I am going to do my own deer processing for the first time this year. I am going to do mostly jerky. I was wondering what is the best way to make it dehydrator, in the oven, or a smoker. I believe we have an older dehydrator and it is a plastic round one. I am a little leary of how well it will workbecause i am pretty sure it is a cheapie from years ago.I have heard that you have to be careful with these because they do not get hot enough to kill bacteria. I am unsure of the oven as i plan to do quite a bit and it takes a while to do jerky correct? Im not so sure mom would be happy with me using her new oven all day long so that is why i am thinking of not using it. A smoker is the way i have been thinking of doing it. It seems like a good deal. I am not sure of how you use one to make jerky but there is a luhr jehnen big chief front load electric smokerthat can hold 50lbs at a time it says for 89. I think this is a good deal plus it would be mine and i could do many other things with it like smoking turkey and many other wild game. I am so tempted to buy it what do you guys think? All input is appreciated!!

I do all my own processing. this year i built a smoker out of a 55 gallon drum, with the fire box mounted on the end. it's made on it's side, on a frame, with 1/3 of it cut down it's side for the lid. made 2 racks out of expanded metal. have less than $50 in it. Used it for the first time last week. worked great, smoked about 50 lbs of meat, 30lbs of sausage, 1 chicken and a pork roast. I defenately think smoking is the best flavor out of your game. However we also like ground venison(hamburger) and canned venison. It's done in a pressure cooker. the dehydrator you described sounds identical as the one we have, and it works great for jerkey, freeze what is not currently being used. Your seasonings and cure will take care of any bacteria.

I have done lots of jerky in all the methods you described. For whole muscle meat jerky the dehydrator works great and you can stick in the garage or basement when cooking. Mine are the american harvester available from wally world, they are anything but expensive but very effective for this purpose. For ground jerky I prefer the smoker, reason being is extra flavour really. Never did like oven done jerky, tried several adaptations never achieved great results.

I have 2 propane smokers one a large stand up/home builtfor doing large quantites of sausage. The second is a small unit that is similar 50 lbs of meat(mine is a smokey mountain model), I have found it will do about 10lbs of jerky as I like to make sure their is space around the meat on the racks. I have done game roasts, ribs, steaks, fish, whole chickens/turkeys/geese/ducks, smoked eggs, jerky and sausage in the smaller unit with awesome results. Mine will cook approx 24 on a 20lb tank of propane. IMHO a smoker is a must for anybody who likes to cook and mix things up a little. Truthfully I have yet to have a complaint from anything I have smoked, in fact I get asked to bring something smoked the potluck dinners or parties we attend.

One caution though when doing jerky keep your eye on the meat and you may have to pull some out in stages. A thin line between under and overcooked when it comes to jerky. You want it to be cooked, but not brittle or hard.

I have one of the wally world plastic dehydrator that works just fine. When you use any of them you must do this to the meat. Remove ALL fat! What does this mean? All means All and thats All that All means. Any meat with even the smallest amount of fat on it will go bad, no matter what.
I like mine cooked. Dont want it soft like some you get.
Good luck
Rick