Saw this post and had to respond to it.
Jerky:
Sorry but I thought this should be separate from the dehydrator thread.
I have just been reading up on making jerky and until today I always thought the meat was pre-cooked. Wouldn’t there be a health risk with drying and eating “raw” meat jerky?My local store has some cheap beef heart that I was going to try drying.
miss this Dehydrator
Dehydrator jerky is the same as dried jerky.
The drying process was originally done in two ways;
Sun Drying
Smoke drying
Both are a curing, cooking and preservation processes, both remove the moisture and cure the meat. There are variations to the two main ways that were done, you can actually do some very intriguing combinations as well. Both of the main drying processes remove the moisture, moisture and oxygen are the main causes of meat becoming bad.
Bugs and Mold love moisture thus the curing process removes the moisture, cures the meat for long-term storage. Variations on the theme, smoking and creating Bill-tongue (South African delicacy.. give them some and watch them gobble it down). Now as stated there are many ways to preserve the meat, some also include potting in which you fill a jar or container with meat, cooked or uncooked slather the top with 4-10 inches of certain types of fat to keep out the oxygen. Google meat potting.
The Mennonites have a process similar to the bill-tongue meat process, the meat looks like great big salami meat rolls. Salami making is another variation on the drying and processing theme for meat preservation. The Mennonite way of curing the meat is a combination, drying, smoking and cooking process in which the rolls are able to be stored in their final wrap just hanging from the rafters for up to 3-4 years.
Dehydrating jerky is as simple as doing it over the fire, in the Oven or in the actual dehydrator. This has evolved from the labour intensive outdoor sun drying and outdoor food drying although very eco-friendly is labour intensive as you need a 24hr guard to swat away the bugs and keep away the animals.
Buy the way I have had some pre cooked Beef Jerky and would not recommend you go that route so much, it does not taste as good pre cooked. There is also a size variation, in that pre cooked pieces are always much larger than the thinly shaved meat that is pre cut before dehydrating. Dehydrating cooked meat is good however for preserving the meat to be re-constituted later for soups and stews.
One of my fav all time food experiences was paper thing Bison strips, smoked and then put on some thin whole grain fresh bread. Can you say Yummy! So tender, so mouth-watering and surprisingly so filling. When you use the best ingredients you become fuller from the full and rich taste as well as from the quality of the food source.
might add more in later, that is a synopsis.
Tags;
tongue, bill-tongue, dehydrator, smoking, curing, meat, cooking, method, sun drying, smoking, Mennonite, way, south african, old way, preservation
wild_E 