Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I need help - what is the best dehydrator you can buy for the money out there - Consider reliability and cost with price - for deer jerky?

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I have a Mr Coffee dehydrator. It works very well. I only dry deer and beef jerky in it. Works great in my book. It takes between 4 to 7 hrs to dry it to my taste.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I need to dry about 40-50 pounds - probably a commercial grade?

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I have four American Harvesters from Wal Mart and make a ton of jerky
every year,they work fast easy to clean,you can buy extra trays for
the dehaydrator,pardon the spelling,intend to buya couple more as
am makeing buffalo jerky along with the beef and deer and have one side
of my shop set up for makeing jerky!:)

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I'll second the Walmart dehydrater. I made my whole deer into jerky.

Lately, I've done a 2 stage jerky drying,... I put it in the oven for a couple hours at 200 degrees, until it is dried enough that the jerky will stay together when I pick it up. Then I put it in the dehydrater trayssetting the jerky strips on it's side.

Doing it this was, I can put 5 pounds of jerky on 2 trays in the dehydrater, which will help speed the process.... since using alot of dehyrator trays slows it down.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

Here is a new idea for you. Flipping through the channels I saw on food network where a guy was making beef jerkey. He said that the heat that is created by dehydrators is not so good for the jerkey (I forgot the logic he used) so he uses a "cold drying" method which is pretty simple.
He had a good ole standard window box fan like this. We probably all have them laying around.



Then he got some pleated furnace/air conditioner air filters like you use in your house, about a buck each at Wal-mart.

Put the jerkey in the pleates, stack as many filters as you need, bungie them to the fan and plug it in for 6 to 8 hours with the air blowing through the filters/over the jerkey.

I'm going to try it this year just for fun.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I have a Jenn-Aire oven and cook top with a grill. The oven has a built in dryer. It works great. I wouldn't have it if it didn't come with the house. Those things are pretty spendy.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

navy, sounds ok for drying byt it dosen't do any thing to kill the bactiria that causes spoilage. After cold drying, it will have to be pasturized. Put it on racks in the oven at 165 or more for an hour. Mightalso prevent the trots.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

The wal-mart dehydrator works great. I used it yesterday to make about 5lbs of deer jerky and it turned out great. About 3hrs per batch and it took three batches with the number of trays provided. Using grounddeer in the jerky gun worked the best for me. I talked to a guy yesterday that saw the show about using the air filters and fan, sounds interesting but i'm curious about the bacteria, doesn't sound real sanitary.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I have a table top dehydrator that works OK. Last year I bought some racks from Cabelas that allows me to make bigger batches. The racks worked very well and took less time. It's all good!

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I second trying the cold drying method, if you have the space.

Dehydrating meat is completely different from air-drying meat.

I have also read that food dehydrators can be unsafe.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

Whatever you do dont buy one the rotates or spins. I have had 2 and both broke down within 3 or 4 uses.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

this wa son the foodnetwork so good eat will elton brown great show and he knows his stuff

i was going to try the method but just got a 30 dollar bass pro model dhyrater
i have talked to a few people that have done the fax method but what worryed me was with out heat there is nothing to kill the bad stuff

but he said by doing it cold method it drys it and does not cook it like reguler models which heat the meat to 170 degrees

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

The food Network will air the fan drying episode Sept 14 at 11pm and Sept 15th at 2am Eastern

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

Up until the days of refrigeration, salt was used for keeping meats from spoilage. In this day and time we use the term "cure" for the word of preserving meat. Modern cures are either sodium nitrite/nitrate or potasium nitrate added along with salt to the meat to prevent bacteria/spoilage. These are actually a type oftoxin and can be harmful if not used properly. The amount of nitrites are so small, that in orderto cure 100lbs of meat they are added to salt as a carrying agent. The most common cure is availible on most meat markets and is pink in color. Most comercial jerky mixes have this included. I always use a cure for making jerky and dry sausages that are not cooked.

I prefer to cold smoke the meats and then if further drying is required it will be hung in an air conditioned room with a small fan to circulate the air.


Here's a pic of some venison being smoked/cured..........

