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Podcast Episode 7:
Dehydrating Meat and Beef Jerky

Susan Gast, founder of Easy Food Dehydrating

by: Susan Gast / Author, Blogger at Beesville Books, Bored Boomers, and a Food Dehydrating Fanatic!

Ep 6 - Dehydrating Meat + Beef Jerky Recipe

Thanks for checking out this Podcast Dehydrating Meat and Beef Jerky Recipe!

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Head on over to our Podcast Host to see a list of all our Easy Food Dehydrating episodes... or go to our hub page on this site. Please note that for your convenience, the episodes on our site contain the Podcast transcripts, too!


Read the Full Transcript, Below:

00:07
Hello and welcome to Easy Food Dehydrating, the show that teaches you how to safely dehydrate and store fresh (or frozen) fruits and vegetables, along with cooked meats. I’m your host, Susan Gast.

00:24
In today’s episode, I’ll discuss how to dehydrate cooked meats and a special treat: how to make beef jerky!

00:33
Hey there. It's Susan here from Easy Food Dehydrating and today, I’m gonna go over how to dehydrate your leftover meats. Dehydrating meat is a great option if you're looking for a way to preserve meat without canning or freezing. It's easy to do, and you can dehydrate just about any kind of meat. I'll show you how dehydrating meat is done safely, step by step. I'll also share some tips on how to store dried meat and use it in beef stew recipes and things like that. Let's get started. And I'll also share with you a beef jerky recipe. 

01:13

Now then, there are many ways of preserving meat by smoke or freeze-dried or cured by salt, because shelf life is important, right? But we're all about the easy here, as in Easy Food Dehydrating. So, for example, when preparing chicken for the family dinner, put an extra breast in the cooking pot… [ouch - laugh]. And save it to dehydrate it later on. 

01:39

Dehydrators do a fine job of dehydrating meats for backpacking. Let's get some meat dehydrated now before inflation gets any worse and meat prices escalate even more than they already have. 

01:52

The easiest and fastest way to dehydrate meat is to use pre cooked meats. And they're sliced too, right? And they will be evenly sliced. So meat that's already cooked and presliced makes this task easy. We have the perfect way of dehydrating meat safely. 

02:11

And to dehydrate meat, it's just simply a process of removing the water content from it. But dehydration concentrates the flavor of the meat, and it also allows you to store it for a longer time. The dehydration, not the concentrating of the flavor, if you get what I mean. 

02:31
Snacking and backpacking beef makes a beef jerky treat. So are you looking to make beef jerky? Of course you are. I'll provide it later on - the recipe. Don't forget, you can check out the recipe links on my site, Easy Food Dehydrating, and if you make pouches of beef jerky, you'll have backpacking snacks ready to go whenever you're ready to go. 

02:56

It's easy to vacuum seal dried meats by using a food vacuum sealer. We all know meats are the building block of proteins for the body, so it's easy to have your own dehydrated meats on hand, whether you're playing in the yard or hiking up a hill. 


03:11

Shelf life is important when you're backpacking, because we aren't able to tote mini fridges around with us to safely store meat. When you make jerky properly, though, you'll be good to walk for miles and miles without a refrigerator. Dried meat makes great snacks or additions to meals. It's high in protein and low in fat, making it a healthy option. 

03:35

Dehydrated meat can be used in a variety of recipes, as we've said: soup, stews, casseroles, and stroganoff. Now, a note here about rehydrating meat. While vegetables rehydrate very well, I cannot honestly say the same for dried meats. If you overly dehydrate meat, you may experience a more chewy texture than you'd like, but it's better than not having any meat available at all, right? Unless you're a vegetarian, of course. So experiment with longer rehydrating times for less chewy meat. However, we all know dogs like to chew meat, but we're not making this for the dogs, right? [woof, woof, woof, woof] … it’s OK. Down, Fido, down. 

04:20

So, what's the best meat to dry on a dehydrator? While fattier meats tend to dehydrate better than leaner meats, this is because the fat helps keep the meat moist during the dehydration process because some of the best meats to dehydrate are beef, chicken, turkey, salmon, and venison. 

