looking at a dehydrator to make jerky

I have a white-westinghouse. It works well. I have not used it in a while, but it did pretty good. I have no idea what I paid for it.

quote:

---

looking at a dehydrator to make jerky

---

Buy an electric smoker it can do the same thing a dehydrator can but also smokes. I love mine.

Walk me through your process please. Type of meat, seasoning, temp, how long , etc... I've got an electric smoker and would live to give it a shot

They are definitely worth $50, unfortunately the Mrs. Bought an Excalibur for $200. I made some jerky Thursday and it came out awesome.
The model she got is supposed to be for drying fruit, crackers and dehydrating raw foods. If you're not doing that, spend less. $50 doesn't sound bad.

I bought the four shelf Excalibur on eBay about 10 years ago. Still works as good as ever, and I've used it a lot. Before this, I had a circular "As seen on TV" dehydrator that was absolute junk.

I followed the process in the book. There is a ton of info. on the net and a really good book for meat curing is, "GREAT SAUSAGE RECIPES AND MEAT CURING" by Rytek Kutas. I used his recipe for my Jerky, note, I did use some cure in the jerky. A good website is. Smoking meat forum.
Good luck and have fun!!

I make jerky once a week. I had the 4 tray Excalibur 2400 and the only complaint I ever had about it was that it wasn't bigger. Upgraded to the 9 tray 3900 and can now dehydrate 8-10 lbs of meat easily. For $200 it is well worth the money. I cut London broil into relatively thick slices (roughly 1/4" thick) and I turn it on high for 10-12 hours. 5 hours would be raw for my jerky, but it really depends on how you thin you cut it.

cabela's or bust, imo

Dehydrators are ok. Might check out an electric smoker.

I air dry my jerky with a little smoke from my fire pit.

Don't get too fancy on the marinade/seasonings.

Brown sugar, black pepper and a little salt. Garlic powder if thats your thing, red pepper flakes/cayenne if you like heat.

Cut it in strips, marinate it overnight or so. Lay out the strips on a rack, and move air over them. So long as the humidity isn't 80%+ you should be ok, just keep the air moving. I like to draw warm smoky air off of my fire pit. If no wind use a fan.


Alternately, strip the meat on a cheap AC filter and strap to the box fan a la Alton Brown.

quote:

---

strip the meat on a cheap AC filter and strap to the box fan a la Alton Brown

---

damn son

quote:

---

Lay out the strips on a rack, and move air over them

---

quote:

---

If no wind use a fan

---

so you can dry meat on an open rack in the wind?? that's pretty neat.