"Love's" Bee Jerky

[TanMan1209]

I'm hoping to mimic the jerky that you get from Love's gas stations. It's some of my favorite jerky. For some depth on the description of the texture and flavor, take a look at the following link...

http://www.bestbeefjerky.org/2010/05/loves-real-beef-jerky.html

Any tips for making this style of jerky? What's a good temperature to set the dehydrator for this style of jerky? Should I cut against the grain or with?

For the longest time I had a basic Nesco dehydrator with a top down fan and nothing more than an on/off switch. With that bad boy, I could dehydrate for 12 hours and not quite get the consistency that I'm going for. I don't think that thing would get more than 120 degrees, though. I recently upgraded to a 'box' style dehydrator with a back fan and temperature control up to 158.5 degrees.

For this style of jerky, I'm thinking of doing a liquid smoke and Worcestershire marinade with some garlic, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and black pepper. My intuition tells me to kick on the dehydrator to the highest temp and let that puppy ride. I've got a feeling it will be 10+ hours to get the very dry, tough, jerky that I'm going for, but this is my first time using this particular dehydrator, so I'm not sure.

Anyone have any tips for making this style jerky? Give me your best marinade for something like this, too, if you've got it.

 

[TanMan1209]

Also, bee jerky is probably disgusting, so I'm open to "beef" jerky, as well.

 

[dward51]

I was wondering how one would trim those little bee roasts into tiny jerky strips...... (sorry, could not resist).]

Ok, in all seriousness....

If you are anywhere near a retail location that carries "Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade" it is some wonderful stuff. It's a pre-mixed liquid marinade and has excellent flavor. I have a LEM 10 tray dehydrator and I usually have to run cut jerky strips about 6 to 7 hours to get the consistency I want. I usually run them an hour or 2 at 130* and then kick it up to high which is around 155 on my dehydrator. Then I go by the bend test more than time. When done, it should bend and start to crack, but not actually crack. Once you have seen this, you will recognize the correct point. Then into a paper bag overnight to let the remaining moisture equalize. I usually vacuum pack the bulk and freeze, keeping open what I can eat in a few days or a week.

Here is a photo of the "bend test"

There are a number of good recipes in the forum for jerky marinades and spice blends if you want to mix your own. I just love the Smoking Gun marinade and hate I have to pay as much to ship a gallon as the liquid costs (no dealers anywhere near us).

NEPAS posted a recipe for "Hillbilly backwoods Jerky" some time ago and I made a batch in this thread. Recipe is in the thread

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/hillbilly-backwoods-jerky-finished-with-photos.243918/