# Making beef jerky in dehydrator?



## cast iron (Oct 4, 2004)

Do you use your dehydrator for making beef jerky?

We recently replaced our very old and tired dehydrator with an Excalibur 3900 which lists jerky to be made at its highest temperature of 155*

We checked our old dehydrator with a thermometer and found it could only get to 132* at best. I haven't had a chance to hook up the Excalibur yet but was wondering if others have verified the temp in your dehydrator to verify that it's actually running at the advertised temp?

Also, the usda says this about using a dehydrator for making beef jerky.


> When raw meat or poultry is dehydrated at home â either in a warm oven or a food dehydrator â to make jerky which will be stored on the shelf, pathogenic bacteria are likely to survive the dry heat of a warm oven and especially the 130 to 140 Â°F of a food dehydrator...
> 
> Why is temperature important when making jerky? Illnesses due to Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 from homemade jerky raise questions about the safety of traditional drying methods for making beef and venison jerky. The USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline's current recommendation for making jerky safely is to heat meat to 160 Â°F and poultry to 165 Â°F before the dehydrating process. This step assures that any bacteria present will be destroyed by wet heat. But most dehydrator instructions do not include this step, and a dehydrator may not reach temperatures high enough to heat meat to 160 Â°F or 165 Â°F...
> 
> ...


Jerky and Food Safety | USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service

Additionally this document on the subject from the University of Wisconsin comes up frequently when searching on this subject.


> Dried meat, commonly called jerky, has been a popular food for thousands of years. Jerky has traditionally been made by drying meat at low temperatures (130Â°F &#8208;170Â°F) for a long period of time. These processing conditions can make it difficult to manufacture a safe product, especially using a home dehydrator. It is important to reach a sufficient temperature in the jerky&#8208;drying process to kill pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 which may contaminate the product...
> 
> Safe Drying Methods
> In our research we tested 3 home&#8208;style dehydrators: the Gardenmaster (#1010) and Jerky Xpress (#28JX), both from Nesco/American Harvest, and the Excalibur (#3900).
> ...


http://www.foodsafety.wisc.edu/assets/pdf_Files/Making_Safe Jerky_in_a Home_Dehydrator3.pdf

What say you about this? No big deal, pre or post heating is not necessary, just stick it in the dehydrator for X hours and it's fine... My family has been making it this way for 250 years and nobody has died yet. 

Or do you either pre or post heat the meat to 160*+?

Thanks


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## farmmom (Jan 4, 2009)

I make jerky in my Excalibur. It doesn't get stored long though. I can't keep myself from eating it!


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## Macybaby (Jun 16, 2006)

I make mine in the deyhdrator - but I store in in the freezer and only take it out to be eaten so it's not sitting at room temp for long.

I don't like how it turns out with the heating up to that temp, but I'm not willing to take the chance of the bacteria either. I figure if someone else has been doing it for years with success, that does not mean I can assume that the way I do it is similar enough to have the same success.


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## Ozarks Tom (May 27, 2011)

We've made beef jerky in our Excalibur for years. It keeps in the fridge for months with no problem.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Don't know what brand my dehydrator is and I've never checked the temp. And I've never made jerky from store bought meat. 

We store our jerky in the fridge.


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## countryfied2011 (Jul 5, 2011)

I have an Excalibur 3900 9 tray with fan and timer ..I have made beef jerky with it using Alton Brown's recipe..DH doesn't keep it in the fridge but then again it is never around very long either maybe a couple of weeks or three. I just keep it in a ziplock bag. 

Alton uses a fan and a/c filters..lol I follow the cooking instructions with the Excalibur Dehydrator Book

Beef Jerky Recipe : Alton Brown : Recipes : Food Network


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## Dusky Beauty (Jan 4, 2012)

Since my favorite jerky is "teriyaki" I'd probably experiment with cooking my jerky meat with marinade before drying it anyway.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

I use the oven. It is just easier, cheaper, and holds a lot more.


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## pinfeather (Nov 12, 2006)

Just make mine in the dehydrator. I use enough salt in the marinade so I figure that plus dehydration makes it shelf stable. Done it that way 20+ years.


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## Silvercreek Farmer (Oct 13, 2005)

Made jerky for years in a cheap dehydrator from Walmart, dunno what temp it gets to but nobody that has eaten it has died yet. Can't comment on storage life, it never lasts more than a day or two...


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

This might be helpful: 
Jerky and Food Safety | USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service


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## pinfeather (Nov 12, 2006)

The test they talk about in the article is about ground beef formed into strips and dried into jerky. It's my understanding that ground beef is much more likely to contain ecoli than larger pieces of meat. For jerky I either use venison or buy beef roasts on sale and slice them myself. Not sure why anyone would go to the trouble of grinding the meat, THEN forming it into strips and drying it. Must be a regional thing.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

pinfeather said:


> For jerky I either use venison or buy beef roasts on sale and slice them myself. Not sure why anyone would go to the trouble of grinding the meat, THEN forming it into strips and drying it. Must be a regional thing.


