When using a food dehydrator - do you use raw meat?

Cafe Society
1

It seems like a stupid question, but I am seriously not sure…?

2

I’m assuming for things like beef/turkey/whatever jerky? Yes, you use raw meat.

3

When making jerky, make sure you have a good cure (salt and other spices that will inhibit the growth of nasty badness). Just chucking untreated raw meat in probably wouldn’t be the best culinary experience. But if you have properly cured the stuff just go ahead and dry away! I have done this before and it comes out pretty good (not quite as good as the old fashioned way though).

4

“The USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline’s current recommendation for making jerky safely is to heat meat to 160 °F and poultry to 165 °F before the dehydrating process. This step assures that any bacteria present will be destroyed by wet heat. But most dehydrator instructions do not include this step, and a dehydrator may not reach temperatures high enough to heat meat to 160 °F.”

(Found here).

5

Thanks - that’s exactly what I was wondering!

6

I use raw beef and the Alton Brown fan & air filter method (no heat), and have never had any problems. I’ve found that USDA recommendations put no priority to creating food that actually tastes good.

7

I don’t know that I’d trust chicken or other poultry, but people have been making jerky for a looong time from beef that was raw when the drying process started. My uncle in Bisbee, AZ used to hang his on lines under the eaves of his house, the Mexican bar up the street hung theirs on strings between chairs in a store room with a fan and a space heater running (but it certainly never reached 160 F). A friend of my dad makes “Slim Jims” by piping seasoned ground meat (I think it’s beef & pork) into his dehydrator with a pastry bag.

I know it sounds strange, I was really icked out when I saw how my uncle made his. I’d eaten it a few times before, glad I tasted it before I saw it being made. He was a desert rat, he also carried his own pemican along with the jerky. Now that’s some foul businees, that pemican (not to be confused with Pemican brand jerky, this stuff is ground up dried meat, berries and fat or something).