First batch of jerky in the dehydrator

[rob g]

My Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator finally arrived yesterday after a long wait. In anticipation of it coming I was able to buy 10lb of AAA Angus round for $3.99/lb at a local grocery store. I even managed to get the butcher to trim the fat and run it thru his slicer for the same price. He must of been bored lol. I had to cut his slices into smaller pieces and freeze it in 2lb bags until my dehydrator showed up.

I made 4lb into 3 different recipes: honey sriracha, lemon pepper and Kentucky bourbon from recipes found here and the Jerkyholic site. It seems 1lb of meat fits easily on to a tray with lots of room to spare. Im not sure if i should have cut the butcher slices into smaller pieces as I was getting about 9 pieces per lb.

I set the dehydrator to 165F for the first 2 hours and have turned it down now to 145F. At the 3 hour mark I will likely rotate the trays 180 deg. I dont know if this is necessary or not but I'm just starting my learning curve.

I purchased a used stainless table off Kijiji to set my dehydrator on and put in the garage beside my meat/drink fridge after reading about one poor guy breaking the glass top on his table with the heat from the dehydrator . I'm glad I did as the garage smells like sriracha right now. I'm not sure how will this will work come winter comes as the garage isn't a lot above freezing.

 

[daveomak]

That should be some fine jerky ...

 

[foamheart]

Nice dehydrator. And you are right its about time for jerky and stix again, hunting and football always makes me think of it.

 

[SonnyE]

It's going to work fine, Summer or Winter.
I set my Presto dehydrator in the garage to keep the fan noise out of the house. :confused:;)
My "table" is the top of our chest freezer. It's metal, it has an outlet right there for the dehydrator, and is a cool dry place.
The Presto draws air in at the bottom, so no heat goes down from it.
I love using dehydrators to make jerky! And I come from making jerky in a travel trailer oven with the pilot light.
I bet you love yours as well. Set it, and forget it.
I like to run mine at night, generally. Then visions of tasty jerky fill my dreams.

Kudos to your butcher! I ask at our high end meat market and the PPP jumped from $6.95 # to $10.95 #.
Needless to say, that punk priced himself out of my liking. Lazy A'hole. They use automatic slicers anyway.
My Daughter gave me one of her slicers when I was up there. :rolleyes: I'll cut my own.
My new found preference is London Broil for my beef jerky. But I don't mind doing roasts with my big knife, and now the slicer ta boot.

As far as some Ah, body, breaking a glass table with his dehydrator, I call B.S. on that story.
Not on you relaying it. Just on that being the excuse for breakage.
I was born in the Dark, but it wasn't last night.
Your new-to-you SS table will last a lifetime. Nice score!

Enjoy your jerky! ;):D

PS: If you marinate (and who doesn't?) I got to do Vacuum Marinading for my Daughter with one of her vacuum marinading chambers.
20 minutes. 20 Minutes! And it's ready to dry.
She got hers at the Goodwill Store.
I now have a 1/2 gallon Mason Jar I can use with my adapticators to vacuum Mason Jars with.
(As much as I have reservations about vacuum on a partially fill glass jar. Safety concerns.)

 

[rob g]

6 hours in and the jerky breaks/cracks but does not separate. I've pulled it off to cool. Once it cools I want to weigh it to see my losses but by looking at it it's not going to go too far. I can see this as a weekly process especially if my neighbour's 4 little locusts get wind of it.

 

[uncle eddie]

Nice looking jerky!

You can really load those trays up. I normally have meat touching, but not overlapping when I make it. As it dehydrates, it shrinks and the air flow improves.

 

[rob g]

As it was my first time making jerky I figured I'd start with 4lb. If I screwed up it wouldn't hurt as much. I now realize how much meat this unit will hold. The local grocery store has pork loin for $1.44/lb this week. I think I'll get a couple loins tomorrow and prep them for my next try. The good thing is I work from home so I can get the dehydrator going first thing and get some work done too :)

 

[MeatSkull]

Nice job!

 

[rob g]

The jerky has cooled and I've lost about 50% to shrinkage. The wife and I are quite happy with the taste tests.

 

[SonnyE]

The jerky has cooled and I've lost about 50% to shrinkage. The wife and I are quite happy with the taste tests.

That is all that matters!
As long as the Admiral is happy, the Captain gets to steer the boat. ;):D

PS: Never made any Pork jerky.
Well, not intentionally anyway....

 

[rob g]

Sometimes it's better if she doesn't like it then I don't have to share lol. There's a maple syrup recipe that I think would taste great with pork I want to try next.

 

[SonnyE]

Sometimes it's better if she doesn't like it then I don't have to share lol. There's a maple syrup recipe that I think would taste great with pork I want to try next.

Ha, Ha.... I like pepper. And if I put enough on, nobody eats my jerky but ME. ;):D

So how does the Maple Syrup work? Do you use it as a marinade, or marinade base?
Got a link?:)

 

[rob g]

The maple syrup recipe is off the Jerkyholic site ( https://www.jerkyholic.com/sweet-maple-pork-jerky/ ). Mods please fix if links to others sites are frowned on.

I just finished trimming and slicing 3 loins I bought last night on sale. Sale price plus 30% markdowns to get it out the door made it about $1/lb. I trimmed about 8 lb off about 11.7kg of loin. Pretty good fat cap plus I was a little aggressive trying to get rid of most of the fat. At that price I wasn't too concerned about waste plus my knife skills aren't as good as they could be. I'm going to mix up the Malaysian pork, maple syrup and maybe the teriyaki recipes off Jerkyholic this afternoon.

 

[uncle eddie]

I made my own marinade for years and years...then I won a contest on this website and, as part of the prize, I got some jerky seasoning packets from Owens BBQ. They were amazing and very very easy to make...so much so it is the only thing I use now. The cost is comparable to making my own marinate too.

http://www.owensbbq.com/sausage-seasonings-jerky-mixes.html

They are all good but my faves are Chipotle Lime, Original (but I add garlic powder or something with it) Cracked Black Pepper & Garlic, Hickory, and Mesquite.

 

[rob g]

I'll probably stick to making the online recipes until I start branching out to my own. Ordering online is great until I have to bring the stuff across the border. I'm in Ontario. Anything shipped over the border gets stupid once they add taxes and extra shipping fees to come to Canada. The wife and I judge about 8 to 10 KCBS contests every summer so we cross quite a bit. I like to nose around the sporting good stores when I get a chance. I'll be checking out the jerky spices available plus I'd like to get a good gun to try the sticks.

 

[MeatSkull]

That is all that matters!
As long as the Admiral is happy, the Captain gets to steer the boat. ;):D

PS: Never made any Pork jerky.
Well, not intentionally anyway....

Say what? Swine is fine......better that moo!

 

[SonnyE]

Say what? Swine is fine......better that moo!

My pork jerky was some run away overcooked pork chops.
It's all good, I enjoyed it. But it was unintentional.... LOL!

And nobody knows. Because I ate the evidence. :rolleyes:o_O