Dehydrator....

[SonnyE]

Normally, Christmas for me is watching the little ones. The joy of their wonder and surprise.
The craziness and food to feast on.

This year, I got something from the one who drew my name from the hat. A Presto Digital Dehydrator. The wife was asked what I might want, "Anything to do with Jerky. She'd said."
One of these Dehydrators was on my secret wish list.
I've never had one....

I was itching to try it out.
So the 4 year old grand daughter helped me with the leftover fruit from our Christmas Day Brunch. She is a natural in the kitchen. If it has anything to do with food, she loves to help.
So Grandpa sliced, and she put the pieces on the trays.
After they went home, Grandpa unloaded the trays and did the pretreatment, then rearranged things a little bit neater. ;)
Surprisingly enough, the leftovers dried up wonderfully. Grandpa mixed up a touch of honey and maple syrup and lightly brushed the pieces, then gave them 2 more hours to set the sweet stuff. Yum!
So I ventured into making some fruit roll up with some home canned jellies, and that's drying up right now. Looks good, too.

So, that finally brings me to making some jerky.
Until we get a roast in (the pension Eagle will likely poop on Friday), I have some 93% lean hamburger I could obscound with from the freezer to make some ground beef jerky with. My last attempt wasn't great. :rolleyes:
But now I'd like to do a redo, with the sample seasoning and cure they included, and following a recipe, roughly.
I've only attempted Hamburger Jerky the one time. But if I could find something tasty, I might be swayed from my old ways.
Oh, and I don't have a Jerky gun. But do have a rolling pin...

I'm open to all suggestions.

 

[wrestler75]

Roll in a little ball a bit smaller than a golf ball. Place in between one zip loc bag with sides cut top to bottom.. Place ball in between bag. Place two paint sticks on each edge of the bag and roll your rolling pin over paint sticks. You should have a nice circular disk. Good luck!

I just received a cabelas pro series 12 tray dehydrater today....can't wait to use it.

 

[Rings Я Us]

Cool gift! :cool:
Never made jerky from ground meat. Never used a dehydrator either.
Not sure what would make jerky better than using roast cut for jerky and smoked in the smoker.

 

[wrestler75]

Cool gift! :cool:
Never made jerky from ground meat. Never used a dehydrator either.
Not sure what would make jerky better than using roast cut for jerky and smoked in the smoker.

Why not both? I was going to do ground jerky sticks. Start in the dehydrator till they firm up and finish in the smoker.

 

[Rings Я Us]

Why not both? I was going to do ground jerky sticks. Start in the dehydrator till they firm up and finish in the smoker.

Sticks hey? Sounds good. Never made those. Snack sticks are like Slim Jim's right?
Well... longer ones that you can buy those in the party stores and gas stations.. those are really good. Love those..

 

[Fade2Blacc]

Sticks hey? Sounds good. Never made those. Snack sticks are like Slim Jim's right?
Well... longer ones that you can buy those in the party stores and gas stations.. those are really good. Love those..

Yeah sticks are like Slim Jims. I love my dehydrator. I've done Turkey Jerky and Chicken Turkey. They were meant for my dog, but man they were good she only got a few of each kind

 

[SonnyE]

Takes one of them new fangled Jerky guns.
Maybe next Christmas? LOL!
(That's a lot of fruit leather away...)

 

[SonnyE]

Yeah sticks are like Slim Jims. I love my dehydrator. I've done Turkey Jerky and Chicken Turkey. They were meant for my dog, but man they were good she only got a few of each kind

Shame on you! Stealing from your dog. :(

(But I've often tasted my dogs food to make sure it isn't gar~bage. LOL! ) :oops::p

Ran off a pound yesterday. Waiting to share it so I can get more than my own personal opinion.
(I did taste test out of the dehydrator, just a nibble. Not thrilled yet.)
And the batch went 10 minutes in a 275 degree oven to finish it. No germs survived that.

I think I'm still leaning towards sliced meat. I've always done mine from whole meat before.
But my first batch does taste like Jerky.
Not like my oven/BBQ batches, which tasted like hamburger dried out. (That got shared with 4 dogs yesterday, they loved it.)
_______________________________________________________________________________

Roll in a little ball a bit smaller than a golf ball. Place in between one zip loc bag with sides cut top to bottom.. Place ball in between bag. Place two paint sticks on each edge of the bag and roll your rolling pin over paint sticks. You should have a nice circular disk. Good luck!

