Smoked Beef Jerky Made at Home

12 Comments

  1. you should give the amounts of the major ingredients especially the honey in grams so one doesn’t have to try and empty a half cup measure

    1. KD,

      Thank you for your question! Pork can indeed be made into jerky safely. Just be sure to heat it to a safe temperature, and choose cuts that are lean and free from connective tissue. Pork loin will work well.

      Thanks!
      -Kim

    1. Mary,

      The process will be nearly identical. Set your oven’s temperature as low as it will go—if you can set it to 180°F that will be perfect. The lowest temperature of many ovens is 200°F. Crack the oven door open for the duration of the drying time to help keep the temperature lower and to allow humidity to escape. The drying time will be within the same window of time as the smoked beef jerky (3-6 hours), and how long yours takes will depend on the size of the size of the slices and how well your oven’s temperature is maintained.

      You can add 2 teaspoons of liquid smoke to the marinade so your oven jerky has a delicious smoky flavor. Thanks for your question, and have f un!

      -Kim

    2. Should I flip my Jerky on grated oven pans half way through? And should I do the same in my dehydrator? My dad used to hang Jerky from the oven racks on toothpicks. I still haven’t tries this method out. Any advice about these 3 methods would be greatly appreciated!

  2. I think the author of this:
    “The [process] of turning meat into jerky takes time but it’s not a difficult process. That’s a big part of why it costs so much in stores. Pound for pound it’s some of the most expensive meat you can buy, but if you don’t mind putting in a little work you can make your own jerky for a fraction of the cost. —Smoked Beef Jerky & Smoked Deer Jerky, HowToBBQRight.com”

    may have overlooked the cost of store jerky is because of this:➤ Fun Fact: Meat is 70-75% water. Sixteen ounces of fresh meat will make about 4 ounces of finished jerky.

    So,if the fresh meat is $6.00 a pound.,a pound of homemade jerky will cost $24.00. (plus the cost of other ingredients,and the smoker or dehydrator) Of course,the quality will probably be way better than the average store bought jerky.

    1. Debbie,

      You ask an interesting question! We offer a high quality moisture meter, but it is meant, primarily, for checking the moisture of wood. I talked with our head of product design and he is unsure how it would behave in jerky. But we do think this: It ought to give a precise reading, even if it isn’t accurate in meat. That is to say that whatever kind of reading it gives, it ought to be off by the same amount across the range of water content.
      Confusing? Probably!
      Here’s a purely hypothetical explanation. Let us say you have some jerky with a known water percentage, let’s say 12%, just for fun. You stick it with the wood meter and it says 25%. Great, you know that how the wood meter reads meat is off by 13%. We are pretty sure that the error introduced by using it on a non-wood substance should be pretty constant.
      Now, those numbers are completely made up, but if you found a jerky “doneness” that you like and stuck it with the meter, you’d know what percentage moisture to shoot for next time. Of course, it is possible that it is very accurate in meat, we just haven’t tried it!
      So, I guess to answer your question, yes, I maybe can recommend a good one? But I’m not 100% sure that it’s the best one for you and what you’re doing.

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