Jerky Maker 101
From elgourmand 13 years ago
- 2hrs to make
- Serves Lots
I have always loved jerky. My bank account, on the other hand, has not. Let’s be honest, the bloody stuff is expensive. Then there is the fact that what they call “Jerky” now days bears little resemblance to what I grew up believing jerky to be & the changes are not improvements. Read more So, of course the answer is “make your own”. The first step is to get a dehydrator. You will find that these are expensive or useless; or both. So, of course the answer is “make your own”. A bunch of years ago, I lived in Kailua, on the windward side of the island of Oahu. Every Saturday my lady & I would hit the garage sales. We’d get the paper and lay out a rout from Sale to sale, with a minimum of backtracking, jump on our bikes and explore Kailua. It was fun & a great excuse to get some much needed exercise. If we bought something too big for the bikes we’d just go back & pick it up later. Talk about a 1000 days of summer. I bought a homemade dehydrator one Saturday. Didn’t have a clue what I was going to do with it but it was well made, in good condition & cheap. I wound up jerking beef, venison & fish. I didn’t bring that to Samoa with me so I had to make one here. I was building a resort out in Manono and had a crew of skilled guys so I just drew some crude plans and they knocked one up out of some scrap plywood. That one finally succumbed to hard use and neglect and I wasn’t in the building business any longer. I wanted something simple, easy to make & cheap. This one’s about as basic as they get & is a combo of the one I bought back in Kailua and “The $10 Jerky Maker” posted on the internet by Lex Rooker. His post is really complete, with lots of pictures & such like. If you need really detailed instruction & lots of pics, you might want to visit his post at www.traditionaltx.us/images/JerkyDrierInstructions.pdf If you really get serious about making a lot of jerky you’ll probably want to put together something a little more substantial but this is a great way to try out the jerky thing; without a huge investment. See less
Ingredients
- The Dehydrator: shopping list
- What you’ll need: shopping list
- • A sturdy cardboard box 12” x 12” x 12” (30 x 30 x 30 cm). This isn’t rocket science so close is okay. You need a box with the top & bottom flaps intact. shopping list
- • 2 pieces of ½” (1.25cm) PVC pipe 14” (36cm) long. Here you can use wooden dowels or whatever. Think function. I used two pieces of 3/8” (1cm) copper tubing because I had some handy. shopping list
- • 10 or so sturdy bamboo or steel skewers. shopping list
- • Portable light socket. shopping list
- • A 100 watt incandescent light bulb. shopping list
- • A cookie sheet or shallow baking pan a bit bigger than the box. shopping list
- • A sharp knife. shopping list
- • A pair of sturdy scissors, optional but handy. shopping list
- • Some heavy duty packing tape. shopping list
- • A marker or pencil, crayon, whatever you like to make marks with. shopping list
- • A ruler or yardstick. shopping list
How to make it
- How to make it:
- 1. If you got your box from your grocery store cut the tape on the bottom flaps & lay the box flat, with the flaps out.
- 2. Draw a line 1 inch (2.5cm) up from the bottom edge of the bottom flaps. Do this on both sides of the box.
- 3. Identify the corners of the box & draw a vertical line 3 inches (7.5cm) in from each corner, on each side.
- 4. Cut out the 1 x 6 inch centre section on each side of the box. This will leave yo with a corner “leg” 1 inch high and 3 inches on each side. See Photo
- 5. Go to the top of the box & draw a line on both sides 2 inches (5cm) below the flaps.
- 6. Using the PVC pipe, or whatever you’re using, draw a circle just below this line and just in from the corner on two opposite sides of the box.
- 7. Cut out these four holes.
- 8. Open out your box so it is really is a box.
- 9. Use the packing tape to tape the two halves of each leg together.
- 10. Insert the PVC pipe, or whatever you decided to use, in the holes you cut for it See Photo. These are your side rails.
- 11. Fold the top flaps in, like you would if you were going to seal the box.
- 12. Find something about 2” (cm) in diameter and use it to let you draw four circles on the top of the box; 1 circle in each quarter section. See Photo
- 13. Cut out the four holes you’ve just drawn.
- 14. Find the place where your jerky maker is going to do its thing. It will take several hours to jerk a batch of meat, or whatever, so the middle of the kitchen table may not be the best choice. Ideally, wherever you put it should not get colder than 65o F (18o C). Do remember that cats & dogs like jerk a whole bunch.
- 15. Rig up your light socket & 100 watt bulb, place on the cookie sheet, or whatever.
- 16. My choice of lights would be this one See Photo
- 17. Or this one. See Photo
- 18. Set your box on the cookie sheet, over the light.
- 19. Load up whatever you’re going to jerk, beef, venison, fish, etc. See Photo
- 20. Turn on your light.
- 21. Close the top flaps.
- 22. Have patience.
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