Teeth! Jerky shooters allow those with plates to bite off a piece without picking their teeth off the floor! Also allows the meat to better absorb the flavors of marinades and cures.

Martin


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## pinfeather (Nov 12, 2006)

Jerky shooters . . .


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## Chixarecute (Nov 19, 2004)

Usually make my jerky with store bought ground round, no preheating, no temperature verification, no food borne illness occurring... 

And I love using those jerky caullking guns!  So much easier than rolling it out.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

pinfeather said:


> Jerky shooters . . .


If you've never heard of them, you haven't been following much in the field of jerky the past 25-30 years. I have used the original one for roughly 25 years. 

jerky shooter - Bing

Martin


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## Reb (Dec 29, 2006)

I've always used the oven to make my jerky for the boys. I make so much it would take several loads in the dehydrator and more time than I have... 

I just take strips of meat that have marinated in the frig overnight, poke a toothpick in the end of each or buy the shishkabob sticks from the Dollar Store and put several on each stick then hang on the oven racks to dry a little on the counter. I use four liter bottles at each corner of the rack, tin foil underneath to catch any drips. After they've hung for about four hours and the drying process has begun, I put the racks in the oven at its lowest temp (about 165) crack the door a little and let hang for about 5-8 hours, depending on thickness.. 

Stored in the refrig in a large pickle jar with an oxygen absorber. Hubby and boys love to take a pack when they're out in the woods. If you'd like, I'll share my recipe.. Reb


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## dollmaker (Jun 24, 2010)

Just don't feed this homemade jerky to the elderly, very young (unlikely anyway) and the immune suppressed. Food borne illness can go to the brain and cause a brain event, kill you or paralyze your limbs. And don't laugh it off and say it will never happen. It happened to me.


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## woodsy (Oct 13, 2008)

I've checked my dehydrator temp, its an american harvest ,no temp settings, runs 160- 165*, good for jerky but kinda hot for drying some fruits and veges.


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

I wrote a post on my site. You can read it here:

Best Food Dehydrator &#8211; Cabela&#8217;s Commercial Food Dehydrator Review


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## Packedready (Mar 29, 2011)

What a shock, I have been making jerky in my Excalibur for 25 years and have stored it in 1/2 gallon bottles and I have kept it for 1 1/2 years and used it and I have never had a problem. I did not pre-cook ever.

They are going over board again because of liability. I will not change my method.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Packedready said:


> What a shock, I have been making jerky in my Excalibur for 25 years and have stored it in 1/2 gallon bottles....


Same here. I have also made jerky in my smokehouse and in my solar dehydrator. Make sure it is good and dry. I smoke and then dehydrate for fish jerky also, it all just goes into glass jars to store. Some may have been around for up to 6 months....James


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## cathleenc (Aug 16, 2007)

Reb said:


> If you'd like, I'll share my recipe.. Reb


Reb, yes! please do share your recipe. I'd love to see everyone's recipes! I've made 2 batches so far and the kids are bugging me to try something different next time.

thanks so much for offering!
Cathy


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

I would believe that the higher temperature recommendations would be due to laxity in slicing and curing/marinading. I have a deli-style slicer and unless the meat is a large chunk and partially frozen, it's hard to get a uniform thickness. Any thick spot may not absorb enough cure and heat. The lack of cure penetration is also often due to cutting marinade time. If recipe calls for a 48-hour soak, 24 isn't enough. Then there are those who don't use cure but treat the finished product as if it were used. Adding 20ÂºF to the process covers up for those shortcomings.

On a personal basis, I also have had the original 5-shelf Excalibur for over 25 years. There were periods when it ran 24 hours a day for several weeks with the only breaks being to reload with another 7Â½# of venison jerky every 12 hours. 

And on a side note, I'm supposedly related to the founders through marriage on both paternal and maternal sides of my family.

Martin


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## lemonthyme7 (Jul 8, 2010)

When we were kids we had a hot air register that came straight up out of the floor. My parents would slice up beef for jerky and hang it above the register. It must have been close to 6 feet above the register and the slices were not thin. Some were as thick as 1 1/2 inches by 5 inches long, I would guess. I'm sure the tempature could not have been very high that far from the heat source but it was a constant warm current. it dried from the bottom and as it did we would cut off pieces because we were too impatient for it to dry all the way to the top. Some pieces, I can tell you were still a little soft in the middle. No one ever got sick but I'm sure that would not be a recommended method by anyone's standards! LOL! Sure did taste good though. I do mine on my dehydrator or in the oven.


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