[1vertical]

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAps6380j7M

Round ones are like slim jims...
Oh yeah pinnah...just dry it till you get the texture you desire.  The meat is preserved by the "salt cure".
If you don't consume it very fast any fat left will contribute to a rancid taste ...if it is totally lean, taste good long time.
Edit: Elk is Great....been my experience that fresh (not ever frozen) makes the best finished product.
Once you have the jerkey shooter, you can use the super lean ground beef and you will dig that as well...

[Slowbrew]

What's the principle behind a dehydrator? Isn't it just running warmish air over something at a constant rate? If so, I wonder if my oven would work, because it has something that seems to be a dehydrator function (a symbol of a fan with a little water droplet).

Otherwise, while a dehydrator doesn't seem that expensive, 50 euros is a lot to spend for something that I won't use very often. Can I use the hop dryer featured in the recent BYO gadget issue? That way I have something to dry hops AND make jerky/dried mushrooms.

Not to fork the thread, but are the principles for sun-dried tomatoes the same as for jerky?

The oven has a dehydrator feature? Give it a try. Ouch 50 euros!? The Nesco is $39 at walmart. That's up in price from 5 years ago. You probably could make one with a box, some racks and a small heater fan.

For tomatoes just half or quarter them before they get dehydrated. Same principle as jerky.

I would have guessed the fan would be a convection oven option.  I've never seen one designed to be used as a dehydrator.  That would be cool.

Paul

[Jimmy K]

For an oven to work as a dehydrator it would need to circulate outside air in which most are not designed to do (that's not an oven, that's a furnace).

[a10t2]

FWIW I've had good results using a convection oven set for the lowest temperature (175°F) with the door cracked open.

[tubercle]

Pinnah,
I saw this a bit late but none the less, here is THE thing
Trim all fat from your meat and grind it up like a burger. Season it with
your choice of  flavors from Hi Mountain Seasonings (the triangle box)

Get a jerky shooter gun and follow the destructions.  Seemed like there
was something about mixing in tiny chunks of ice too....
Get a dehydrator like Euge shows in his post and go to town...
That seasoning will yeild you some jerky that is better than the commercial
espensive stuff.
 Hint pre spray the dehydrator racks with pam...it is a bizatch to clean up...
I have come to like the round squeezed shape because it is more moist and tender
than the flat squeezed chewey shape....

 I had one of these for years...love it.

[pinnah]

Elk is Great....been my experience that fresh (not ever frozen) makes the best finished product.
Once you have the jerkey shooter, you can use the super lean ground beef and you will dig that as well...

Well I am out with a smoke pole trying to get some fresh.
Elk are wicked smaht and wary.  I could have had 4 deer to jerk this morning.

That tube shooter looks interesting.  I could be more of a natural dried slab kind of guy,
but it could just be some memory of those little yellow balls as seasoning in commercial tube jerky. Mustard seed maybe?

Thanks for the help all, I am committed.

[bluefoxicy]

I've made jerky but I don't have a dehydrator.  Be mindful I am resistant to everything:  I make burgers raw in the center (barely warm, creamy texture) and have used aging meat with a strong, pungent smell ... that resulted in a 5 hour stomach ache that nearly made me cry.  Wanted to puke but couldn't.  That's the worst I got.

The most I've done is 120F on Convection in a toaster oven.  If it weren't for thieving animals and insects, I'd sun dry.

[1vertical]

Thanks for the help all, I am committed.

Any elk at Belleview?? 

[pinnah]

  plenty of elk.  Rain every night let me see where they had been within a few hours.
I do love to sneak in the woods in the fresh footsteps of elk.

Alas, they were too smart for me and the effective range of my Hawkin. 
I am drying last years bounty.

[pinnah]

Wow.  Thanks for the tips on this.
I now have a pound in the freezer.

Elk jerky.
I seasoned with some mountain man seasoning.
Fantastic.

Thanks again for the tips,
I cant stop eating it.  breakfast, no problem. lunch, you bet. ruin your dinner? why not.
super tasty and crumbly.  cutting against grain key.
Dental floss in pocket.

Two batches in prep. One in dryer and one marinating.
Should have around 3 pounds dried come the weekend.
Wow.  Way better than on the grill.

Cheers to jerky.

[Pinski]

Dehydrators work well, but for my time and money..

is the way to go for marinade and smoke flavor.
The way jerky oughta be.

[1vertical]

Get a Bull or a Cow / Calf

[pinnah]

Dehydrators work well, but for my time and money..

I was thinking my dehydrator a bit short...
but vacation is for stuff like this.
Jerking meat, waxing ski, salving boot, splitting kindling.... yea buddy.

I figure I can slab in about 5 pounds of meat in my dehydrator,
and get about 1 pound of jerky for that.

Three days, three pounds.
I can handle the schedule right now.  
But yea, a whole animal, something bigger needed.

Get a Bull or a Cow / Calf

Yearling tender.
Counting my blessings here.
Prost.

[pinnah]

super tasty and crumbly.  cutting against grain key.
Dental floss in pocket.

Hey brewers.

Came back in here for a moment to check the jerky thread...noticed the above comment.

This year I am cutting with the grain, and really enjoying the results as well.
I like the stringy ripping and it just seems more like historical jerky to me.

Anybody else have some thoughts on how to cut up meat for jerky?

Yum. 

Cheers.