Ground Beef Jerky/SnackSticks

[PunkR0ckz]

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum and jerky/snack stick making.
I have read a bit about it and I know that 160F should be the desired "initial" temperature to kill off any bacteria in ground beef jerky or 165F for chicken jerky I do believe.
After doing some researches on the internet, I found that the Nesco FD-75A was one of the best entry-level food dehydrator for making jerky as it was keeping a controlled temperature. I am testing mine at the moment, it has been running for about an hour, with no food in it, at its maximum temperature setting which SHOULD be 160F, but it will not go higher than 152F with a digital probe thermometer (the one that has a base, a monitor and the probe is tied to a thin cable so it doesn't release too much hot air in the room).
So, here is my question; Is curing salt enough to kill off all of the bacterias or should I still heat the meat to 160F before dehydrating it? If so, how would I do that with ground beef? I know it's much simpler with strips, but I want to test ground beef first, since its way cheaper over here.
I understand that I should marinate the meat in the fridge, then probably cook it to 160F, then mold it with the jerky gun and then dehydrate to 140-150F for as long as I want for the texture I want.

By the way, I am asking this because I've seen quite a lot of videos, forum posts and online recipes of people using this specific food dehydrator to make jerky, but they never show internal temperatures or pre-cook to 160F (at least, not in their videos/posts) and I am wondering if it is only necessary for long term storage and whatnot.

Sorry if what I say doesn't make much sense, I am trying my best. I am french canadian.


Thanks!!

 

[daveomak]

You can pasteurize the meat.... If you get the ground meat to 135F for 28 minutes, it has a 5 log reduction in bacteria... Personally, I usually add at least 1/2 hour to any times listed to get a greater reduction in bacteria and make allowance to inaccurate temperature readings... At 135F, you can hold it there for several hours with no adverse effect of the meat...
To get the meat to that temperature, your smoker will have to be at ~155-160F to allow for evaporative cooling of the meat from internal moisture...

 

[PunkR0ckz]

You can pasteurize the meat.... If you get the ground meat to 135F for 28 minutes, it has a 5 log reduction in bacteria... Personally, I usually add at least 1/2 hour to any times listed to get a greater reduction in bacteria and make allowance to inaccurate temperature readings... At 135F, you can hold it there for several hours with no adverse effect of the meat...
To get the meat to that temperature, your smoker will have to be at ~155-160F to allow for evaporative cooling of the meat from internal moisture...


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Thank you for your answer. I will have to read on the 5.0 log reduction thing. It isn't a concept I know, as I am new to meat dehydrating.

If I have understood properly what you said, if I were able to keep the meat temperature at 135F for 28 minutes (or 58 minutes in your case), I should be safe, as the jerky making should take over 3 hours (which is 6 times the required duration). Am I right?

I will read on the 5.0 log reduction tomorrow, as it's now bed time for me. Thanks again!

 

[daveomak]

Log Reduction - A Beginners Guide

What are Log Reductions and why are they important.

www.endurocide.com

 

[PunkR0ckz]

Thank you for the link daveomak ! I looked it up and if I understood properly, 99.999% of bacterias would be kill if the meat was cooked at 145F for 3 minutes. (or any other time/heat combo in the chart).

So basically, the only harmful bacteria would be E.coli, which should be taken care of by cooking the meat to 155F. I guess I might need to cook post-drying my jerky in the oven or something, unless the thermometer reads 155F, which I haven't tested with meat in the dehydrator.

 

[daveomak]

All bacteria die at lower temps given enough time....
Below is a thermal death time/temp chart...
E-coli will die at 127F given enough time...
The only problem is spores from certain pathogens... Botulism, as an example, will die in boiling water after about 8 hours of contact or something ridiculous like that.. But at 240-250F, it only takes about 3-5 minutes....

 

[PunkR0ckz]

Makes a whole lot of sense! That is probably why it is suggested to cook post-drying (from the few websites/researches i've read) if you don't use curing salt. Thanks! I feel more confident in making my first batch tomorrow!

 

[daveomak]

Here's my ground and formed jerky.... Grind, season, roll out into a sheet... smoke and dry... cut into chunks...

 

[PunkR0ckz]

I just made my very first batch of "jerky", with the packs that were coming with the machine. I used ground beef and the dual slot tip from the Nesco jerky kit gun thing. I don't really like the thickness or width of it. It was too easy to break the jerky while laying it on the grills. I'll go with the much larger tip instead. I also made 2 small patties with the remainder that got stuck in the tip. They seemed cooked (or dehydrated) properly. Pinkish brown, at least 145F with just the probe in the dehydrator (couldn't stick it in a jerky, too thin). I'm pretty pleased with it. 2 pounds of meat made quite a lot (much more than I would eat in a month usually... so here comes another question; would it be safe to split the cure pack and the water required for it for my next batch? or is that playing with fire?

Thanks a lot for the charts again, it made me feel safer about doing it :)

 

[daveomak]

Freeze what you want to save for later.... If you have a vac pack machine.... that's the way to go....

 

[PunkR0ckz]

Sorry for the very late response. Thanks, I was able to eat it all properly without stuffing myself like a pig or anything.

Today, I made my second batch, it was lean ground veal, same recipe as the previous batch. The meat would never go above 115F, even after 7 hours in the dehydrator. The veal was almost crispy at that point, so I decided to take it out and cook it in the oven for a bit. Forgot it, now it's almost burnt xD

Is it normal that lean ground veal doesn't go as high of a temperature in the dehydrator? I'm guessing yes because of the very low fat content, but then... how do I make sure its safe to eat, I hope my method was correct.