I've found Trader Joes jerky to be very tasty and not loaded with sodium like most other jerky tends to be. And Trader Joe's, unlike "Whole Paycheck", has reasonable prices.

And then sometimes I make my own as well, with the oven set on 250 F. and the door propped open with a wooden spoon while the aroma wafts through the house. Venison jerkey is my best product.

Good advice! Jerky is one of those trail foods that doesn't require a fancy-schansky dehydrator to make -- although it's not very energy efficient to do so. Marinate in your favorite flavors for a full day in the fridge. I like soy sauce with a bit of powdered ginger. Also, try Franks Extra Hot hot sauce.

Another advantage of making your own: Cut the meat against the grain, and take it out while it's still a bit soft. Delicious! It will still keep in the fridge for weeks, and it even freezes well.

Stargazer

We use to just tie up string between the garage door guides and hang our jerky to dry there. No problem with flies in the fall and winter in this part of CO. The most energy efficient way to do it is get your meat off the roadside(much more efficient then hunting) and air dry your jerky after marinating. The best thing about it is you can reduce the sodium content by adjusting your marinade. The dogs will also clean up the garage floor.

Trader Joe's Buffalo jerky FTW.

Picked some of these up at Grand Canyon last year and really enjoyed them

http://www.tankabar.com/cgi-bin/nanf/public/product-tankabite-intro.cvw?sessionid=11c8dd67e0649c457ec5f06f9110a1ec47999bfb2

We generally go mostly veggie in the backcountry for convenience and food safety but it is nice to have a bit of meat now and then.

I started doing this with carcass scraps after I filleted fish. I just did a half of a fish in the dehydrator. It's very good and I like to think a lot more healthy than the beef. Light sea salt is all I do to the strips.

Eric, I used to do venison jerky back in the day in Montana but haven't gone hunting now that I'm in Washington. Instead, I buy some lamb, trim it, marinate it in some mild, low sodium teriyaki sauce and put it in the dehydrator over night. It has that gamey, wild flavor reminescent of venison. Umm Umm good!

Lamb Jerky! What a great idea! Thank you.

I was at my sushi takeout store and sprang for tuna jerky (medium hot) $5 / 2 oz.
(32 grams of protein)

I am saving it for an upcoming trip.

Monty - Being in WA, are you close to a PCC Market? I've seen venison (in addition to rabbit and pheasant) for sale there.

You guys are making me hungry.

--B.G.--

one word...botulism.

If you arent familiar with botulism, and sodium sulfite, you have no business making any meat product that is not cooked at > 180 F

jerky isnt as risky as sausage because you dont generate the tremendous amount of exposed surface area for bacterial growth that occurs in grinding meat, but still have to be careful. there is a reason you find sodium sulfite on the ingredient list of all jerky and sausage products.

Martin... your numbers aren't quite accurate. The temperatures are 160°F for meats and 165°F for poultry. Poultry should be cooked first before dehydration. This is according to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. Most good quality food dehydrators will go high enough. The Nesco FD 75PR is good to 160°F (which is why I don't make poultry jerky). Basically you need to heat the meat to that internal temperature and then you can turn it down to 140°F as long as the temperature stays constant. Its also better to use slices of meat rather than ground for jerky unless you are lacing it with high amounts of sodium nitrite as a cure (that's what's basically in those Nesco cure packs).

Edited by Laurie_Ann on 08/27/2011 08:30:37 MDT.

yeah, going off memory. I also mistakenly said sulfite instead of nitrite.

But the point is, be careful making meat products that arent cooked at high temperature. And talk of hanging jerky outside to dry...is scary. Most commercial product have nitrite in them as a safegard, even thought they do use the right temps, etc. All the local butchera that process deer for people and make deer sausage, add it just to be safe.