To the oven users, do you crack the oven door or leave it totally closed?
It has been a few years, but I recall I had to crack my door and the I had the jerky in for 10-12 hours.
I think my oven over-cooked/burnt my jerky with the door shut.
MtM
Crack the oven door. You want to let the moisture escape.
I use a multi-stack dehydrator I’ve had for years. I think It’s American Harvest brand. I have some plastic sheets that fit inside the trays for making fruit leather, though I’ve never used them. If you go the dehydrator route they are available for both Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shop. You may find one at Bed Bath and Beyond as well. I used to use the oven and it will work fine as well. I have seven or eight trays for my dehydrator, so it holds more than my oven did.
Most any cut of meat will work. I made turkey jerky once or twice, as well as salmon jerky.
It doesn’t last long around here either.
Which authentic (pre modern technology) jerky, how important was it to keep it in the sun. I think that would settle the whole oven vs. box fan debate.
In my experimentation dried out uncooked beef is much much better than cooked dried beef. The oven is an acceptable alternative but definitely not better.
I hate to admit it, but the Ronco dehydrator makes excellent jerky.
After watching the infomercial a few times, I ordered one. Does a great job.
That’s all I use it for is beef jerky.
I have a higher end dehydrator and much prefer it over the oven method. Use whatever is available, I’ve seen plans for solar dehydrators, but have never had the space to use one.
What I do want to recommend though is do a search for biltong recipes. It’s a style (flavor?) of jerky the originated in South Africa, the primary flavors in it are salt, black pepper and coriander. Very different, but very addictive as far as I am concerned.
That’s the kind I have, too. I’ve never tried drying anything in the oven, but the dehydrator works great for drying meat, and fruit.
I’ve made it with the oven door cracked, and with it shut. Both ways work. You just have to keep an eye on it.
I don’t know, but the idea of eating dehydrated raw beef just is a little icky to me, even though I like steaks and roast beef rare/medium rare. I’d rather know the jerky is cooked a bit. But I’ve never had it any other way.
If I already had a dehydrator and it was large enough, I’d use it, but I wouldn’t buy one for that purpose. I usually get a huge amount of Costco round steak and it pretty much takes up the whole oven.
Okay, I was trying to avoid mentioning any specific products, but. I own an Excalibur dehydrator. It falls somewhere between the counter top dehydrators like the Ronco and professional grade ones. Unfortunately, the price reflects this. One of the things that seperates the better dehydrators from lessor ones is a simple fan. Rather like a convection oven, actually moving the heated air makes things happen much faster.
Also, for what it is worth, the meat setting on my dehydrator yields a temperature somewhere between 145 and 155 degrees. However, I’ve made jerky just hanging it in warm, dry conditions. Sunshine is golden. My understanding is that the natural salts and sugars in meat keep the dried portion from spoiling. Once it has sealed itself, it’s just a matter of letting the rest of the moisture work its way out. Most people don’t have a real grasp on what aging meat is all about. Further, I think most people are just way too squeamish regarding their food anyway.
Back to spoilage, my understanding about the biltong recipe is that the spices were intended to keep insects away from the meat while it was drying. Of course, these days we all do want to avoid problems as much as possible so use of ovens and dehydrators does go a long ways towards avoiding potential nasties.
All of that said, please do check out this site http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Miscellany/Biltong_15192.html It has the biltong recipe as well as instructions for making a dehydrator using a cardboard box and incandescent light bulb.
One interesting thing about biltong is that the meat is cut with the grain rather than across it like typical jerky. This makes for a much more “work out the jaw muscles” experience. I think you’ll like it.
I tried his method of drying and found that my jerky ended up being rubbery and a little too moist for my taste. I’m sticking with a few hours in the oven @170 degrees.
This is the recipe my sister uses. Her jerky gets rave reviews.
She grinds her own beef, using lean roast and the grinder attachment for her Bosch mixer, and dispenses it with a cookie press. She has a dehydrator, and uses that and the oven.
My oven doesn’t go down to 170. The lowest marking is 200, and I’m suspicious that even that is even and consistent.
I like my dehydrator. It’s got lots of trays, so it fits a whole lot more than you’d expect. You can’t do nice big slabs of jerky like you’d get at the Ren Faire, but you can do commercial jerky sized pieces just fine. I don’t have sticking problems, either, like the oven reports are suggesting.
I’d suggest looking at thrift stores for dehydrators before buying one new. They tend to be impulse buys or gifts that sit in a cabinet for 10 years before being donated to GoodWill during a cleaning frenzy. I think I got mine for about $3, and it wasn’t even taken out of the plastic inside.
Do you do anything so that the meat doesn’t stick to the tray/rack?
If I’m using a marinade with lots of sugar, I’ll give the racks a quick wipe of vegetable oil. If it’s a predominately salty recipe, I don’t bother.
Well then. This thread / newsletter / line of reasoning intrigued me, and I wished to subscribe 
My experiment went as follows:
Go to Bulk Barn, a local store that sells spices in bulk. Purchase for the princely sum of $0.39 garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, brown sugar, and kosher salt. Combine the dry ingredients with vinegar and soy sauce, and use to marinate thin strips of round steak overnight.
Next day, bake at 175 for six hours. At 4PM, enjoy a tasty treat. 
More tests to come, and still with jerky in the fridge. Thanks again, SD.
Marinating overnight in vinegar is likely to “cook” the beef, like fish ceviche. You might want to find a different liquid to marinate in. However, you are making my mouth water.