Hey, just got a excaliber dehydrator. Hopefully ask a few questions.



1. Should I rinse the meat off with water before dehydrating or wipe down with paper towels to get the marinade off?

2. Whats a real good recipie for jerky? Right now, I am marinating the following.

3. Should I wait and see how it tastes before putting crushed peppers on. I am not a huge fan of flaming hot things. But like a nice kick.

4. Also, I do not understand the cure stuff? Do I put this on before hydrating? Is it nessessary or just dry it the way it is?

5. Is the cure just to preserve it longer, or flavor or is my marinade the cure?

6. Lastly, anybody else have this excaliber 9 rack model? It says just takes 4-6 hours. But everything i have seen takes like 15 hours. What do you think of it? Not sure if i need that much room for dehydrating. Maybe the 4 rack would be better. Will it dry just as quick as the 9 rack?

7. A friend recommends not doing the strips of meat cause too time consuming, but only using deer burger and the jerky shooter. What do you guys think? Would it be chewy?





1/4cup soy

1/4 cup worchester

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon course pepper

1/2 cup ketchup .

A good friend gave this to me some years ago ... really works well:

Mike Alexander's Recipe for Venison Jerky

3 lbs. Meat cut very lean. Slices should be 1/8 to 3/16" thick.
1/2 C. Worchestershire Sauce (Kroger brand is better for this than more expensive stuff like Lee and Parrin's)
1/2 C. Soy Sauce
2 Tsp. Msg
1 Tsp. Garlic Powder
1 Tsp. Onion Powder
1 Tsp. Black Pepper
1 Heaping Tsp. of Red Pepper (to taste ... can use Habanero paste as well)
2 Tsp. Liquid Smoke

Place the sauce in a bowl. Individually dip the pieces in the sauce to be sure that complete coverage is achieved. In the end, the meat in a bowl should be just covered. Let meat soak in frig. 12 to 24 hours. (more doesn't hurt.) Dry till there isn't a soft center to be felt.

No need to dry the meat before going into the drier.

Have thought about trying the ground meat thing. Cutting meat for jerky is a pain ... but worth the trouble if I get to eat any of it (we have lots of takers for finished jerky!) Haven't done it yet. Will do that in January when I do the grind meat.

Hope this helps.

BigCountry,

I hope you got the deluxe model with the mechanical timer?

Go to pg 22 of the dehydration guide under AUGUST. I use the smokey beef jerky recipe but with a twist of my own. I also add 1\4cup lime juice, 1\2cup teryaki sauce, 1tsp accent and 1 tsp ground hot peppers. This makes enough marinade for about 5 pounds sliced 3\16" thick. I then vacuum pack it in a foodsaver canister for 1\2 hour to get the marinade into the tissue. I lay the slices on the racks just as they come from the marinade canister, that is I do not wipe off any excess. Set the temp to 145 degrees and timer for 5 hours. If you leave it in longer it will get hard as shoe leather and will not last any longer.

I like the results of this recipe so never tried the brine or dry cure method.

You don't need to have all nine racks installed if you only have half a batch. So just put in as many as you need and leave empty spaces between them. Experiment a little. You'll find that the company hype is indeed gospel. The excalibur is the cadilac of food dehydrators.

Thanks for the recipies. I was wondering why the directions that came with it call for you rinse off the marinade. I figured you wanted to keep it on.

Nope, this isn't the deluxe. Have to do it the hard way.

Thanks again.

Slice the meat about 1/8" thick. Marinate in red wine, salt, black pepper and fresh garlic two days. Something like a bottle of 2-buck chuck merlot, a couple of heaping spoons of minced garlic, couple of tablespoons pepper, couple of tablespoons salt. Put in the blender and mix well. Layer the meat in a non metallic container, pouring in the marinade between layers. Refegerate. Take out of the marinade and spice again same stuff (except use garlic powder), on a cookie sheet. Be sure there is pleanty of spice, you should be able to see lots of it on the meat. Don't put so much salt that you get visible salt crystals on the dried meat. Can't get enough garlic. Pepper to taste. You could try it without the second spicing if you want it less intense. This is by far the best jerky ever, really. Made hundreds of pounds of it over the years, and every one loves it. If you seal it in a plastic bag for a couple of days after it is dry the moisture will equalize a bit and make it less tough. That is if it lasts long enough. I dry in in the sun in a screen box, hung on hay wire, during warm dry weather. We hunt in August and September. The Vaqueros used to hang it on barbed wire fences. The spices keep the bugs and magpies away.