04:40

When dehydrating meat, it's important to slice the meat thinly. This will help the meat to dry evenly and prevent it from drying out too quickly. It's also important to marinate the meat before dehydrating it when making jerky, because the marinating adds flavor and keeps the meat moist. 

05:00

Now, there are a number of different ways to perfect dried meat. The most popular method is to use a dehydrator, but you can also dry meat in the oven or even in the sun. Whichever method you choose, be sure to follow the instructions carefully to ensure that the meat is properly dehydrated. [laughs] I know the sun can't provide directions on dehydrating, but you know what I mean. Now, dehydrated meat can be stored for several months, but be sure to store it in an outright container in a cool, dark place.

05:33

Sponsor Message
You're going to love this. Getting Susan's book, Easy Food Dehydrating is one of the smartest things you can do for your health and your budget. Not only will you save money, but you'll know exactly what goes into your recipes. Susan's book takes you from start to finish with all the recipes on her site, including her best selling “Make Your Own Dog Food” recipes for Chicken Chow and Bow Wow Beefy Chow. Learn how to dehydrate the top 14 fruits and the top 16 vegetables, along with cooked meats such as chicken, beef, and turkey. Visit Easy Food Dehydrating and get started today.

06:19

Let's keep going with preparation for dehydrating meat. Because your meat is already cooked, that is one step saved, so there's no further preparation necessary. But remember, we're not dehydrating raw meat. The best meats to use are choice cuts - the tender cuts - so they won't be chewy or tough. 

06:40

Please trim off visible fat because the less fat on the meat, it's better because it's the fat in the meat that causes the meat to go rancid. So simply place your cooked meats onto dehydrator trays. So for beef, whether you're making jerky or not, make sure to cut your leftover beef into evenly-sized pieces when you put it on the trays. This helps, obviously, the dehydrating process and allows the meat to dry out at the same rate. For Chicken? Ditto beef and turkey and pork. Now, for seafood, please visit Dehydrating Seafood on Easy Food Dehydrating to learn more about dehydrating fish. If you have the patience to catch fish, that is. 

07:24

Are you itching to use fresh ground beef? Yeah, OK, if you wanted to use ground beef, just make sure to cook it first. Make sure you break up the clumps as you go, just as you would when you're making chili. This makes your ground beef much easier to dehydrate and rehydrate more evenly. Ground “briefs” really…  “ground briefs” [laughs] that sounds great! Ground ‘beef’ is really easy because it's already ground into pretty much uniformly sized pieces. I'm using my hands here to show you what pieces, and I know you can't see my hands. I'm sorry. 

08:00

All right, what's the ideal temperature for dehydrating cooked meat? Cooked meats are best dehydrated at 160 degrees Fahrenheit. But please look at your food dehydrator’s owner’s manual, and they'll give you specific instructions because you have to prevent bacteria from growing. 

08:19

Dehydrate the meat until it's dry to the touch and slightly leathery. If meat isn't dehydrated long enough, bacteria can still grow, and the shelf life of meat that has been properly dehydrated will last for several months without refrigeration, although it will begin to lose flavor. And if the meat’s been dehydrated at too high a temperature, it will be dry and tough. If you're storing meat for long-term purposes, please learn how to do it by checking out the website about ‘vacuum sealers.’ 

08:51

Use stock to add flavor. Seeing as we're not making jerky from fresh meat and you want to rehydrate some meat, add stock to it. And I use ‘Better than Bouillon’ by Superior Touch. I use the beef flavor for beef. There's a chicken stock, obviously, [that you can use] for rehydrating chicken. Store in the refrigerator or freezer until you're ready to use and to maintain the quality of dehydrated meats, refrigerate it or store it the freezer. 

09:20

Dehydrated meats will stay fresh for up to six months in the freezer without freezer burn - when you use a food vacuum sealer machine - sounds like I'm telling you off there, right? Go check out these Foodsaver vacuum sealer machines. They are excellent. I've had mine for ten years, and it's still going strong. 

09:42

Is it safe to store at room temperature?  Yes. Vacuum sealed, dried cook meats - they can last up to two to three weeks at room temperature, but make sure you add an oxygen absorber to your dehydrated meat package prior to drawing the air out, and then you're ready to use your food vacuum sealer to draw the air out. Don't forget to tuck in the 100cc oxygen absorber into the vacuum sealer bag before you seal it and draw the air out. 

