made beef jerky 1st time ever

[onethatcares]

without a dehydrator or any heat source. It's good.

soy sauce/onion salt/worsteshire sauce/and white pepper.

I used a 4 thin sliced cheap steaks (total cost 2.63) out of which I got 20 pc jerky, 3/4 inch x 6 inch .

and I had to have the fan on it for a while.

Only problem, it's too good.

[Ohiogal]

1. How'd you make it? What do you mean by have the fan on it?

[onethatcares]

2. after marinating the meat for 4 hours

you place it on drying racks over a cookie sheet or whatever and aim a fan at it, turning it occassionally, Or, you can use wood skewers to pierce the meet, and stick the skewers into the side of a plastic bottle while directing the fan breeze through the strips of meat. takes about 30 minutes to begin drying, for 1/2 lb it took 4 hours to get the texture.

It's easy as anything.

Or you can google "beef jerky without a dehydrator".

[padah513]

4. Thanks for this

Last time I tried making jerky I did it in an oven at 200 and it came out so cruddy I never tried again, but this sounds like a winner.

[Lucca2]

3. Sounds delicious!

Thanks for sharing with us.

[sl8]

5. Be aware of potential temperature/safety issues.

From https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/meat-preparation/jerky-and-food-safety/CT_Index

...
Why is temperature important when making jerky? Illnesses due to Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 from homemade jerky raise questions about the safety of traditional drying methods for making beef and venison jerky. The USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline's current recommendation for making jerky safely is to heat meat to 160 °F and poultry to 165 °F before the dehydrating process. This step assures that any bacteria present will be destroyed by wet heat. But most dehydrator instructions do not include this step, and a dehydrator may not reach temperatures high enough to heat meat to 160 °F or 165 °F.

After heating to 160 °F or 165 °F, maintaining a constant dehydrator temperature of 130 to 140 °F during the drying process is important because:

the process must be fast enough to dry food before it spoils; and
it must remove enough water that microorganisms are unable to grow.
Why is it a food safety concern to dry meat without first heating it to 160 °F?
The danger in dehydrating meat and poultry without cooking it to a safe temperature first is that the appliance will not heat the meat to 160 °F and poultry to 165 °F — temperatures at which bacteria are destroyed — before the dehydrating process. After drying, bacteria become much more heat resistant.

Within a dehydrator or low-temperature oven, evaporating moisture absorbs most of the heat. Thus, the meat itself does not begin to rise in temperature until most of the moisture has evaporated. Therefore, when the dried meat temperature finally begins to rise, the bacteria have become more heat resistant and are more likely to survive. If these surviving bacteria are pathogenic, they can cause foodborne illness to those consuming the jerky.
...

More at link.

Also, similar, but different recommendations (pdf):
https://foodsafety.wisc.edu/assets/pdf_Files/Making_Safe%2520Jerky_in_a%2520Home_Dehydrator3.pdf

[onethatcares]

6. I was hesitant about using this recipe

for that reason. I'll let everyone know if I get E. coli, or any of the other foodborne illnesses,

The recipe caught my eye due to some poking around the internet looking for low cost camping meals and I got sidetracked into
how meats were cured prior to refrigeration. This is a method of salt curing.

[Kali]

7. plain salt and lots of pepper on the clothesline

[onethatcares]

8. uh huh

working for me. I gotta get a london broil to really give this a shot..

[jrandom421]

9. The first time I made jerky

I never got any. My cats raided the jar I put it in over night and in the morning, there was no jerky and a lot of pleasure victims scattered all over the floor.