[brendan's dad]

Originally Posted by Savage Bacon

So this past xmas, santa brought me a 10 tray dehydrator, how did he know? Anyway last night me and the boss ground up a mixture of deer, beef and pork (fat removed) to make jerky with. It was all frozen leftovers so we just mixed it all together to get it out of the freezer. So when I put the ground meat in my mixer I added the spices and curing salt dry, without mixing with water, as I saw on several videos that it will dehydrate faster. Well when mixing by hand this will be fine but when using a mixer, not so fine, all the spices stuck to the sides of the mixer. So that's a learning experience.

Now for my question... how long do I run the dehydrator and at what temp? The instructions in the jerky kit contradict themselves from sentence to sentence and leave a person more confused the more you read. The instructions in the dehydrator say to start in the oven then move to the dehydrator. The meat is ground and I used my jerky blaster to lay the strips on the plastic trays. I don't think I want to put these plastic trays in the oven? The instructions also say to lower the temp after a certain amount of time. Also confusing me. So what I did was fill the trays and set the dehydrator to max 160. Can I leave it at this temp or will I adjust it later? Some strips I made thicker and some thinner by altering the speed of the jerky blaster. From 1/4" to 5/16". I should have stayed more consistent but I was worried about having too much meat but then eased off after it was about half way full.

Sorry long post. Just wanting to know proper temp and time. The instructions say 8-15 hours?

Thanks!

First off

Great handle name
Secondly, I have no idea
Thirdly, great handle name.