Good Article on Jerky Safety

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I wonder if freezing the finish product kills those nasty little buggers.........
 
Great article....  
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I wonder if freezing the finish product kills those nasty little buggers.........

From FDA.gov

Many kinds of bacteria can live even at freezing temperatures. If a frozen food contains enough bacteria that survive freezing, the food can make you sick, if you don’t cook it at temperatures high enough to kill the bacteria before you eat it. Follow the cooking instructions on the package to make sure that the food reaches hot enough temperatures all the way through, including in the middle.
 
Simple and straight forward info...JJ
 
Yes this is the simiplest article I've found to date on the subject.

Probably should be a sticky.

The University of Idaho did good on this one!
 
Excellent info! Thanks for sharing. Beef bottom round is on sale now at a local grocer for 1.99/lb, I have 8lb sliced and in the marinade as we speak. I will try the post-drying heating method with this batch.
 
Good info., I saved it also. I just finished vacuum bagging a batch of jerky today. I will try the post dry method next time.
 
That's a good article Dirtsailor.  I have a question though.  When I make ground beef jerky I use cure in it so do I still need to post-cook it? I did not see any thing about using cure.

Stan
 
 
That's a good article Dirtsailor.  I have a question though.  When I make ground beef jerky I use cure in it so do I still need to post-cook it? I did not see any thing about using cure.

Stan
Probably not, I know that I don't. But it wouldn't hurt to do it.
 
Thank you for this one! I'll try the post heating on the next batch. I forgot to add Cure to my last batch, so I have it in the fridge. It's still growing white mold.
 
For me, the most useful information was on page 13 where it describes a test for making sure the jerky is dry enough. For me, that has always been the biggest issue when I make jerky. If you don't get it dry enough, it won't keep very well, but if you get it too dry, it just crumbles, has no taste, and is no longer a tasty snack.

The 275 degrees F for 10 minutes after drying is a good tip for providing a little extra safety margin, but I do wonder if it is needed for my situation. Since I don't make jerky from game meat, and don't make ground meat jerky, I've never been too worried about pathogens. I am a little puzzled by some of their advice because if you dry at a slightly higher temperature I would think you'd achieve the same thing as blasting it with extra heat at the end of the drying period. In particular, when I do jerky in either my smoker or convection oven, I do so at 140 degrees. The FDA charts show that beef (my usual meat) should be safe after exposure to that temperature for a time that is a fraction of how long the meat takes to dry. Thus, it seems to me that the 275 for 10 minutes actually would not be needed if drying at those temps. My meat does not crust at this temp (they made some mention that this would inhibit the release of moisture).
 
Good information.  I make beef jerky in the kitchen oven pretty similar to the outline provided in the article.  Couple of points:

I set the oven to 150 in the fan mode for good air circulation with the door cracked.

Using a Chef's Choice electric slicer (small version of one of those big slicers used by delis), I can cut consistent slices as thin as I like without having to slightly freeze the meat.

I cheat and add a teaspoon or so of liquid smoke to the marinade.

Place on a rack with newspaper underneath and heat until done (whenever that is, 15 minutes or so).

I store the jerky in zip-loc bags in the fridge.  Seems to keep indefinitely.

I've never been sick.  Either I have a cast iron stomach or I've been lucky.
 
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