10:14

This keeps your dried meat safe and inhibits mold growth and bacteria. These oxygen absorbers are not poisonous, which is a good thing because they're in direct contact with our foods. So don't worry about that. They're there for a reason. They save the meat. 


10:31
So as promised: Here is the beef jerky recipe and this is how to make it in a regular everyday oven. But here's the ingredients: 

  • a pound of beef (sirloin, flank, or London broil) 
  • two tablespoons of soy sauce
  • two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce
  • one teaspoon of onion powder
  • one teaspoon of garlic powder
  • half a teaspoon of black pepper
  • a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper (that's optional) 
  • a quarter cup of brown sugar, also optional

11:05

Now then, to make the beef jerky, here's how you do it! Trim the beef of any fat and slice it into thin strips - about a quarter inch thick. If you're using flank or London broil, you may want to cut the meat against the grain. 

11:20

In a large resealable bag, combine the meat with the soy sauce, the Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, the pepper, and the cayenne pepper, if using. Marinate the meat in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight. 

11:34

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place a wire rack on top. Then place the beef on the wire rack, making sure they aren't touching each other, not the racks, the meat [laughs].
NOTE: See our Fahrenheit to Celsius converter HERE.

11:50

Bake in the oven for 4 to 6 hours, or until the beef is dry and slightly chewy. Remove it from the oven and let them cool down. Next, you store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Enjoy! 

12:06

But how to make this same jerky, now, in an electric dehydrator? Use the same ingredients, as I just said. I will have the ingredients list in the show notes.

12:20

Jerky instructions for an electric dehydrator: 

12:24

Number one: trim the beef of any fat and slice it into thin strips - a quarter inch thickness. Again, if you're using the flank or London broil, cut the beef against the grain. It won't fall apart as easily. 

12:35

Number two: in a large resealable bag, combine the beef with the ‘SOY’ sauce, the ‘WORCESTER’ sauce, the onion powder, the garlic powder, the pepper and cayenne pepper - if you did use it. 

12:46

[Number three:] Again, marinate the beef for 4 hours or overnight. 

12:50

[Number four:] Set your electric dehydrator to 165 degrees Fahrenheit - again - 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and dry the beef strips for 6 to 8 hours. You may notice that vegetables are dried on a much cooler setting, between 125 and 135, roughly. We dehydrate meat at a higher temperature because we want to dry it out faster, if you will. We do not want meat hanging around at low temperature for a long time. That's not good. 
NOTE: See our Fahrenheit to Celsius converter HERE.

13:21

Number five: remove the beef from the electric dehydrator and let it cool. Then store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Now, don’t forget, you're going to vacuum seal this and add the oxygen absorber in, and then it will definitely last for even longer than two weeks inside the refrigerator. And don't forget, your food dehydrator manual will highly likely feature their own tasty jerky recipe.

13:51

And don't forget, you need to go check out the Nesco and Excalibur dehydrators so you can dehydrate food properly. And don't forget to use the correct sized oxygen absorber inside the vacuum sealer pouches. Alright? And on the site, you can check out Beef Stew and Soups and Beef Stroganoff from ‘The Salty Marshmallow.’

14:11

Learn which beef cuts are best for dehydrating at ‘The Meat Source.’ That site’s got tons of great info on how to cook meats properly. 

14:21

Alright? So that about wraps it up for today. And if you enjoyed this episode, please feel free to share it with like-minded friends. Also, please leave a review if you enjoyed it, and I'd appreciate that. So until next time, take care and happy Beef Jerky Day. [whispers] No, I don't know if it's Beef Jerky day today, but bye.

14:50

Closing: 
Thanks for listening to the Easy Food Dehydrating podcast. 

Visit Easy-Food-Dehydrating.com for much more information on how to dehydrate food and the best way to safely store it.

Head on over to our Podcast Host to see a list of all our Easy Food Dehydrating episodes... or go to our hub page on this site. Please note that for your convenience, the episodes on our site contain the Podcast transcripts, too!

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