burger jerky
 

i tried this and i think its faster than a jerky gun.

I didn't watch the video, but when I do burger jerky I lay out two sheets of wax paper and use a roller with the meat between the two sheets.

I roll out to the approximate size of my dehydrator trays, I get it as thin as I can, try for around a quarter inch. Then dehydrate.

About half way through i take scissors and cut my strips then let it finish drying.

-Jake

The video is brutally slow. Fire alarm battery beeping in the background?

I use a caulk gun, but will consider using each of the ideas above for ease of cleaning.

This got me watching some other YouTube videos about burger jerky. Now I can't wait to make some ground venison jerky. :D

I really like my jerky shooter. Can you sum this up? I don't want to spend 17 minutes of data.

I didn't watch the video either but I'll sum up my method. I used a jerky shooter for a long time. Ultimately it's slow to load, and a pain to clean. I can roll out my ground jerky in less than five minutes now to fill the four trays on my dehydrator.

Very simple. Lay a sheet of wax paper down, larger than what your tray is. Put a pile of meat on it and then lay another sheet on top of the pile. I use my hand first to flatten out the pile of meat. Then use a large rolling pin to roll it out flat.

I try to get it down to a 1/4 inch thickness. At this point you can take a butter knife and cut slices, or do what I do. I take off the top sheet of wax paper and lay my tray down on top of the meat upside down. Grab the bottom sheet of wax paper and flip my tray over right side up. Then peel off the bottom sheet of wax paper. Now the entire flattened piece of meat is on your tray.

Put it into the dehydrator and dehydrate it until it's able to be cut with scissors. Then cut your slices and finish dehydrating it the rest of the way.

Doing it this way is much quicker for me than packing a jerky gun and shooting it out. Also, there's really nothing to clean after. Just throw the wax paper away when you're done with it, or when it starts to tear.

-Jake

I don't own a rolling pin. I have tried smooshing it, and haven't gotten it thin enough. Though i am sure I could push harder. I just fill a sink with hot water when I do this. I don't find it that bad to wash. Though this does sound good.

Also what I do, is just run the dehydrator for days. Venison doesn't drip fat. So I do one batch after another, Washing the dehydrator trays is the biggest PIA.

I used to do big batches and run the dehydrator all week.

Now I just do 5lbs at a time. Until it's gone then do the next batch.

-Jake

I think mine only fits about 3lbs. I freeze it. PIA cleaning trays so I do a bunch. Venison without the fat does clean better.

To get nice consistent jerky thickness I lay a pair of 1/4" dowels along side the meat between the sheets of waxed paper. Roll the meat out until the rolling pin runs atop of the dowels and you'll have nice, jerky thickness slabs to cut or trim as you wish. The jerky guns are less than friendly and doing it with the dowels allows me to whip right thru a 25 pound batch. I make as many1/4" slabs as the batch makes and stack them on cookie sheets leaving the film on them and set them in the fridge, covered with a damp towel so I only have to mess with rolling once and I can work at drying over a couple days.

I oven dry my jerky done with burger and leave it just a hair soft, then set the racks in the garage covered with a towel so air can help dry the meat the rest of the way.

I make more cut muscle jerky than the burger but will make the burger variety is pressed for time. My cut jerky is cured with seasonings then lightly smoked and finished in the oven where I can closely watch the temp. At 155 degrees I shut the heat off and let the oven come to room temp naturally. If the meat is still fairly moist it gets the garage trick like the other.

I live in Minnesota and the only time I work with venison is right after the season and as a rule we're fairly cool by then so drying meat in the garage doesn't result in spoilage as long as the product has cure in it and the initial drying temp has hit no less than 152 degrees for the cure to fully do its work. As long as daytime highs are 40 degrees or less in the garage its good to go.