Pork Jerky

[frigidaire48]

Hello All,

I have scoured this site and the rest of the web. I want to make pork jerky. I just got a dehydrator and a warning came with it to never dehydrate pork but you can ham. I'm not a big fan of the cured flavor. Except bacon!!! I have had uncured pork jerky. If I trim all visible fat and marinade in vinegar based marinades then smoke to an internal temp of 160, finishing off in a dehydrator that will range fromm 155 to 162 ( designed to do this to get internal temp above 160). Should that be safe to eat or is curing a required step for safe pork jerky? Thank you for all your help in advance.

 

[foamheart]

I agree with your safety warning. I in the past I have dehydrated or smoked beef jerky without cure. I am learning again how to make jerky this time with some cure in my marinade. Dried ham would be basically pork jerky, but a fresh pork jerky would scare me.

I have ate some strange stuff, some scary stuff, but it was always just me, and some of the decisions I paid for. It would humiliate me to no end to make someone eating what I prepared even a little sick. That is just sooooo not going to happen. I mean being safe there are still things you may not have control over. But I could never chance someone elses safety.

Can you imagine a neighbor, girlfriend, wife, niece, of a father being sick on a judgment call by me.

I just couldn't take that chance.

 

[frigidaire48]

Thank you Foamheart. Do you know if I can still marinade for flavors after curing or would that undo the curing?

 

[foamheart]

It would probably be to a lesser degree since you have already for lack of a better word, impregnanted the meat with cure. As long as it has not reached an equallibrium stage you are ok, There was some discussion last week by Cmayo about adding flavor after the meat was dried.

I don't think its possible to undo a cure.

But I am not anywhere close to an expert here. I am learning like most.