The BEST Ground Beef Jerky Recipe - Hey Grill, Hey (2024)

FAQs

How long does it take to dehydrate ground jerky? ›

Use a rolling pin to roll meat about 1/4 inch thick. Place in a dehydrator and dry at 160°F for 3 hours or until ground jerky is dry when touched. It should be pliable when bent.

The leaner the better. 80/20 works well.

Is a cure necessary when making jerky? For safety, yes. Using a jerky cure will inhibit bacteria growth and prevent botulism or other foodborne illnesses, as jerky is dried at low temps, not cooked. Cured jerky will also lengthen the shelf-life of your product.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Meat and Poultry Hotline's current recommendation for making jerky safely is to heat meat to 160°F and poultry to 165°F before the dehydrating process. This step assures that any bacteria present will be destroyed by wet heat.

Dehydrating beef jerky for too long can lead to over-drying. While this may not pose as immediate a health risk as undercooking, the implications for your taste buds are dire.

You can understand why, since processing jerky takes time, and a pound of meat only produces about 1/4-pound of finished jerky. However, it really is a manageable process that you can do at home.

Top Round. Top round is considered to be one of the best cuts of meat to use for jerky. In fact, this is the cut that many commercial jerkies are made from.

With the use of a rolling pin, flatten the beef to about a ¼ inch thick. Score the jerky into strips with a dull knife or pizza cutter about an inch wide. Don't worry about making sure if they are completely cut all the way to the paper.

Rotate the trays from the top half down to the bottom a couple of times through the drying time, to let everything dry evenly. When the jerky is dry, you should be able to bend a piece and see no moisture inside, but it shouldn't be so dry that it will break. You want it to be chewy and leathery.

Recommended curing time is 24 hours for stripped meat and 12 hours for ground meat. Letting it cure too long will make it too salty as well. If done correctly, you can cut the cure down by ½ tsp per pound of meat. The meat should still come out pink in the middle when it is finished cooking.

How to tell if beef jerky is bad? ›

Lightly brush the jerky with a liquid and let it sit for a few hours and up to 24 hours in a sealed environment. You can use any liquid. Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vegetable, beef, or chicken broth, liquid smoke, and water all work wonders.

Using curing salt correctly helps to reduce the chance of harmful bacteria growing on meat and ensures a safer curing process. It also improves flavour, colour and extends the shelf life. Jerky will last for about 2-3 weeks with curing salt versus less than a week without it.

Jerky Cure Alternatives

For those looking for the benefits of jerky cure, but in a more natural form, there are vegetable-based ingredients available to the homemade jerky maker. Celery juice and celery juice powder contain natural nitrates which deliver the color, flavor, and functional benefits of cure.

The Jerky Rack is a Food utility. It is used to create certain leathers and dry raw meat into jerky. It takes 8 in-game hours (16 min) to finish drying an item. All items are dried simultaneously.

While most beef jerky recipes call for around 4 to 6 hours of dehydration, it's crucial to check intermittently. Over-dehydrating can result in a brittle, less appetizing jerky, whereas under-dehydrating can risk bacterial growth, reducing the jerky's safety and shelf life.

Research results indicate that vertical orientation is the best. Products with a vertical orientation may dry faster because free water runs off the surface, rather than accumulating on a horizontal surface.

Dehydrating your jerky:

Take your dehydrator trays and cover each tray with a piece of parchment paper. This will help the mess of the marinated meat. Place your jerky strips in a single layer on your trays. Turn your dehydrator on to 165 degrees and dehydrate for 6-8 hours.