/r/jerky

Photograph via snooOG

Jerky central.

All things JERKY!

  • Jerky pictures, videos, recipes, and your overall jerky making process is encouraged!

Rules

  • Be nice or be gone. Being rude or using foul language towards another user will result in a ban.

  • Posts and comments that are not directly related to jerky or low effort content will be deleted.

  • Limit jerky reviews and products from various blogs and websites to self posts only with a brief description. This is to encourage more content created by our community and to prevent it from being drowned out by a plethora of individual links.

  • Advertising your product is allowed but do not post too frequently. If you post please have an update, promotion, new product, etc and be descriptive.

  • If your post, recipe or comment contains ingredients for jerky that is not specifically designed for human consumption you must post a disclaimer stating so in BOLD before the post or comment.


Related Subreddits:

/r/Dehydrating

/r/Smoking

/r/Biltong

/r/Meat


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/r/jerky

42,989 Subscribers

2

Alternatives to salt-based preservatives for beef jerky?

So my partner and I recently did our first (quite successful, as evidenced by the single picture I managed to get before it was all eaten by my family) test batch of teriyaki beef jerky the other day.

Overall, I really loved the flavor and the texture was almost exactly what we were aiming for. I'd like to make a larger batch soon for us to store for later.

HOWEVER, I do have one massive issue: my partner, who LOVES jerky and is the main reason why we decided to make some at home, has a chronic illness that flares up if he eats an excessive amount of sodium-based preservatives (i.e. sodium nitrate/nitrite (aka curing salt), sodium phosphate, etc).

My question is, are there any good alternative preservatives that don't rely too heavily on curing salt? How do they affect taste? For context, we didn't add any curing salt to this batch or any specific preservative to this batch. Looking forward to hearing from this community!

10 Comments
2025/02/04
01:52 UTC

52

Went to my local farmers market for some groceries and got this

20 Comments
2025/02/03
20:44 UTC

8

Pulled over by Jerky police last time....

So I asked a question and was promptly pulled over by the Jerky police several times.... strangely enough, these experts did not answer the question...... Has anyone used a moisture meter to test the percentage of moisture in their Jerky ?

15 Comments
2025/02/03
18:24 UTC

0

Liver smell

Made me some jerky, used a piece from the beef round, why the hell does it have a liver smell to it? Can I remove it somehow? Smells god awful. Second batch. First batch was from a different cut same spices (salt pepper chilli) and tasted wonderful. This batch the cut is different, slices thicker, dried at 50C for 36h. Last time 60C for 12h (thinner pieces). Thanks!

0 Comments
2025/02/03
12:57 UTC

54

I made tikka masala jerky today!

I’ve always felt jerky could be a pretty blank canvas. Although this may be considered sacrilege, I made some tikka masala beef jerky!

15 Comments
2025/02/03
02:23 UTC

0

Did you know beef jerky has been to space?

So, I just learned that Final Frontier Jerky from BeefJerky.com was the first beef jerky in space... NASA sent it to the Mir Space Station in 1996. Since then, it’s been on two more space missions.

Has anyone here tried it? They offer flavors like Solar Flare (spicy red pepper) and Lunar Eclipse (sweet & spicy).

5 Comments
2025/02/02
14:38 UTC

3

Got a surprising compliment this morning

I made my second ever batch of jerky on Friday and I took some to work last night for my colleagues to try.

One of the guys took a few pieces home with him and gave me his feedback this morning.

He said it tasted great and that he preferred it to his buddy's biltong (I know that biltong and jerky are different and use different techniques to produce) that he's been making for years.

I think I might have a new best friend lol

7 Comments
2025/02/02
11:40 UTC

1

Kinder Mesquite Salt and Pepper

Just in case anyone wanted to know, Kinders MSP has been discontinued.

0 Comments
2025/02/02
04:57 UTC

3

Anyone have some favourite ground jerky recipes?

