How to Make Beef Jerky With Food Dehydrator

Smokey, salty, and just the right amount of sweet, beefiness jerky is a perfect snack for hiking, camping ground, and road-tripping. Learn how to make your own flavorful and tender beefiness jerky using either a dehydrator or an oven!

Making your ain beef jerky at habitation is non just incredibly unproblematic, but it is as well much much cheaper than buying store-bought jerky. Plus, you'll exist able to control all the ingredients that go into making it; no weird stabilizers or unpronounceable additives.

So if you're ready to start making your own beefiness jerky, you've come up to the right place. In this article, we share everything we know well-nigh making tender homemade beef hasty.

Why We Love It:

• Versatile hiking, camping, travel snack
• WAAY cheaper than buying shop-bought jerky
• Great manner to brand use of cheaper cuts of meat
• Lots of opportunities to develop your own customize flavors

Quick Tips for Making Beef Hasty

• Chewy = cutting with the grain. Tender = against the grain.
• Partially freeze your beef before slicing information technology. Business firm beef is much easier to cut.
• Tenderizing your beefiness with a mallet is definitely worth the endeavor
• Use a Ziploc bag or reusable culling for the marinade, which allows you to coat each strip of beef by massaging the exterior of the bag.
• Preheat your dehydrator, and dehydrate at 160 F to ensure beef remains at food-safety temperature.
• Set a timer! Beefiness jerky tin become over dehydrated if left in for also long, then you will want to pull information technology before 100% of the water has evaporated.

Eye of Round is one of our favorite cuts of beef for jerky

All-time Cuts of Meat for Beef Jerky

Any lean cut of beef volition piece of work great for making hasty. In fact, when you're selecting a cut for your jerky, the leaner the improve.

The reason is that fatty doesn't dehydrate. H2o wet volition evaporate out of the beef during the dehydration process, but the fatty will remain. And excessive amounts of fatty can lead to your jerky going rancid.

So while a nicely marbled ribeye steak might exist bang-up for searing, all that intermuscular fatty will be no good for making jerky.

By going with a lean cut of beefiness, y'all reduce the amount of fat y'all need to cut out. Plus, these are often the cheaper cuts of meat!

These are our get-to cuts for making beefiness hasty:

• Top Round
• Eye of Round
• Superlative Sirloin
• London Broil

However, if you're looking for a really "primo" cut of beef to use for jerky, we'd propose using flank steak. Information technology's by far the priciest pick, but it has a really neat flavor and tin be cut into long sparse strips.

What Do With Fatty?

Well-nigh all cuts of beefiness come with some corporeality of fatty, but not all of it needs to be removed.

Y'all will want to cut away any large caps of fatty gristle. This tin be accomplished by running your knife underneath it, lifting up a tab of fat, and shaving away at a shallow angle with your knife.

Y'all may too observe some thin "veins" of intermuscular fat running through the meat. Whether yous desire to cutting these out is entirely upwardly to y'all.

If you are really trying to maximize storage life, you can go ahead and advisedly cut these out. But if you're planning on eating in your hasty relatively shortly, it is fine to leave them. Nosotros simply ever cut out the really big line of fat and leave the residue.

How to Cutting the Beefiness

After yous've selected the cut of beef, the next pace is to decide which management you lot want to slice it.

There are 2 schools of thought on this:

• If you want your jerky to exist chewy and so y'all will want to cut with the grain.
• If yous desire your hasty to tender, you volition want to cut against the grain.

We tend to favor slicing against the grain, but information technology'south totally upwardly to you.

In terms of thickness, you want to slice the beef as thin as y'all can. Perhaps non paper-sparse (which is kind of incommunicable with beef), just somewhere in the ⅛ to ¼ of an inch zone. If the jerky is besides thick it will be harder to dehydrate and volition end upwardly existence much tougher to chew.

If yous are ownership your meat from a butcher counter, the easiest way to slice your beef is to ask the butcher to slice it for y'all!

This is unremarkably a gratis service, plus they accept these amazing industrial meat slicing machines, so each piece will come out perfectly uniform.

No butcher effectually? No worries! It's easy to slice the beef with a knife at habitation IF you follow this one play a joke on!

To brand the beefiness easier to slice, place it in the freezer for 1-2 hours beforehand or until it becomes semi-frozen. (not frozen like a rock, only firm) Beef is so much easier to slice when information technology'southward semi-frozen.

Also, it might seem obvious, but utilise a sharp pocketknife! Dull knives cause all sorts of kitchen accidents, and, in this particular instance, makes cutting the beef absolutely excruciating. A recently sharpened knife volition make this procedure so much easier (and safer!) We own this Chef Selection Model 15XV and it works great.

The Importance of Tenderizing

I of the virtually mutual complaints nearly beef jerky (whether bootleg or shop-bought) is that it feels like chewing tree bark. We go information technology, nobody wants to gnaw abroad on a beef-flavored woodchip. So what's to be washed?

The first thing y'all can practice is cull the right direction to slice your beef, which we covered above. Against the grain = more tender.

The side by side thing is to make sure you properly tenderize your meat. There are two ways to go most this: manually or with a powder.

Pounding the beef with a meat tenderizing mallet will physically pause down the muscle fibers, resulting in a more tender texture. While a little labor-intensive this method is very effective (sometimes a little too effective). Brand certain non to over tenderize! The beef slices need to retain some structure! You lot don't want to pound them into mush. This method too has the added benefit of helping to ensure the slices are all pounded to an even thickness.

