# Jerky with a forced air dehydrator - step by step - with pics



## uncle eddie (Oct 23, 2017)

I have been making jerky for over 20 years.  For this presentation, I used beef, eye of round.  This eye of round weighed 4.3 pounds before I trimmed the fat and about 3.9 pounds after I trimmed it.  I strongly recommend using the leanest cuts of meat and trim all fat that you reasonably can.  Fat tastes bad in the finished product.

I also ordered a variety pack of jerky seasonings from Owens BBQ...for this demo I am using their Prime Rib flavor packet and their cure packet.  But I really love their garlic-pepper flavor.

All pictures are thumbnails.  Click on them for the full size.

Untrimmed ...







Untrimmed and quartered...






Trimmed of fat and halved yet again.  It is easier to remove the fat when the meat is cold and the pieces are manageable...






I then slice the pieces about 1/8th inch to 3/16-inch thick.  I cut up this whole eye of round from trimming to placing all of the pieces into a gallon Ziploc bag with a knife, by hand, in 7 minutes. I like bite sized jerky pieces though.  Spoon is for scale...






Dump the flavor packet and the cure packet into a non-metallic container...





I do recommend using cure unless you are making a very salty jerky (i.e. salt cured).  Cure will allow you jerky to last about a month in or out of the fridge.  I also shrink wrap and freeze jerky with good results.

follow directions - add one cup cold water and mix thoroughly...






Dump marinate into the bag.  Squeeze out as much air as possible.  Mix the marinate into the meat thoroughly.  I squeeze the bag several times while it is marinating to make sure all meat is marinated well...





By the way - I have always had great luck with Walmart Great Value Ziploc bags never, ever leaking.

===Total time to get to this point would be...about 15 minutes if I wasn't taking pictures...20 minutes though because I was taking pictures.===

At a minimum, marinate at least overnight.  I prefer 24 to 36 hours.  24 hours later you can see the meat has taken on the marinate well...






Dump the meat into a colander and drain... 






I like to wear food-grade gloves (think cafeteria worker) when handling the jerky to load the pieces into the trays or my hands smell like the marinate for a couple of days.  I load the trays up tight and hard.  I know many instructions say the meat shouldn't touch.  Pffft.  Not true!  You'll see in a few more pictures.

I can get 5 pounds of meat onto 4 Open Country 500 Watt dehydrator trays - but I might have to slice a little thicker.  I do recommend never slicing thicker than 1/4 inch unless making a very narrow piece.  Here is a normally loaded tray...





Note the meat is touching BUT NOT overlapping.

Once your trays are loaded, stack them up and lets get them drying.  I like to dry the meat in the garage because some of the flavors I use can get a little too powerful in a closed up house.  The Owens BBQ Prime Rib flavor smelled like a beef roast FWIW.

Here is a picture of where the magic happens in my garage...






I normally dehydrate it on high (155F) for 1 hour and then at 135F until done.  Normal drying time is 7 to 9 hours depending on how thick you cut the meat and the type of meat.  Wild turkey breast takes longer than beef or venison...






9 hours later...





Note the meat is no longer touching.  No need to worry about leaving a gap between the pieces.  If you have enough trays, sure, leave a gap, it'll dry a little quicker.

Money shot...






So there you have it.  4.3 pounds of eye-of-round trimmed to 3.9 pounds to remove the fat produces a whopping 1.632 pounds of jerky (I might have eaten a couple of test pieces by this point, so lets say 1.675 pounds or so)...or 2 crammed full sandwich bags.


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## dirtsailor2003 (Oct 23, 2017)

Looks tasty. I need to make another batch of Thai Jerky soon. We're getting low!


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## mosparky (Oct 23, 2017)

Looks great. Curious..you don't rotate the trays top to bottom ? I've never used a dehydrator but the daughter got one in a garage sale and I'm expected to teach her how to use it.


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## dward51 (Oct 23, 2017)

Good looking jerky.


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## Stickman81 (Oct 23, 2017)

Great tutorial and pictures!
Thanks for taking time to do the How-to!


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## uncle eddie (Oct 23, 2017)

mosparky said:


> Looks great. Curious..you don't rotate the trays top to bottom ? I've never used a dehydrator but the daughter got one in a garage sale and I'm expected to teach her how to use it.



With forced air, no rotation is needed.  Seriously, top tray to bottom tray - no difference.  

Convection...absolutely needed...and often.


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## SmokinAl (Oct 24, 2017)

Fantastic looking jerky & a great step by step!
Nice job!
Al


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## mosparky (Oct 24, 2017)

Thanks Uncle Eddie, I did not know that about the forced air. A friend had a dehydrator and told me about rotating pans. Guess he either had one without fan or just belt and suspenders. I have no idea what the kid has.


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## uncle eddie (Oct 24, 2017)

My original dehydrator was by RonCo (think Pocket Fisherman).  It had a circular heating element in the base and you opened the top vents to facilitate the drying process.  Of course, the meat closest to the heating elements dried faster than the top tray.  So every hour or two, or when I remembered to do it, I would reverse the order of the trays.  It worked best if you did it more often at first and was more forgiving later in the process.

I loved that old RonCo dehydrator right up until the day I got my Open Country forced air dehydrator.  That RonCo dehydrator is still on the market ($35 at Walmart) but do yourself a favor - used forced air.  The all-convection dehydrator took as long as 20 to 30 hours to finish a batch (depending on load, meat thickness, etc.)  Forced air became affordable in the late 1990s.


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## griz400 (Oct 24, 2017)

Mine I usually rotate but always cut long strips and marinate in a casserole dish in fridge ,, I put on dehydrator soaking wet, and it all drips alot when getting started ,, yours is looking great ...  points to you ,, I do it  similar , I have a 6 tray dehydrator and I sprinkle onion flakes on top side of all the strips  when I first put em on .. try out the onion flakes sometimes ... guess you gotta like onions though ...


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