I just received a cabelas pro series 12 tray dehydrater today....can't wait to use it.

Did you watch Larry Hall? LOL! I'm still undecided about ground beef. But want to exhaust all avenues before I give up on it. And really, I'm supposed to avoid red meat. (Cardio) But I'm not going to die hungry either. ;)
I'm thinking about some Chicken Jerky...

WOW! Nice machine! :D
I bet you could do a truckload of stuff in that, or a season's worth of game meat. Maybe make Jerky for friends for a small token of Jerky?
I really like the idea of square trays, but I'm not complaining about my round trays. It was a gift, and I'm grateful for it.
I'm having a ball with mine! Enjoy! :D I would highly recommend making Fruit Leather in it. A guy has to have a little dessert with his Jerky. :rolleyes:
I've dried left over fruit, made some Honey/Maple glazed dried fruit, Fruit Roll-ups, and now some jerky sticks. All small batches just figuring things out.
Have FUN!

 

[SonnyE]

Cool gift! :cool:
Never made jerky from ground meat. Never used a dehydrator either.
Not sure what would make jerky better than using roast cut for jerky and smoked in the smoker.

I hear Ya Johnny!
I used to use round steak, and slice it into strips, salt & pepper, and oven dried it. Real Cowboy jerky.
But now I'm an old fart retired in the city, so I don't have Deer and Antelope in the freezer anymore. Lots of time, not a lot of money.
But curious about some of these new fangled things. So far, I really like the potential of this dehydrator.
I just tasted one of the pepper strips, made with the Jerky Seasoning that came with the dehydrator. I am impressed.
Tasty, has a nice bite factor (chewiness), and the right taste of pepper.
It don't taste like Hamburger, tastes like beef jerky.
I might be a convert soon. :confused:

 

[dward51]

Roll in a little ball a bit smaller than a golf ball. Place in between one zip loc bag with sides cut top to bottom.. Place ball in between bag. Place two paint sticks on each edge of the bag and roll your rolling pin over paint sticks. You should have a nice circular disk. Good luck!

I just received a cabelas pro series 12 tray dehydrater today....can't wait to use it.

This!!!!!

I used that same cut bag method with my Smoking Gun jerky rounds. It works great with ground meat jerky, and it's quicker than you think once you do 3 or 4 balls. I used two "pork 'n pull" rods as spacers and hand pressed a small cutting board on the top to flatten the balls into jerky rounds. Photo below, See full thread here.....

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/th...other-batch-i-really-like-this-method.247160/

 

[SonnyE]

I like that Dave!
I'm still stuck on some 5 gallon paint bucket sticks right now. I think they are ~3/16" thick.

The wife has a little 'ice cream' scooper she uses for meatballs for her meatball soup. Danged if it doesn't work great for making Jerky Pucks as well. ;) Much better consistency than ham handed me pawin through the meat pile.


I got a little antsy about my dual probe thermometer because I had never tested it.
So I did the boiling water, and the ice water tests. Not Starrett precise, but close enough for me.
33 on the cold end, and 209 + on the high end.
So after unloading tonights batch of Jerky from the dehydrator, I washed up the racks and stuff, toweled them off, and decided to sterilize them in the dehydrator. Which lead me to put the probes in it to see what it runs.
Advertised is up to 165 degrees F. I was on a website called the Jerkyholic and he has some reviews of 4 dehydrators and was saying how some can't get to the advertised temperature.
So curious me, I put probe 1 in the lowest rack, and Probe 2 in the upper rack, while running it for 1 hour to dry and sterilize it.
Happy me, both probes are reporting 77C, or 170.6 degrees F. So I'm happy as a pig in the mud on a hot day. This cheap little BBQ meat thermometer set me back $22.xx. Only works in C, but I can convert the read via the web.
So I get by... :rolleyes:
Tomorrow's batch is marinating in the refrigerator, it's top round roast, not ground. 3.42 pounds of yummie.