 Since prehistoric times, people have dried meat to keep it safe for long periods of time. The jerky that we make today can be a flavorful addition to your diet, making sure it's safe to eat is the purpose of this video. I am Roxy Dinstall with Cooperative Extension Service, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Whether you choose gay meat or purchased meat from the store, simple procedures will ensure that you have a high-quality, safe-to-eat product. Research on food preservation is an ongoing process. The United States Department of Agriculture and the Cooperative Extension Service continuously apply new research findings to their recommendation for food preservation techniques. The guidelines in this module may be revised as additional knowledge is gained that may increase the margin of safety or improve the quality of home-preserved foods. Consult your local Cooperative Extension Office annually for updated information. The equipment needed for this process is minimal. You'll need a cutting board and a sharp knife, bowls or pans for marinating the meat, tongs or a fork to handle the meat, a measuring cup, measuring spoons, a meat thermometer and an oven thermometer, dehydrator racks or, if you're using the oven, a cookie sheet with a cooling rack. You may want to use plastic gloves to handle the meat for added safety. This is especially important if there's a cut or a sore anywhere on your hands. You'll also need access to a refrigerator to use while marinating meat and a dehydrator or an oven for drying meat. Jerky can be made from deer, moose, caribou, beef or other game meats. Most game meats work especially well for jerky because the meat is naturally lean. The one exception to the use of game meat is bear. Bear can be infected with a strain of arginate trichinosis that is not killed by freezing temperatures. Bear should always be fully cooked and is not suitable for jerky. Game meat should be frozen thoroughly to destroy parasites. Meat that is one inch thick, like this one, should be frozen at a minimum of one month. With thicker cuts, it should be frozen at least two. To prepare the meat, we're going to trim away all visible fat and any connective tissues. Fat quickly develops off flavors during storage, so the less fat, the fresher the flavor. The meat should be as lean as possible. If you're using beef like this hit cut, you want to choose those cuts that are lean and have little or no marbling in the meat. Slice your trimmed meat into thin pieces that are about a quarter of an inch, like these pieces I've done here. The question often arises whether to cut with the grain or across it. It's a matter of personal choice. Slice along the grain of meat. If you want a chewy jerky, slice across the grain for tender brittle jerky. Determine the method of drying next. Jerky can be dried in a home oven or a dehydrator as long as it reaches a high enough temperature, at least 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Microwaves are not suitable for drying. The heating process is too variable to ensure that the slices have been heated to a high enough temperature to destroy harmful bacteria and parasites. Always use the oven or the dehydrator that reaches at least 180 degrees for making jerky at home. Decide if you're going to use a wet marinade or a dry marinade. Both are acceptable ways to flavor meat, but have slightly different procedures. Meat is marinated for flavor and tenderness. Ingredients for marinades may include salt and an acid product, such as vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, or wine. We're going to talk about using a wet marinade first. The recipe that we're using is from the making jerky publication that is available from your extension office. Our recipe calls for a fourth cup of soy sauce, one tablespoon of wuchichar, a fourth teaspoon of pepper, a fourth teaspoon of onion powder, a fourth teaspoon of garlic, and one teaspoon of kosher or canning salt. The canning salt is used because it is pure salt and has no impurities that can cause off flavors in the finished product. The kosher salt works just the same. The only difference is the grain is slightly larger. This recipe makes enough marinade to cover about one pound of meat. We're going to place our meat in the bottom of a shallow pan. You can see this is very lean, which is exactly what we want for jerky. Very lean meat. I'm going to put as much as I can in this one layer of meat. For other layers, I would turn it and go the opposite direction. So there's plenty of room for the marinade to sink into the meat. I'm going to stir up my marinade. This is about as much marinade as you would use for one pound of meat. I'm going to dissolve all the spices in there and then pour it over the top. We're going to cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate. It should be refrigerated for at least one to two hours or overnight depending on your taste. The longer the meat is marinated, the stronger the flavor. After the required time has passed, remove the meat from the refrigerator. We're going to take the plastic wrap off and we're going to heat the marinade to 160 degrees. Be sure to check it with a meat thermometer. Using game meat, you need to use a slightly higher temperature. It needs to be boiling, 212 degrees. Make certain that the meat is covered with the marinade. If it's not, we're going to add some more water or a little bit more marinade in order to cover. After heating, we're going to remove the strips, put them on absorbent tally, and get all the excess moisture off of them. We're going to place them on our dehydrator rack or on a cookie sheet with a cooling rack on it. We're going to put them slightly apart. It's important that you have good air circulation for drying. This rack is going to be used as a wet marinade. I'm going to go ahead and finish this one up and then we'll