Dehydrating Food 101

Post-WLS, I picked up as a hobby the art of dehydrating jerky, fruits and veggies. Dehydrated food represents a good solid, nutritional, tasty food source for us and is also an excellent replacement for the snack foods we still crave. Got to remember, though, all things in moderation you can still get fat on healthy foods.   Dehydrating foods is easy (set it and forget it) and actually quite cost effective when you compare the total cost to pre-packaged, less healthy “snacks.” In addition, you control the ingredients which is especially important when dealing with the salt content of jerky which is high in the pre-packaged stuff.  

The Equipment  

First of all, you've got to fork out for a dehydrator. Lots of them on the market but I settled on the Nesco FD-61 Snackmaster® Encore™ Food Dehydrator. The only feature I wish I had was an automated timer shutoff which would be convenient at times. Not critical but I’ve dried out a couple batches of jerky since I wasn’t around to unplug the thing. Four trays are fine and the drying power of the Nesco is adequate. Dishwasher safe (except the headunit) so cleanup is a snap.   I also recommend getting flexible screens which make sticky foods (e.g. bananas, pineapple) easier to remove. Also, the screens are perfect for drying small items like sliced hot peppers, mushrooms, spices and herbs that would normally fall through the spokes of the tray.   Other items you’ll need for max productivity and perfect results are a good, sharp knife, cutting board, apple corer, rolling pin, pizza cutter and veggie peeler, all of which are already probably in your kitchen. That’s it for the equipment.  

Jerky makin’  – mmmm, PROTEIN!  

Here’s the process and an excellent recipe for beef sticks. You can also make muscle meet jerky by using flank steak instead of ground beef.   Recipe for beef stick jerky:  

1. 10 lbs of 90% lean ground beef. Don’t *****h on higher fat content. I did and it tasted like greasy crap.
2. 1 TBLSP garlic powder or better yet, fresh garlic (more or less to taste) 
3. 1 TBLSP Accent seasoning
4. 1/3 cup Mortons Tenderquick cure. (can be found at Super Target)
5. 1 ½ TSP nutmeg powder or better yet, fresh nutmeg grounded up
6. 1 TBLSP red pepper. (more or less to taste) 
7. ¼ cup of black pepper (more or less to taste) 
8. 2 ½ TBLSP salt. I don’t add this to keep the salt content lower.
9. 1 ½ TSP Worchester sauce
10. 1 bottle of BBQ sauce. Any brand will do.

  You can also add diced jalapenos’ if you like your jerky really spicy.  

With a fork, mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl then add the wet ingredients and mix. Knead the thoroughly mixed ingredients with the ground beef. Let the seasoned beef sit in the fridge overnight to marinate.   Next day, rip off a piece of tin foil about 3 feet long and fold in half. Form a ball of beef about the size of a baseball and put it on the tin foil. Shape it into a square about a ½ inch thick. Fold the tin foil over the top and use your rolling pin to reduce the thickness to a ¼ inch or thinner. Use the pizza cutter to cut it into strips about 4 inches long by 1 inch wide. Put the strips on the dehydrator trays and let er rip for 3-4 hours at 145 degrees. The drying time will vary depending on how chewy you like it but once you get over 4 hours, you’re heading into sawdust country.    

Fruits & Veggies  

I also make a mean trail mix which is a combination of dried apples, pineapple, bananas, almonds, walnuts, raisins, and chocolate chip chunks. It’s a great fuel source for my longer bike rides as well as an excellent snack.

In general, drying time for various foods depends on several factors:  

1. Thick or Thin Slices - the thiner the slice of item being dried, the quicker the drying time.
2. Temperature - The lower the temperature- the longer the drying time. 
3. Humidity - the higher the humidity, the longer the drying time
4. Water content - the higher the water (liquid) content of the item being dehydrated, the longer the drying time.
5. Crispiness - some people like their dehydrated items still a bit soft, while others like it "crunchy or crispy".. If you want it more crunchy-crispy, it will increase the time it takes to dry all the water out.

 

Hey Boner, thanks for the information.  I have been thinking about doing this for the past few weeks.  Money is a little tight right now (co pay hospital bills you know), but I will probably ask for this for my Christmas present.  One question I have has to do with the bbq sauce.   That stuff has a lot of sugar.  Are there any that you recommend?  Or does the sugar not make it into the meat?

Hey Stephan,

The sugar from the BBQ sauce does make it in the meat but is spread over 10 pounds so isn't so bad. If you can eat regular jerky with no problem, you should be ok. We're talkin' max 200 grams of sugar for an 18 oz bottle spread out over 10 pounds which works out to <20 grams per pound of beef or a little over 1 gram of sugar per oz. 

Some brands of BBQ sauce are higher in sugar but also add to the taste obviously. I like Sweet Baby Rays although generic sauce like Hunts work equally as well. None of the brands are so high in sugar that would cause a person to dump imo. This isn't like slathering BBQ sauce on ribs then mainlining the sauce into your system. 

Dehydrating is

Boner 

YAY for the Dehydrator! I love using mine. Don't forget that if you make nice with a butcher he'll be your best friend. I have used the same dude for almost a decade now, so life is good.

I get my butcher to slice up various cuts of meat into jerky strips. I like to do cheap roasts like tri-tip so they're long and wide. If you do it yourself, cut WITH the grain, not against it...or you'll get crumbled jerky.

I've never done it with ground meats. I'll have to try it. Do you grind yourself, or what? I'd only use ground from someone you know, just in case. But then, I'm not a nutritional anthropologist (props to Alton), just a cultural one.

Speaking of Alton Brown (food network). Anyone tried his method of drying meats? He slams them in between two air conditioning filters and straps it to a fan. That way they aren't cooked, just dried. I think I'm gonna try this one with some of the venison this year. Deer season starts next weekend.

As a long time Brineac, I'm going to set up AB's dehydrator just as soon as my new plumbing seems ready. At 3 weeks post op, I'm pretty much able to eat anything I choose to with no trouble as long as I remember to slow down. I'm avoiding the obvious trouble foods (celery, nuts, tortilla chips) for now but all the staples seem to be holding up fine. How long before you guys were cleared (and brave enough) to try jerky?
Jim

I ate fish right away, and chicken that had been mulled up. Solid chicken after a few weeks. I didn't eat beef for a few months.