ground jerky newbie needs advice
 

right now I have at least 18lbs of semi trimmed hams, cut up and in the freezer. I have ordered the three drying rack system from cabelas as well as a jerky shooter and spices. main question I have is... how clean do I trim the meat before grinding and shootin jerky
As always...thank you in advance....
Ron

if yer doin deer, cut all the fat off...as much membrane as possible...add spices while grinding. noone wants to eat a piece of cartilage when they bite into their jerky.

Always give the meat time to cure with the spices and cure. At least 6 hours but I usually advise over night. Work meat very vigoursly to heat up and build the protiens to become sticky, this will give you a more tough chewing jerky. Remove from dehydrator just before you think the strips are dry enough. they tend to dry some after they come out of the dehydrator. Let sit at room temp for a couple hours they will get some more color as time passes. If you feel they need to be dryer just place in refrigerator uncovered. If they are too dry run them under water, shake them off and place in a plastic bag for a couple hours and they will rehydrate. Alway store jerky in a paper bag in the frig. When you take it ut use a paper bag as well. Only time you store in plastic is in the freezer, when you take it out of the freezer remove from plastice and place frozen strips on a paper towel uncovered in the refrigerator, then into a paper bag. We also sell a product now for smoking dehydrated jerky it is a powdered smoke, it does not have the bitter flavor you get from liquid smoke.

if you want something really easy just try this stuff called Spice n Slice they have a easy mix . which is simple with instructions on how to dehydrate using you oven .
Their western hickory smoked jerky is great stuff.