Any of y'all make your own jerky?

[AKScott]

I have my first two batches 24 hours in to scheduled 48 hour marinades. I am quite pleased with both so far. I am going to have to do the oven door propped open on the lowest possible setting method tomorrow.

Batch one is hopefully going to turn out as pepperoni like sticks, tasy but not too salty, nutritous and quick in the field.

To two pounds of ground mosoe I added 3T ground black pepper, 2T Ancho chili powder, 1/2T Califonia chili powder, 2T cider vinegar, 2T kosher salt and 1/4c brown sugar. I just made a hamburger patty out of that batch, fried it up and I am sharing the recipe already. Tasty but not so spicy I need a drink of water with every bite.

For the other I sliced up a beef roast that had been in the freezer over a year. Marinade is 4 cloves of sliced garlic, 1/2c brown sugar, 1T kosher salt, 4T lime juice and 1T water.

I am gonna go cook some more of each right away...

[Mickey]

The moose one sounds absolutely delicious!

I generally marinade in soy sauce, Worcestershire, liquid smoke, garlic, onion powder, black pepper and sprinkle the strips with either black pepper, red pepper flakes, chipotle powder or brown sugar and toss them in the dehydrator. Occasionally will make it in the smoker, but for me, it never seems to be worth the extra work.

I've also used a jerky shooter with ground meat, but didn't like the cleanup. But I do like the sticks that can be made.

[azwildcat96]

Only tried home-made jerky once. It was with a few pheasants that I was given. Boned them out and cut them into strips.

I used the oven on the lowest setting with the door propped open too. Just a ball of aluminum foil holding it open. It worked well, and the jerky was pretty good, but it was a lot of trouble, and I haven't tried again since.

The upside is that we had several small vaccume sealed pouches of fresh pheasant jerky that year, while we were out on other hunting trips. Made for good camping/trail food.

[Bugbear]

Sounds good.
I have an ancient top-vented gas oven with a pilot light. I hang meat or anything else I wish to dry on wooden spits across the rack rails or on woven bamboo tray things; though in the summer the pilot light doesn't matter much down here... I don't AC the front end and kitchen of the aluminum bungalow. Sometimes comes out like hard tack. In the winter month, I keep the front end of the aluminum bungalow warm by slow roasting assorted things.
* Should have said I heat the oven up to about 250 first, then turn it off to cool to the pilot light temp. Oven door stays closed.

[Mickey]

I use a Nesco American Harvest dehydrator (I think it is a ND-60 model). I've had this for about 12 years now, which replaced a much more expensive and complete POS off brand dehydrator. Rather inexpensive and pays for itself very quickly if you enjoy jerky, dried fruits, herbs, peppers, etc...).

Much easier and cost effective vs the propped door oven method.

[Riverkilt]

Used to make jerky about 40 years ago - used a great recipe out of the local newspaper...but it was SOOOOO good I'd eat it all up just after it finshed "cooking."

[kiltedjoss]

I use a much older version of something like this dehydrator: http://www.harvestessentials.com/nes...gital-pro.html

and I've used the simple jerky seasoning packets with ground beef. I'm definitely looking for something more natural but still simple.

[Joshua]

I've got an American Harvest as well with extra dehydrator plates so I can put about 6.5lbs of cut bottom round in there. Of course the yield is about 10/1 by weight so it's basically "distilling meat". Out of two 3lbs bottom rounds I will get two, maybe just over (I tend to "test" alot pre-bagging), ziploc bags of dry meat.

I love jerky and hate commercial "dried meat snacks". Most people don't like my jerky because it's "bland" and "tough", but I personally like my meat to taste like meat, and the "tough" part just shows your mettle.

My recipe is smoked paprika, kosher sea salt, black pepper, onion/garlic (minced), in a paste with honey... mixed over the already cut beef/lamb/deer/moose/gerbil etc... and left overnight in a colander within a bowl to start the moisture removal process (thanks to the salt and honey, both being very hygroscopic they will start your jerky "early".

[BEEDEE]

Not since I left South Africa, where I used to make biltong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltong

Brian