i've done a bit of jerky, my wife and i are "healthy" half of the year, you know when you can stand to be? heh, anyway for food dehydrators you need to circulate the air really well. Some cheaper machines only try to circulate it through the "middle" hole. these are the ones where the fan is either top or bottom mounted, a good one (i have the really old model) is
nesco food dehydratorthey circulate air through the inner walls as well so you get total coverage, when i made jerky i never noticed "dryer" spots, it was even throughout. you'd want a dehydrator that has fan on top imo, this is for easy clean up. the cheaper models have fan on the bottom, and what happens when you have to take apart the dehydrator (which is EVERYTIME you dehydrate) you have get bits and pieces of meat out of fan blades.
a model with a top fan you just take it off and clean the trays instead.
the good thing about these "cake type" food dehydrators is that you can keep on expanding... you find 2 tons of meat? just buy more trays and add on to you're food dehydrator.
this is vs. the "square" types
box dehydratorthey are about 4x more expensive but, they have a side fan, so it is a more even flow of air, and these models you can just slide out a tray easily, much like a drawer system. however they aren't expandable, since you're locked in to a box shape.
food dehydration isn't really about "heating" up the food, rather you're just trying to provide enough circulating "dry" air to get rid of all the water molecules in you're meat... because that's how meat goes bad/rancid, water + fat = spoilage, so if you get rid of the water, the fat cannot react with anything, and that's really how jerky is.
dry vs. wet.
i never really cared in the dry vs. wet jerky, i just use all sorts of spices, heck i don't even measure anymore, i just throw **** in, ha.
usually it's
soy sauce
vinegar
salt
peper
cumin(for the heat)
texas pete (flavored heat)
i do use a vacuum sealer
food saver vacuum sealerto marinate my meat + sauce for half a day, don't use the bags, just use the containers and clean up is like easy, i find vacuum marination really get's the flavors in there, and the vacuum sealers now are pretty cheap.
i don't know if you should "buy" any dry rubs... usually in my experience most rubs are just 80% salt anyway, so i'd suggest just experimenting with flavors you like.
other than that, remember to trim as much fat as possible off the meat (fat=bad and rancid) and always cut against the grain, this way you'll prevent "stringy" jerky as much as possible.
also don't forget the "freezing" trick, put your meats in the freezer for... maybe 1 hour before you cut them to make them solid and very easy to cut into strips, they don't have to be super thin, 1/4 inch is good
oh and be prepared for the smell... in a good way, when i made jerky, my dog would go crazy for a whole day.
in terms of cost? i think it's actually about the same with store bought vs. you're meats. (especially when you factor in time/materials...)
here let me explain
the good cuts of beef to use for jerky are
flank
top round
rump
basically the really lean meats, which usually are some of the cheapest... because remember fat=rancid, so you want lean beef.
i would say (since i've moved to jersey i get lots more options now) flank steak or rump would be 8bucks a lb? (maybe more like 6 to 7)
you loose at least half of you're meat to water (sometimes more) so you're ratio is really
2 to 1 or even 3 to 1
2:1 or 3:1
somewhere in between, so that makes it really... 16bucks for a 1lb of beef jerky or 1ounce a pound
most good packaged/bought jerky is probably going to cost from 1 to 2 bucks an ounce.
again don't forget to factor in the time you spend prepping and the startup costs, the dehydrator and such. but then of course... you're basically making your own super natural, no preservative beef jerky.
clean up is a PITA, you have to clean in between all the little holes in the screens... ugh...
