I made my first batch of beef jerky today and it's to die for!

I bought a little Excalibur food dehydrator; they're smallest model because I'm the only one who likes jerky here, and I'm so glad I did!

I made beef jerky today. Last night I chopped and marinated my steak (after cutting off all visible fat). I let it sit in the marinade overnight, and substituted brown sugar splenda for the 3 tbsp brown sugar the recipes called for. This morning I dried the meat with paper towels as best as I could, laid it out on the dehydrator trays, turned it on, and waited.

The recipe said it would take 6 hours but it took 8 hours; maybe I filled the trays too much (I read later that it dries faster if there is plenty of room between the pieces). None of my pieces overlapped or touched, but they were crowded in there, lol.

I tasted it, and YUM. I mean, YUM, lol.

I also bought a giant organic carrot, a zucchini, and some kale to make veggie chips, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Does anyone have any tips/favorite recipes?

Thanks

Sounds delish!!!! Pics pls.

Thanks! Here you go:

That looks amazing!!!! It's literally making my mouth water!

I will def have to consider getting a dehydrator. How inspiring :)

Thanks for posting that!

Thank you so much. I posted more pics in a separate thread.

I'm glad it looks good to you; it does to me too. My best friend took one look at it and told me it looks like poop, lol. She's not a fan of any jerky; she thinks it all looks like poop. She's crazy, lol, but I love her. She always makes me laugh.

LOL. And at least you don't have to share it with her!!! More beautiful, tasty jerky for you!! Enjoy!

That is so great kathy. I had my surgery in Guelph so no beef or por****il the 6 month mark for me. Boo. I love jerky. You are doing so well

Oh, wow; that's a long time. I've been eating steak for about a month now, and it only bothered me once. Ground beef is usually fine but it bothered my pouch once too. I like my meat extremely well done, but then it's overdone when I reheat it so I learned I have to cook it medium so it won't be too tough when reheated.

Sounds amazing! What kind of steak did you use? And do you have to use oil to make the veggie chips or just slice them thin and dry them?

Thanks! I used top sirloin because it was on sale at Metro. I trimmed all of the fat first, marinated it over night, and it came out very tasty.

For the zucchini chips, I just sliced them into chip shapes with my mandolin cutter, then lightly salted them. I let them dehydrate overnight and tried one this morning and they're almost done, and very tasty. I didn't add any garlic or other spices because I also tried a tray of berries and I didn't want the garlic smell on the berries, but next time I'll try them with various spices too.

I'm a total newbie at all of this so am watching loads of youtube videos, reading blogs, and am learning as much as I can. I also ordered the book that Excalibur put out on Ebay and am looking forward to getting that.