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

Thats where the cures/ nitrates come in. Once soaked/mixed in it prevents botulism.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I have the Gardenmaster and it works great. It is expandable up to 16 trays.

http://cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0013250510825a&navCount=0&podI d=0013250510825&parentId=cat570005&masterp athid=&navAction=jump&cmCat=search_redir&a mp;catalogCode=IH&rid=&parentType=index&am p;indexId=cat570005&hasJS=true

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I have a dehydrator but prefer to use my "smokey Mountain" Smoker. I just put a fine screen on the grills, fill her up with jerky strips set it on low . It holds 130-150 f for about 4-5 hrs and the jerky is done. You can even apply smoke to it which really boosts the flavour.
Right now I have a batch (50 lbs) of tomatoes in my smoker. I'll end up with smoked sun dried tomatoes:D

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I also saw the episode of good eats where he makes jerky and personally cant wait til i have time to try it, He is a real pro when it comes to food, i bet the jerky made that way turns out great

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I got the 80 liter one from Cabelas commerical grade. It it nice. Have had it for 2 years. WHen I got it the front door was broke. All glass. I could tell without even opening the box. I called Cabelas the lady had the UPS guy there the next day to pick it up and I had my new one overnighted on them. Good company.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

look at www.sausagemaker.com. They have all kinds and very good quality. A friend of mine has their 25 pounds electricsausage stuffer which is awesome.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

i bought this one from cabelas. i have the one from wal-mart and it does work good but i make every deer i shoot into jerky....all of it. and i had to fill the one from wal-mart night and day for a week to do one deer. this dehydrator does about 15lbs of meat in 5 hrs. much more efficient for the amount of jerky i make. definitly worth the money


http://cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/horizontal-pod.jsp?id=0019202&navCount=1&parentId=cat 602147&masterpathid=&navAction=push&cm Cat=search_redir-cat602147_TGP&parentType=index&indexId=cat 602147&rid=

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

LEM Excalibur dehydrators work great! very high quality for your $$

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

I bought a NescoAmerican Harvest Snackmaster at the farm store for $39.
It is the 425 watt version with the motor on the top. It works great! Don't even have to rotate like on alot of the other brands. I can do about 5lbs (raw weight) at a time. And you can add 2 more trays if you want. $15


chris

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

Use your oven. Its free (besides for the electricty or gas). Set it at 145 deg. and bake jerky for 8-10 hours or until jerky has reached desired dryness. No need to go out and buy a dehydrator, which will sit in a closet for most of the year. Also your oven can hold a lot more jerky than most dehydrators.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

The Jerky Machine
Try this one.

L.E.M. Products 10-Tray Stainless Steel Dehydrator
$299. and worth every penny!

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

Ovens work real well in making jerky,get you some of that metal screen type material that comes in a roll thats used to cover rain gutters, lay it across your center oven rack and make sure you have one of those handy oven thermometers set inside your oven ,set your oven so it reads no higher than 145-150 degrees, thenput themeat on the screen.

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

The dehydrator I bought was only 39 bucks. And now that I have it I'm making all kinds of stuff. Dried apples, bananna chips, some dried fish, etc. Plus the jerky. Now I have lots of good, healthy, high energy snacks to take out hunting!
I do know what you mean about sitting in the closet most of the year though. That's why I decided to make lots of other stuff with mine (and it was a cheap one). So I get plenty of use out of it. There's no way I'd go out and spend $300 for one...JMO.

chris

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

He did say 40-50 #s of Jerky. Can't do it in personal oven. Still go with the
Jerky Machine Bass Pro item. You still have other cheaper units at Bass Pro.
But this is the Personal/Commercial quality for the price.
And you can get seasonings too.
Eric

RE: Deer Jerky Dehydrator
 

Nesco American Harvester with the tempature control, just picked one up last week, made a batch of jerly it was great!!!

If you don't use a smoker to make jerky you're a fool! I have tried dehydrating before and it's nothing like jerky made in either a charcoal or gas smoker. Charcoal is more time intensive and harder to keep the jerky consistent. I have a smoke vault I use every year and make anywhere from 12 to 25 lbs of jerky. I use either hickory or fruit wood for flavor enhancement. Give it a shot and you won't be disappointed.

I use this one too. It works great, but BE VERY CAREFUL I had one that overheated, caught fire and burned. Luckily, I was working in my garage when it happened. I do have a couple of these and this was the only time I had a problem. I vacuum seal the jerky and send it to my son who is stationed on an aircraft carrier in the gulf. Haven't heard of anyone getting sick...yet.