Beef Jerky

Part of being self sufficient is learning how to make your own food.  My family was lucky enough this year to get in on a special deer hunt.  There was an area a few hours from us that had a lot of fire this last summer and it pretty well burned up everything that was green.  The Fish and Game figured that 2-3,000 deer would starve to death this winter because of a lack of food.  So they did a special deer draw and my hubby and older boys lucked out  and all drew deer tags.  They went up one day and each came back with a deer that we processed and made all sorts of stuff out of(deerburger, steaks, stew meat, etc..).  One thing my hubby wanted to try was to make jerky, so he got on line and researched how to make it yourself.  We bought the seasoning and got the meat out, mixed the season with it, wrapped it up and then let it sit overnight in the fridge. This is what it looks like the next day. 

Next you take your meat and roll it out till it about 1/4" thick, it does not have to be pretty, just go for the correct thickness. I used wax paper to roll it out on and also on top of it while I was rolling the meat.  You then take that and use a pizza cutter or a knife to cut it into strips about 1 1/2". It should look something like this.

Put the strips on a cookie sheet, they can be close together!  Use a spatula to lift the meat onto the cookie sheets, it makes it much easier.

Next you put these in the oven at 250* for 2-3 hours. I did a few cookie sheets at the same time.

When the timer goes off, you want to check for moisture, there should not be much either on the meat or on the cookie sheet.

Let your jerky sit out overnight to finish drying. The next day, place it in baggies or an air tight container. This must be eaten soon(1-2 weeks) as it wont last as long as the jerky you buy in the stores. Its also a good idea to keep it in the fridge.  You can tell if its going bad because it will start getting white little spots on the jerky.

Play around with the seasonings as there are many different varieties. We have tried some that we really like and some that we will never try again, so just experiment with them and see what you like!

You can also do this on a food dehydrator, just follow the instructions for drying times.