Homemade Jerky



My Knight running the meat strips onto the dehydrator tray.
See the Meat & Sauce mixture on the left.

 If you like store bought Jerky or Slim Jims then you need to try you hand at making your own Jerky. We make jerky from venison, but you could also use beef. It is really not a hard process at all.

We first ground up the venison to the texture of hamburger meat. This makes the jerky more tender. Then we mixed brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper together until we had a Teriyaki kinda of flavor. Please, don't ask me how much....it was all a guess. But there are lots of recipes on the Internet or recipe books, if you are looking for a specific flavor or guide.


Meat in the dehydrator ready for drying.
No to appetizing yet ~ But will soon be.

We then mixed the meat with the sauce and let it marinate covered overnight in the refrigerator. Then this evening we took this Caulk Gun type contraption that is made for jerky and filled it with the meat mixture. We then squeezed out long strips of meat onto the dehydrator trays.

We placed in the dehydrator at 145 degrees for 4 hours. This will protect it from spoiling. After drying for 4 hours the temperature is lowered to 130 degrees for slower drying and a higher quality of jerky. Which will take another 4 to 6 hours, depending on the thickness of your strips.

End result, delicious ~ NO Preservatives ~ Venison Jerky.  Which will not last very long in this house.

Happy Dehydrating!

Dried Cilantro and Jalapeno Peppers

My friend, Becky, gave me a bag of Jalapeno Peppers that she and her family grew in their lovely garden. (Someday, I might be able to have an awesome garden like they have.) I was grateful to receive such a gift. I could not use all those peppers up before they would go bad, so to preserve them I either had to can (jar), freeze or dehydrate. To can them would mean more time than I had. My freezer is full at this time, thus the best option for me was to dehydrate.

I also received a large bunch of Cilantro from another person. The Cilantro is an herb that is used in a lot of Mexican dishes. I enjoy this aromatic herb in mostly Salsa. I generally make and home can all of the Salsa that we consume during the summer months when tomatoes are plentiful. So, by drying this herb I will be able to use it next summer, along with the Jalapenos to make fresh homemade Canned Salsa. Just by re-hydrating with all the other ingredients for Salsa.

How does one go about dehydrating these two items? It is really an easy process. Here goes:

 1. Wash peppers and remove stems.

 2. Cut in half and remove pith and seeds (most of them anyway).

 3. I slice mine into strips. They dry faster this way. Then place on drying rack.

 4. Wash Cilantro  and spread out onto the drying rack.

 5. Place racks into dehydrator. I turn my dehydrator on to 125 degrees for about 12 hours.

 6. After they peppers have completely dried they will shrivel up to less than 1/2 their size and be leathery.

 7. The Cilantro will be very brittle and break easily. Place rack over a towel or you will loose a lot of the herb on your counter or floor when placing in you container.

I place by dried items in extra glass jars, this way they stay moist free and last longer.

Some may wonder about the background. That is my Canning Wall where I store a lot of my Dried and Canned goods. This wall is 8 ft x 8ft x 6 in. It is on a wall in my Breakfast Room. I made it myself a little over a year ago. It really looks like an Old Country Store with all the jars and their displays of color, due to the varieties of food in them. May be some day I will post about it.

 Have you ever dehydrated anything? I would love to hear about it.  Did you know that you could dehydrate items even if you do not have a dehydrator?