Mmm mmm good!

While talking to a friend/co-worker who thru-hiked the AT a few years back, I was turned on to the joys of food dehydration. Spending 20+ days on the river for work, often in 90+ degree weather, I'm no stranger to dehydrated food and was intrigued at the thought of making my own tasty versions. Reading Mary Bell's "Complete Dehydrator Cookbook" sealed the deal for me.

I received a Nesco Gardenmaster Pro FD1010 for Christmas and tested it out over break with some bananas. After about 12 hours of drying the bananas still weren't the delicious crunchy treats I desired, but I wasn't too disheartened. Today we completed our first beef jerky-making trial, with great success!

Steps to delicious jerky:
1. Thinly slice your selected meat (we used beef bottom round) and remove all gristle and fat.
2. Marinate for several hours, or overnight. Nolan made his own marinade using soy sauce, liquid smoke, worcestershire sauce, meat tenderizer, curing salt (highly recommended to avoid spoiling), garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, paprika, and brown sugar. Mary Bell's cookbook describes many other delicious-sounding recipes as well.

 3. Lay strips on dehydrator trays, close but not overlapping. Our 37.2 ounces of meat took almost three of our four trays.

 4. Dehydrate on the highest setting for 4-15 hours. Ours took 4 hours at 160 degrees. You'll get about 1/3 the weight of meat you started with. Our 37.2 ounces of meat dried down to 14.2 ounces of jerky. In the store, this would cost about $15. We were able to make it for $5!

5. Enjoy!

I can't wait to try what we make next.....

DTPCT:94 days