Our family loves to eat beef jerky! It’s a perfect travel snack that we can all enjoy. We have been wanting to try to make our own jerky for a long time! Since we eat a lot of venison and just about always have frozen deer meat in the freezer, all we needed was a food dehydrator!  Last week we ordered the Nesco Food Dehydrator. So guess what we tried this weekend? Making homemade venison jerky was super easy and definitely a hit with the family.

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Making Homemade Venison Jerky

I thawed out some deer meat and cut it into very small thin slices. The Dehydrator came with a sampling of seasonings and spices. We mixed in the cure and seasoning packets with 1/4 cup of water.

I mixed it all together in a ziploc baggie and let it marinate in the refrigerator. It suggests letting it marinate for several hours, but I was in a hurry and just left it in there for about 30 minutes.

I spread all the meat out on the dehydrator tray. The instructions said to make sure all the meat is completely flat so that it can all dry out evenly. This dehydrator comes with stackable trays so you can have multiple layers drying at one time. There is a drip pan at the bottom to catch any juices.

The instruction that comes with the dehydrator gives cooking times and temperatures so you can know where to start. Cooking the meat requires the highest temperature for 4-10 hours (depending on the cut of the meat).

After several hours I was ready to check it out. The spices smelled so good that the kids and I couldn’t wait any longer. We were definitely not disappointed.

This venison jerky was the best we have ever tasted! I put it out on small plates and between the 5 of us, it was gone in just a few hours! I assume you can store this in a tupperware container and eat on it for several days at least, but we didn’t get a chance to test it this time around!

About the Nesco Food Dehydrator

You can read all the details about the Nesco Professional 700-Watt Food Dehydrator on the True Value website.

Stay tuned for more experiments using the food dehydrator! Sausage snacks? Apple Fruit Rollups? Dried herbs and spices? I can’t wait!

Have you ever used a Food Dehydrator?  I’d love to hear your best results, tips, and experiences!