Having the timer lets me start a batch before going to bed or off to work and knowing it will stop at the correct time. Not required, just a convenience.



Perhaps the instructions say to wipe off excess marinade is for easier cleaning of the trays and their inserts?? I soak in soapy water and then scrub with a brush. Pretty easy to get clean. But getting dirty will happen with fruit, vegetables as well as meat coated with syrupy marinade.



As for using the jerky shooter, I think it will work as long as the tube is of a small enough diameter. But it might turn out crumbly because of not being in a casing. That's the way mine turned out when dried in the oven. But I usually eat and drink (wine) my mistakes regardless.

Salt, pepper, garlic powder, dry rub, enjoy the taste of your venison.

Ok, I have tryed the wet marinade and wasn't bad at all. I bought some of the dry rub from Himountain. Doesn't seem to marinade at all. Kinda surprised. Anybody use the Hi Mountain stuff?

I prefer the jerky made from real meat strips. Soak the meat in salt water overnight and then keep rinsing it till the water gets almost clear. Then dry it on paper towels. The less bloody or wet the better it soaks up the flavorings. Then put it in the marinade for 24 hours before dehydrating.

Plinker

I use Hi-Mountain all the time and love it. Let it set double the time or more, 48 hours plus.

I have an excalibur dehydrator, and here's how I do it,

I use a dehydrator. I don't make it in an oven. When using a dehydrator, you are drying meat between 145 and 175 degrees Farenheit. Consequently you are setting up the perfect medium for botulism poisioning. My understanding is that if you have not held the temperature of your meat at 0 degrees for at least 60 days, you need to use a chemical cure to make sure that you do not grow the organism that results in botulism poisoining.
I use the "High Mountain" brand of cure and seasoning.Their website is www.himtnjerky.com. I live near Houston Texas where there are numerous businesses that cater to the commercial food industry. High Mountain products can also be ordered from Cabelas.
I find it easiest when making venison or turkey jerky to use meat that is semi-frozen. I only use whole muscle meat. I do not use ground meat. I've been making jerky for six years so I've refined my process. You can purchase a jerky board and knife or you can cut the meat free-hand. You want slices 1/4 to 3/8" thick. The cure is sodium nitrite. It penetrates the meat at a rate of 1/4 inch per 24 hour period.
I cut the meat into 1/4 inch slabs first. Then I cut it into strips. I typically make it in 4 lb batches. Four lbs.of raw meat will make one pound of jerky when dry. Lately I place 4 lbs of prepared venison or turkey in a 1 gallon zip lock bag with at least 4 ounces of teriyaki sauce for at least an hour. After the meat has soaked I lay it out on freezer paper and add the cure and seasoning. High mountain has a number of seasonings. I like the pepper blend the best. I add the cure and seasoning by weight on the meat that is laid out on the freezer paper. After coating the meat with the cure and seasoning I place the meat back in the gallon zip lock bag and put it in the refirgerator for 48 hours. After approx 48 hours I put it in the dehydrator at 175 degrees for approx. 5 to 6 hours depending on the thickness of the jerky strips. I make the venison jerky out of venison hind quarters and backstraps. My kids and friends go nuts over it.
Good luck
GWB

Ktrout, I thought the high mountain had a sugar cure that came with it. Does it have a sweet taste after you dehydrate it?

Big-un

We use marinade and then sprinkle on the onion, garlic, coarse ground pepper, and crushed red pepper. We use the oven. Hang it by the ends with tooth picks. drop it down between the rails of the grills. you can do lots this way . line the bottom with foil . when we make it we make several batches then its worth cleaning the oven for.

Ktrout is right...gotta use a cure or you can breed botulism during low temp drying!! He's wrong about using backstrap for jerky...that belongs on the grill...IMHO!!

Freezing the meat will kill parasites, I don't think it kills the botulism spores. Botulism is associalted with dirt ie: root vegetables etc. and it propatates under anerobic conditions ie: no oxygen. Botulism is a concern with canned items but not really in jerky. I would still use curing salt to kill any other "stuff." Nortons is a good/ easy to find curing salt and if I remember right it has the directions for jerky on it.

Having said that I really like the native way of making "dry meat" sprinkle a little salt on the strips and hang them on a wooden frame with a smoky fire under it to keep the flies off. Yum....traditionally no salt was used just the salty taste of the dried blood.

the chef