Making Beef Jerky In an Oven

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Have you ever brought beef jerky on a camping trip?

  • Yes - great lightweight food.

    Votes: 181 73.6%
  • No - would like to but just haven't made or bought any for the trip

    Votes: 61 24.8%
  • No - I prefer tinned or fresh meat.

    Votes: 4 1.6%

  • Total voters
    246
I made beef jerky in the oven this afternoon for the first time! It was fairly simple, and it took maybe 15 minutes of preparation time, about 3 hours drying in the oven and is very tasty. It will be a perfect food for my next solo canoe and camping trip, a way to lighten my food load considerably.



I have a brief tutorial and pictures on my site.

Hope this inspires some of you, as I was inspired by this site to make it!

Cheers,

Mungo
 

C_Claycomb

Moderator staff
Mod
Oct 6, 2003
7,354
2,365
Bedfordshire
Mine was somewhere between biltong and jerky. I started it in the oven over night, then finished in the airing cupboard for a week. It is a lot dryer than most people like biltong, but I have kept some for a year with no refrigeration and no mould growth. What's the point of dried meat if you still need to freeze it :lmao:

I take it on most camping trips where weight is an issue. It ends up with soup mix and things like polenta and cous cous as a one pot meal.
 

Tourist

Settler
Jun 15, 2007
507
1
Northants
Theres a Sowth Eefrikan shoppie in Milton Keynes. The smell of the biltong hits you in the face as you walk in the door........breath deeply, nice smell. I cannot think of the address at the moment, if someone wants it I will get it for them. They prep normal biltong and also some exotics including ostrich. I must say though I prefer jerky to biltong.

There are also a couple of butchers in Bletchley that knock up the SA sausages.

As for long term storage, I remember reading an article in a US journal back in the 80's about pemmican. The article explained the makings of jerky and pemmican which bought about many complaints directed at me by my Sgt Major in Northern Ireland - mainly to do with the smell and overnight use of the team room oven. We used to get about 10lbs of steak from the cook house twice a week, thing was no one ate it so I started knocking out jerky and it magically disappeard......even to the Sgt Major.

Sorry I digressed, pemmican and storage. Apparently batches of North American Indian made pemmican of around 100 years old have been found and have been totally edible....amazing.
 

Tourist

Settler
Jun 15, 2007
507
1
Northants
Mungo, the biltong in Milton Keynes is a bit fatty - I don't like any fat so I only visit the shop for the smell and some sauces. I make my own turkey jerky in the oven.

As an aside to long term storage, 2000 year old honey has been found in the pharoes tombs in Egypt and it is totally edible.
 

clcuckow

Settler
Oct 17, 2003
795
1
Merseyside, Cheshire
Mungo, the biltong in Milton Keynes is a bit fatty - I don't like any fat so I only visit the shop for the smell and some sauces. I make my own turkey jerky in the oven.

As an aside to long term storage, 2000 year old honey has been found in the pharoes tombs in Egypt and it is totally edible.

The Egyptian honey is not surprising as it is one of the best natural antibiotic in fact they are using in some some hospitals to treat wounds that have been infected resistance strains.
 

rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
24
69
south wales
I wish we had a "yes, but prefer fresh/tinned meat" option. Jerky is OK, made my own, but really its 'trail food' and at the end of the day I really do prefer fresh or tinned meat (not counting dried minced beef which is fab in curry or spag bol etc)
 

nickg

Settler
May 4, 2005
890
5
69
Chatham
The ideal thing to take with jerky is homemade hard tack biscuit. They dead easy to make and mix crushed biscuit wuth finely chopped jerky and maybe a pinch of stock powder or herbs boiled in some water makes a brill stew - nice and thick and really quick in a crusader or whetever, real morale booster.

Cheers

Nick
 
K

Karr

Guest
I have never tried beef, only Venison. Had half an animal given to me once. Made all sorts with it. Kept some of the rump for oven jerky. Couldn't belive how tasty it was. Wish i had made more. It was gone in a couple of days, couldn't keep my son out of the bag.
 

StJon

Nomad
May 25, 2006
490
3
61
Largs
Had a go while out camping once,I prept the beef before I went, gathered some punk wood and set a tripod over the fire covered with bracken. Started at about six o'clock and added punk up until I hit the sack. In the morning it smelled soo good I had some for breakfast, them some for lunch etc.
Suffice to say there was none left by the time I got home the next day. My tip add crushed dried juniper berries to your salt and pepper mix, mmmm
jon
 

BushTucker

Settler
Feb 3, 2007
556
0
60
Weymouth
Excuse my ignorance but, i did not think you re-cook jerky??
I make beef & venisen jerky often, my mix for the overnight marinade is salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic and a heap load of budweiser bbq sauce, lovely.
 

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