Meat tenderizing powders are made from enzymes. They are nearly normally derived either from papain, which comes from papayas, or from bromelain, which comes from pineapples. These can be sprinkled onto the beefiness and will start working to break down the fibers as soon as it gets placed into the dehydrator (activated by estrus).

The other essential office of tenderizing is using a well-salted beef jerky marinade. Salt will naturally start to break down the muscle fibers, yielding a more tender jerky.

Beef Jerky Marinade

Just like with BBQ sauces, the marinade is the hole-and-corner 10 factor in every beefiness jerky recipe. The exact ingredients and proportions are often highly coveted trade secrets.

Thankfully you won't have to twist our arm to go our recipe (it'due south in the recipe carte beneath!) Our recipe does a peachy job recreating that archetype "original" hasty flavor, only you lot tin totally adapt the spices to make this recipe your own.

Just retrieve non to add together any fats/oils to your jerky marinade (lots of grilling marinades phone call for fats) if you plan on storing it for any length of time.

Which is Improve: Oven or Dehydrator?

You can brand delicious tasting beef jerky using either. However, yous will get better and more consistent results if you use a dehydrator.

Dehydrators offer much better temperature control (especially at the lower temperatures needed for dehydrating) and they provide vastly better airflow.

We will give instructions for both methods, but if you want to get serious about making jerky so you will want to consider picking up a dehydrator. They tin be very affordable and have a ton of other great uses.

Equipment Spotlight: Dehydrators

If you lot're in the market for a dehydrator, we recommend buying one that has an adaptable temperature, which volition allow you to dial in the drying temp to give you the all-time results for private ingredients. The dehydrator nosotros use and recommend most often is the COSORI Premium. Y'all tin discover our other favorite dehydrators hither.

Beef jerky before and after dehydrating

How to Dehydrate Beef Hasty

To dehydrate your hasty, preheat your dehydrator to 160F. If you're using your oven, preheat to 160F or as low as you lot tin can ready it.

Load the trays, making sure no pieces of meat are overlapping, and and so place them into the dehydrator or oven.

The drying time will depend on how thick the beef was sliced, full load, humidity in your space, and your item machine–double check your dehydrator's manual. We find that jerky commonly takes between iv-6 hours. Every so frequently, apply a paper towel to absorb any fat, and shuffle or rotate the trays if needed to promote fifty-fifty drying.

Properly dried hasty should crack when bent, but not break. Be sure to test using a cooled piece.

We personally like to store our beef jerky in reusable mason jars which are airtight.

Best Ways to Store Beefiness Jerky

How you store your beef hasty will oft depend on when you intend on eating it. The longer you want to shop it, the more specific the storing process needs to become.

Upward to a week: Beef jerky volition be fine for up to a week in a non-closed reusable or plastic baggie. The less exposure to air the better, and it'southward a good idea to keep out of directly calorie-free.

Up to a month: You will want to use an airtight container (Mason jar, resealable container with gasket chapeau). It tin can be stored at room temperature merely should be kept abroad from direct light.

3-6 months: For annihilation over a calendar month, beefiness jerky should be vacuum-sealed in an airtight container. FoodSaver makes a multifariousness of ways of vacuum-sealing food either in plastic pouches or reusable Mason jars. You lot volition desire to store it in the refrigerator.

Up to a yr: To maximize the storage time of your beef jerky, you will want to vacuum-seal it in an airtight container and store it in the freezer. You may besides consider using a moisture-arresting package.

Other recipes yous'll enjoy

↠ Teriyaki Beef Jerky
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↠ Trail Mix Recipes
↠ Backpacking Food Ideas

• 2 pounds beef, (lean cuts are best & will go on longer)
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ane teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• i teaspoon black pepper
• one teaspoon meat tenderizer, *optional

Cook Mode Forbid your screen from going dark

• Thinly slice the meat* and cut off all visible fatty.

• Pound slices with a meat tenderizer mallet until pieces are uniform thickness (aprox nickel width).

• Place the beefiness strips in a nix-top bag. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over beef.

• Cover & marinate for 12-36 hours. Shake the pocketbook a few times as it'southward marinating to brand sure the beef is evenly coated.

• Spread the meat in a single layer, shaking off any excess marinade, on the dehydrator trays.

• Dry at 165F/74C for 4-6 hours, occasionally blotting off any fat droplets that appear on the surface. Test using a cooled piece. Properly stale jerky, when aptitude, should crack but non break.

• Parcel hasty in and air-tight container or vacuum seal (*meet storage notes below). Store in a cool, dark & dry place.

*Partially freezing the meat makes it easier to slice. Cutting with the grain for chewier jerky & cut against the grain for tender but more than brittle pieces.

Storage Notes:
Properly dried and packaged jerky volition keep for a week at room temp in a regular naught-elevation handbag, upward to a month at room temp in an air-tight container, three-vi months in an air-tight container in the refrigerator, and upward to a twelvemonth if vacuum sealed and stored in the freezer.

Calories: 163 kcal | Carbohydrates: 4 g | Poly peptide: 28 grand | Fat: 4 grand | Potassium: 395 mg

*Nutrition is an guess based on information provided by a tertiary-political party nutrition calculator

This recipe was originally contributed by Kira and Brendon of Adventurehaks.com and was updated eleven/21 with additional information | Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Fresh Off The Grid is a culinary resource for the outdoor customs. We offering a drove of recipes, how-to guides, and camp cooking gear to help yous enjoy smashing food in the great outdoors!

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