take a few minutes and come back and tell you how to do a dry marinade. Dry curing jerky is done by using dry spices only. Choose spices that your family likes. Salt and pepper are the basis for the mixture, but you may choose to use garlic, onion powder, chili powder, whatever spices your family likes. Now we're going to just sprinkle. Again, we're using kosher salt because it has a little bit heavier grain. It makes it easier to use. I'm going to use pepper, a little bit of garlic powder, some onion powder, and my family really likes chili powder. Have a nice layer in the bottom. I'm going to put my meat in across the bottom of the pan. Nice and even. When I get my pan full, I'm going to put another layer of spices on the top. Sprinkle them on as evenly as possible. Some people like extra hot stuff, so they use red pepper and particularly red pepper flakes make a really nice addition for jerky. But remember, you can use whatever your family likes. When I get ready to do my next layer, I'm going to turn and run my slices the opposite direction. Makes it easier to get really good mixtures so that it absorbs everything. Let's add a little bit of salt on top. The spice is not only flavor, but the salt actually pulls some of the liquid out of the meat and makes it easier to dry. When you've got all of the meat to your liking, we're going to cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Dry marinade requires a longer marinating time. Wet marinades are a short length of time. If you use a dry method, you have to use at least six hours. It takes a long time for the dry spices to influence their flavor into the meat. After the recommended time has passed, remove the meat strips, pat them dry, and place them on your dehydrator trays or if you're using a cookie sheet like I am, on the cookie sheet with a cooling rack. Now, we want them to be far enough apart to allow for even drying. Now I'm going to continue this process until we're ready to talk about drying. In drying jerky, the temperatures are crucial. If you plan on using a dehydrator, the first step is to check the temperatures. Many dehydrators do not heat higher than 140 degrees. That's not high enough to kill bacteria on meat. If in doubt, check the manufacturer or the owner's manual. You may use an oven thermometer to check the temperature on each tray of the dehydrator after turning it on as high as it will go. Give the dehydrator some time to reach the hottest temperature. Inside, the dehydrator can reach and hold temperatures of 180 to 200 degrees. Then it's safe to use just as you would use the oven. If your dehydrator doesn't reach 180 to 200 degrees, plan to use the wet marinade method to preheat the meat. If it will attain and hold 160 degrees and it has a fan, then arrange meat that's been heated in the marinade on the dehydrator racks and proceed with the drying. But there must be a second high heat process at the end of the drying. If your dehydrator doesn't heat to 160 degrees and it doesn't have a fan, it should not be used for drying meat. To do the second heating, remove the jerky from the dehydrator, arrange it on a baking sheet and put it in a conventional oven set at 200 degrees for one hour. If the meat isn't dry after this heat treatment, turn the oven down to 160 degrees and complete the drying process. To avoid cross-contamination, do not return meat to the dehydrator. These heat treatments destroy much of the initial bacteria growth and any that may have grown during the drying process. Now let's look at the oven method of drying. We're going to preheat our oven between 160 and 200 degrees. All ovens are different and yours may not set as low as 160 degrees. Set your temperature in this range. Use an oven thermometer to ensure an accurate temperature. Place trays in the oven, no closer than four inches to the top or bottom heating element. We want to allow plenty of room around the baking sheets for air circulation. Leave the oven door ajar to allow moist air to escape. Toward the end of the drying process, increase the oven temperature so that it registers 180 to 200 degrees for at least one hour. Often people ask us to determine the dryness of the meat. Touch the meat. If it's spongy, it still needs additional drying time. Bend it. If it bends easily like this one, it's not dry enough. When it begins to pull apart on grain lines at the edges of the product, that's the time to raise the temperature. For more questions, refer to the extension publication, Making Jerky. Jerky is done when a test piece cracks, but does not break when it's bent. It will take around three to four hours or longer to dry. It depends on your oven and your climate. When it's dry, remove the jerky strips from the racks, pat off excess oil with paper towels, and cool it off. Package it in a plastic bag or in a glass jar with a lid on it. Refrigerator frees the dried jerky. For best quality, use the product within one year. Dried jerky takes up moisture easily. Be sure to keep it sealed and cold after the drying process. Quality and safety of jerky depends on playing close attention to the temperatures for processing. Heat the meat slowly to dry it without cooking it. If it's heated too fast, it develops a crust and it won't dry completely. It needs to be heated quickly enough to go through the temperature danger zone, which is 40 to 140 degrees. In this way, harmful microorganisms will not get a good chance to grow. Heat it hot enough at the end of the process to kill any microorganisms that can cause illness. You can take a lot of guesswork out of the job and ensure a safe product by using an oven thermometer. Trying to heat the meat hot enough, but not too hot may be tricky at first. But if you know the end product that you desire, you soon can find the perfect time and temperature combination for your oven that will produce a flavorful, chewy, and safe product.