2 Comments
2025/02/01
22:47 UTC

1

Ignorant question (sorry guys)

Okay quick question experts! I know that most jerky sticks contain beef casing… but standard jerky pieces that come in a bag… those wouldn’t have casing right? They’re just dehydrated meat in my eyes but I have a beef allergy so want to make sure I’m not ignorantly assuming.

Most labels I see don’t mention any beef so seems fine.

I miss jerky… need some!!

5 Comments
2025/02/01
22:45 UTC

20

This stuff was so good before they removed the MSG. :(

29 Comments
2025/02/01
18:16 UTC

7

Smoke then dehydrate or dehydrate then smoke?

Title pretty much says it. I'm making jerky and wondering if it would be better to smoke first before dehydrating, or better to dehydrate then smoke after it's dry? Or does it not matter?

Thanks

21 Comments
2025/01/31
14:53 UTC

5

Hot Sauce in Marinade

I want to try making jerky and wanted to do a sweet & hot flavor. I want to use my favorite hot sauce in the marinade but am unsure how much to add. I don't want to use too little but I don't want to waste it either you know? Any suggestions on where to start? Edit: the sauce is seed ranch Smoky Ghost

10 Comments
2025/01/31
06:09 UTC

5

Best Option

I have almost 100 pounds of ground beef that is paper wrapped in the freezer that I consider coming up on end of life that I want to turn into jerky snacks. I’ve done it before with a gun and smoker as well as dehydrator. I like/trust the dehydrator stuff better. So, the questions are

1- $300 budget, best dehydrator

2- best recipe for lean ground beef jerky that has flavor and spice, but not overpowering.

6 Comments
2025/01/30
06:22 UTC

1

How much liquid per kilogram of roast is appropriate?

Title.

Generally speaking, how much liquid should I add per kilo of roast?

15 Comments
2025/01/29
22:52 UTC

17

Looking to buy stuff for making jerky, what do you suggest?

I am looking to start making jerky and I was looking for recommendations on what to buy. What all equipment do I need? Do any of you use a slicer or something to cut the jerky uniform? What kind of dehydrator? Any tools or things I am not thinking of that would be good? I have a $600 gift card to use up, any suggestions would be appreciated!

30 Comments
2025/01/29
16:29 UTC

17

first time doing jerky

hi, can anyone give any tips on my first chicken jerky? i think i might sliced it too thin because it was really hard haha. i put it in my dehydrator for 70 degrees Celcius and for 10 hours. only 2 trays for this first batch.

i dont know where i go wrong.

15 Comments
2025/01/29
16:03 UTC

16

Cut these out?

Hi Reddit. This is half of an eye of round. I’m slicing for jerky and tend to trim out the little white intersections in the meat. Unsure if it’s silver skin, fat or blood vessels, but do you folks remove this for your jerky?

23 Comments
2025/01/27
22:21 UTC

2

Pre-cooking question

Hi everyone! I'm somewhat new to jerky-making, but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how to pre/post-cook jerky so it's 100% safe to consume. I've read many of the guides online, and almost all of them say to throw your jerky into an oven for 10 minutes, or until they reach 165f for poultry, or 145f for beef. Here's my issue:

  • I've been heating an oven to 300f, but neither the turkey nor beef I put in (1/8-1/4" slices) cook unless they're in the oven for 30 minutes or more (this is especially true for the turkey). I've been using an instant-read thermometer to verify this. The same thing applies for my jerky-gun based jerky. It all just takes FOREVER to get to the proper temperature.
  • Leaving them in the oven too long renders them quite a bit tougher than I'd like, and I would imagine cooking them to temp faster would help with this problem.

Does anyone have any tips for how to make this part of the process better? I have my marinades completely down, I have a Cosori dehydrator that reaches 165f, and generally following all other guidelines here, and food safety guidelines.

3 Comments
2025/01/27
17:15 UTC

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