned out pretty tasty.
Nah, venison is perfect for jerky becuase is is totally lean. Beef is marbled with fat, and fat goes rancid far before preserved meat. Venison tends to be a bit more tender for the same reason. Flavor is on point though and you don't really taste a ton of the flavor of the critter over the marinade. I do my best to find very lean beef but it's tough to know what it looks like on the inside when you are buying it.
So as it turns out my mom had a dehydrator. Went and "borrowed" it.(probably forever). But it's old and only has two settings, off and on. So I'm just going to have to play this by ear, the little booklet said 8-15 hours to make jerky. So pretty much no help. Right now I've got 3 trays with pieces liberally spaced. Shall see how it goes.
Haven't tried it. Sounds reasonable. I've never made pork jerky either but I know it happens because I've had it commercially and it can be good. The thing that makes venison perfect is that deer store all their fat under the skin for insulation instead of in the meat so the actual meat is basically pure muscle. With venison you just have to worry about the tough silver skin; definitely inedible.