Food Preservation Rocks!

Today Shaun and I experiment with other methods of food preservation while Suka and Harvey lay patiently at our feet expectantly waiting for a morsel of dried meat to fall their way... that's right... we're dehydrating...and it's...JERKY!

Sesame ginger deer jerky, to be exact. And oh, Man! is it delicious!

And easy!

Want to make jerky? Don't have a dehydrator? No problem!

What to do: Partially defrost meat. Leaner meat is better. While meat is still partially frozen, slice thinly and, more important, uniformly. If all the meat is cut the same thickness, it will dry evenly and all at the same time. Now, toss all that sliced meat with marinade of your choice. (I suggest internet research to find out what would work best for your taste... anything is possible.) In our case, we picked up a generic brand Sesame Ginger marinade from the grocery store. It was really thick, and we wanted to shy away from the ultra sweet ultra sticky jerky you buy in gas stations, so we thinned the marinade with apple cider vinnegar.

Now, put all that marinade and meat into a zip-lock bag and leave in the refrigerator over night.

When you are ready to make jerky, heat your oven to the lowest temperature. Ours was 170 degrees. Lay out your meat in a single layer on wire or oven-safe racks and place those racks on cookie sheets to catch any drips. Place in oven, and let 'em go. Check back after one hour to see how the meat is drying. You may want to leave the oven door cracked open to help release any moisture that is evaporating. Depending on how thick your jerky is cut and how dry you like it, it could take up to 6 hours to dry completely. But remember to check on it every hour or so, because ours only took 3 hours.

When all finished drying, let it cool down to room temperature, then zip-lock bag it and leave it in the fridge, or vacuum seal it like we did!

Shaun decided to test the vacuum sealer on an apple.

Ok... there you have it. Jerky. Yummy.