I make a lot of jerky and share much of it with coworkers, one of whom shot a nice black bear back in early August. He asked me to make some jerky for him out of two roasts that weighed about 2.5 pounds in total. I told 5 pounds would be better but this was all he was willing to spare. So of course I said yes because I have never had black bear jerky before.
Any time I make jerky out of wild game, I check out if there are any special things or concerns. Turns out a little research revealed that 80% of all cases of trichinosis in the U.S. are from under-cooked black bear...not pork. With that in mind, and a suggested minimum safe cook internal temp of 137F, I will set my Open Country forced air dehydrator to a minimum temp 145F for the dehydration process and bump it to 155F (the max temp it will go) for 10 minutes when it is almost done just to be sure. I have checked the temps on this dehydrator against a calibrated thermometer and the dial indicator is fairly accurate.
Here are the prep pics...Trimming the fat from the roasts, slicing up the roasts, mixing the Owens BBQ Mesquite marinate and jerky cure packs, and bagging the meat and marinate. The pics are thumbnails...click on them to make them bigger.
I will post more pics when it is dehydrating and done. Right now we are in the 24 +/- hours marinate time.
Any time I make jerky out of wild game, I check out if there are any special things or concerns. Turns out a little research revealed that 80% of all cases of trichinosis in the U.S. are from under-cooked black bear...not pork. With that in mind, and a suggested minimum safe cook internal temp of 137F, I will set my Open Country forced air dehydrator to a minimum temp 145F for the dehydration process and bump it to 155F (the max temp it will go) for 10 minutes when it is almost done just to be sure. I have checked the temps on this dehydrator against a calibrated thermometer and the dial indicator is fairly accurate.
Here are the prep pics...Trimming the fat from the roasts, slicing up the roasts, mixing the Owens BBQ Mesquite marinate and jerky cure packs, and bagging the meat and marinate. The pics are thumbnails...click on them to make them bigger.
I will post more pics when it is dehydrating and done. Right now we are in the 24 +/- hours marinate time.
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