Getting your Jerky on with a food dehydrator (pic heavy)

[dewi]

So the venison you have left is probably about £12.35 worth commercially, but I bet it tastes 10 times better than the shriveled mess half the supermarket stuff is.

The one good one I've found on Ebay is Texas Joe's... it's a soft beef jerky with a bit of a bbq flavour to it... thats usually about £2.50 per 50g, so for 350g it'd be £17.50.

Only fair way to decide which is better Bod is if I sacrifice myself for a taste comparison test

 

[GGTBod]

My 800 grams of top rump beef cost me £8, i lost about 200g in fat and i used 200g for a stir fry and i bet the jerky i have by weight at shop prices is worth more than £8

Can't imagine how much venison jerky would cost in a shop for 50 grams

I'm sure next time i see you in the woods i'll have some jerky on me, until then you'll have to take my word for it that it is far superior to any jerky i have ever bought, never been able to buy venison jerky so i have no comparison there

 

[Robson Valley]

GGTBod: Thanks for the reminder. I've never weighed the before-and-after.
The bison is thawing in the fridge, as lean as any other big game.
Pity you weren't closer: I have venison pepperoni (professionally made) to trade.

 

[mick91]

I'd love to try it with woodpigeon I daresay thatd work well

 

[GGTBod]

I bet that is interesting regular pepperoni is usually very greasy and venison is so lean.

Fruit leather has been going now for 7 hrs, i'm looking at somewhere between 8-12 hrs i reckon

 

[GGTBod]

i like my pigeon skewered and done over the coals and then kebabbed in a naan bread with salad, i suppose you could slice the breast into little discs and give it a go

 

[dewi]

True enough... I've not seen venison jerky in the shops... but as a price comparison, Biltong sells 20g of venison jerky for £2.85... for 350g it'd be £49.87... bit of difference!!

50g of venison jerky at Biltong prices would be £7.12.

Can't be stealing your jerky in the woods though... can always swap you for a lamb steak Wonder what the weight of those back legs were that went into the stew at Wooplaw... probably couple of hundred quids worth of jerky on those legs!

 

[GGTBod]

Well there was enough meat on them for 2 big pans of stew, rough guess i took a generous 2 kilo of lean meat from them both in total.

When i take jerky in the woods i always take extra, i have this panic when packing of there not being enough meat in my broth

 

[dewi]

Know what you mean... I take way too much food with me every time... if I reduced the food I take by half my overall kit weight would probably reduce by a quarter.

Got a craving for jerky now. lol

 

[GGTBod]

get some made in the oven, just stick the oven on 100c and leave door open an inch and it will be ready about 8 hrs later

 

[dewi]

Ashamed to say there is a lack of meat in the house... unless I can make jerky out of mince beef??

Always look in the discount section at the supermarket for joints of meat, but it doesn't half go fast... I've seen people queuing up behind the staff who are discounting the meats.

 

[GGTBod]

For jerky the leaner the cut the better as you have to cut off all fat as it doesn't cure and will go rancid, next time i make beef jerky i am going to buy a chunk of fillet, pricey but worth it as there will be no waste to cut off

 

[GGTBod]

Well i just finished making my first batch of fruit leather (fruit jerky)


I started by lining the trays of the dehydrator with greaseproof paper

Washed my selected fruit and prepped a 2ltr mason jar for my hand blender by removing the lid, for my jerky i was using 5 black plums, 5 English Cox apples, 3 bananas and 2 tablespoons of Trinidad Scorpian Moruga chilli sauce

I cored the apples, de-stoned the plums and peeled the bananas and stuck them in the jar and blended them to a purée and then added the chilli sauce and blended it in

I spooned this onto the greaseproof paper and spread out to about 1/4 inch thickness

Set the temp to 46c (115f) and set it off for 13 hours, every 2 hours i took the bottom tray and moved it to the top of the stack to ensure even drying, when it was dry to the touch i removed from the machine and rolled up the paper with the leather on before it cooled, once cool i popped the rolls of fruit leather on a plastic foodbag

When you want to eat it you just peel it off the paper and roll into a tube and you have fruit roll-up

They are so delicious i only have 3 left, the addition of the chilli sauce gave it a proper tangy zing to the fruity sweetness, next time i think i will use pineapple and peaches and cinnamon, currently hundreds of possible varieties circling my brain

 

[crosslandkelly]

They look very tasty. Just out of interest, can you do veggies? that way you could pack your meat and three veg, plus your dessert for your outings.

 

[GGTBod]

i reckon you could, i plan to chop up into small piece potatoes, carrots, leeks and turnip and onion and boil them for 5 mins strain and then dehydrate them for to take as ingredients to rehydrate in my stews, im sure you could easily pulp any veg and do what i done to the fruit

 

[GGTBod]

Mad thing is how quick they disappear, like i said i only have 3 out of 10 rolls left from 5 plums, 5 apples and 3 bananas, i'd have never eaten all that fruit since yesterday and i eat a lot of fruit

 

[British Red]

Try rhubarb and ginger fruit leather....or gooseberry and elderflower.

 

[GGTBod]

Sounds tasty i could put all four of those together

 

[British Red]

Strawberry rhubarb is pretty special too

 

[GGTBod]

The addition of the chilli sauce made all the difference, without it the flavour would just be sweetness