Need advice on making jerky page

[Mermaid]

I have an American Harvest jetstream oven I got at a yard sale. I was thinking about using it to make some jerky for my husband to take on his Grand Canyon trip. It seems like it will be faster and maybe preferable to running the conventional oven ALL DAY since it's gonna be like 100 degrees here all week.

My questions are: 1. Anybody try this method and how did it turn out? 2. Will the quicker drying time have a positive or negative effect on flavor and/or texture?

Any advice is welcome. Thanks

[rphlslv]

How hot does that device get?

[Mermaid]

It can go as low as 150F with a choice of low or high fan settings. I worry about cooking it too fast and depleting flavor. I am tempted to dry the stuff outside since it is so hot but that may not be ideal because it's fairly humid AND we have four outdoor cats.

[elorajade]

150 is the temp that is usually called for when drying it in an oven.

[cillakat]

Sounds reasonable. Alton browns recipe is fab.

[hilltowner]

I don't add any seasoning but just make sure the meat is very thinly sliced. If it a lean cut you may want to find a fat source too to balance the protein.

[Daemonized]

If you're wanting a fat source too, then make pemmican. I made a batch of that this month. It's a pain in the ass, but it will help with meal replacement when I'm with my son at scout camp for a couple days won't be able to otherwise nourish myself primaly.

[anat]

maybe you can use my meat chips recipe in you kitchen oven:

Ingredients:
1.1/2 pound almond flour
1 pound finely ground beef or turkey
3/4 tablespoon of salt
Optional: pinch of garlic powder, pinch of Stevia.
How to make: mix flour and salt. Add the meet and knead by hands or using a food processor to get even, smooth dough. Spread half of the dough on a parchment (baking) paper sheet, cut into the size of your oven shelf (hopefully you have at least two shelves in your oven). Cover with another same-size parchment sheet and use a rolling pin over it to flattened the dough into to 2-3 mm. take off the upper paper and use a pizza cuter to cut/mark squares, to help breaking the final product into nice chips (can also break it by hands into free-shape chips).You can re-use the upper parchment paper for your other half-batch of dough, which will be treated the same way. If you have more shelves in your oven, just make more dough; use as much room as possible.
The flat, very thin dough surfaces are now to spend few hours in the oven – set on the lowest temperature and leave the door slightly opened (we want to have ~100-140 f). It is ready when it’s completely dry and crunchy. Let it cool, break into chips and keep in a sealed box (no need to refrigerate).
You may use silicone sheet (my choice) or aluminum foil (I never use it…) instead of the parchment paper. You may also oil your under carrier a little – in case the meat is too lean .

[Mermaid]

These are all such great suggestions. I would love to have the pemmican recipe, and a link to Alton Brown's recipe (just google on food network?).

My husband is leaving Friday and I'm behind schedule so I went ahead and marinated some meat overnight and I am doing a test run with a few of the strips in the jet stream. I will give a report later.

Will definitely try those meat chips. I take it they're shelf stable out in 100 degree weather?

Thanks all!

[hilltowner]

You don't really need a recipe for pemmican, but I do feel a scale is necessary. The point is to mix equal weights of rendered beef fat and ground up dried meat and the two substances are so different that eyeballing is almost impossible.

Dry your meat (for pemmican, really lean meat like top or bottom round or London broil works best) until it snaps when you bend it. Thorough dehydration is a must in order to keep your pemmican from getting moldy.

Render some beef fat ....I get trimmings from a butcher and have also custom-ordered the kidney fat, which is WAY easier to cook down since there's not any meat mixed in it. Make sure again that you get ALL the water out; it should be a nice dark gold when you are done (doing this in the oven overnight works well) but when it cools it will be more like off-white.

Grind up your jerky; you can use a blender but don't use a Cuisinart as it just doesn't work well. The Ninja Master Prep ROCKS for grinding jerky; this is what I use now and it's under $40.

Weigh out your meat and then bring your fat back to a liquid state if it isn't already. add an equal weight of fat and mix. It should look like brownie batter. Personally, I like a little chunkiness in my pemmican; I love the little shreds of beefy goodness. I know that classic pemmican is powdered meat but really, it's a personal preference.

This is where I use my old muffin pans. I line the cups with paper cupcake liners and spoon in the warm pemmican. It will firm up pretty fast. Yummy! You can add a little sea salt if you want.

I do not go through my pemmican quickly so I keep my little pemmimuffins in a tupperware in my fridge; Perfectly made pemmican should be fine on the counter and if I travel with it I never worry about refrigeration.

You can find a ton of info at :

http://forum.zeroinginonhealth.com/s...light=pemmican

and an awesome pictorial at :

http://forum.zeroinginonhealth.com/s...light=pemmican