Reccomendations on a food dehydrator and jerky recipes?

I'm thinking about buying a food dehydrator to save on the cost of beef jerky and so I can dehydrate the veggies we're growing this year. Does anyone have a recommendation on their favorite food dehydrator? Right now I'm looking at Nesco FD-75PR 700-Watt Food Dehydrator which is only $60 on amazon and have 4.5 stars out of a couple hundred reviews. I'd prefer for the dehydrator to be from Amazon only because I have a $50 gift card for them I'd like to use up.

2nd question, does anyone have any favorite beef/buffalo jerky recipes or any dehydrated veggie tips or recipes they'd like to share?

Thank you in advance!

reply to post by kittendaydreamer


Dehydrated veggies tip.

Buy red,orange,green and yellow peppers.
Cut into slices and dehydrate them.
Eat out of the bag with nothing....they are like really tasty potatoe chips but are good for you.
I have 2 dehydrators but not sure the names of them.

Good luck!

reply to post by DrumsRfun


I used to get the just veggies freeze dried mix from whole foods just to get the peppers and tomatoes so I will certainly be dehydrating peppers too, especially when they go on sale. Thanks for the reminder! I heard somewhere a red bell pepper has more vitamin C than an orange although I never checked on that.

reply to post by kittendaydreamer


I use mine to make dehydrated soup packs as well but when i started i wasn't dehdrating my own veggies....I was using those same packs of dehydrated veggies that you mentioned.

A small handful of rice.
Cut up the veggies into small pieces and dehydrate.
Add some onion or chicken bullion mix. (can't spell buillion lol)
Toss it in a good Ziplock bag and you have a soup pack for a dayhike.

Add jerky if you want as well.

I own the old Ronco unit from TV infomercial long ago, but my research on line also lead to the Nesco as #1.
Recipe for marinade:
Salt, brown sugar, ground black pepper, hickory liquid smoke, dry yellow mustard, chillies, tabaskco.
24 hr marinade.

You know you dont really need a food dehydrator, right? You can make jerky and dehydrate in your oven with the heat from the light bulb.

reply to post by survivalstation


The oven in the house we're renting in has errors it flashes F1 on the digital screen which is something to do with it's motherboard I think? The owner has had someone come out to fix it twice and it still occasionally breaks....especially if you're doing something like cooking a holiday meal She lives in the house too.....hopefully will replace it within a year or so but I'm not counting on it. So the oven dehydrating isn't as reliable as a dehydrator in my case at the moment. Thanks for the tip though.

Just google Biltongmaker.Com. In SA we call jerky, biltong. Though biltong is made with nice thick pieces of beef.
On that page you'll find some nice recipies for "droë wors" (dried sausage).
I think it's safe to say that most South Africans lóve our biltong and boerewors. Half wet, half dry, very dry, just salt and coriander, or other spice, it's always nice!

reply to post by madleo


That site looks good, thanks for the link. I think those strips look like the jerky steaks I've seen from jacklinks although jacklinks may make them from ground beef...not too sure.


Has anyone tried lamb jerky? Sounds interesting.

reply to post by kittendaydreamer


I bought and excaliber dehydrator.I need to get
a food saver sealer next.Don't forget the oxy
absorbers.
There are all kinds of jerky recipes online.
Good luck...

reply to post by kittendaydreamer


Excellent product. Purchased that model recently. Highly recommend it as it is quiet and efficient. Has only been used at this end for beef jerky so far. It comes with a small starter package of spices for jerky and good instructions/menu, suggestions, etc. Nothing like good homemade jerky....

reply to post by manta78


Good to know someone has used it, I ended up purchasing it this morning and since I have free 2 day shipping as a student through Amazon it only cost me $9.99 after using my giftcard.
Hoping to get a lot of use from it.

I had one they're great fun...

Try dehydrating strawberries and watermelon....

They turn into candy

reply to post by Akragon


I plan on it with strawberries...watermelon though I would think would fall apart. Do you have to cut the watermelon really thick? I'm also going to dehydrate some tomatoes to put into some olive oil and soak for a while for a yummy pasta dish.


So far my list to dehydrate is
meat- Beef jerky, buffalo jerky, maybe try lamb jerky

veggies (for soup mixes,oils or snacks)- carrots, peppers, tomatoes, corn, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, peas

fruits- Strawberries, honeydew, cantaloupe, winter melon, possibly try that watermelon thing,

other-Jelly/fruit rollup making, cooking herbs, maybe lavender, possibly honey just to try out some powdered honey.

reply to post by kittendaydreamer


nope it will stick together, if you cut them too thick it will be like rock candy....and you won't be able to eat it

try about half an inch thick... And watch out btw....

Dehydrated watermelon is the sweetest thing you'll ever taste

reply to post by kittendaydreamer


Oh no, ground beef will not do for biltong!
I don't know where you live, but seeing that there are South Africans everywhere, you might find a shop that sells SA food.
No matter where we go, we need our Mrs Balls chutney, our Ouma rusks, biltong and droë wors. Not forgetting our ACE flower for the "pap", and the SA brewed beer for the "braai"(bbq)!

so I ordered it Friday and I received it today My first batch is honeydew, watermelon and strawberries. Meat is marinading so it'll be tested tomorrow. Very excited!

Originally posted by madleo
reply to post by kittendaydreamer

 

Oh no, ground beef will not do for biltong!

I don't know where you live, but seeing that there are South Africans everywhere, you might find a shop that sells SA food.
No matter where we go, we need our Mrs Balls chutney, our Ouma rusks, biltong and droë wors. Not forgetting our ACE flower for the "pap", and the SA brewed beer for the "braai"(bbq)!

Hey, howzit?

I used to work in a butcher shop where we made lots of jerky. I've been told biltong should be thicker much thicker even than north american style jerky.

Just a few questions:
1) how big should I cut the pieces?
2) Is there a preferred cut of meat to use?
3) what are those yummy looking coiled sausages I always see you guys bbqing called?

reply to post by FEDec


Hi. About that coiled sausage, it's called boerewors. The site Boerewors.Com has recipies for that too! I don't make it myself, just buy it from the butcher. The pure beef boerewors, becomes the nicest droë wors (dried sausage)!
I have not gone through the recipies on that site yet, but I'm sure they will have the size and the prefered cut to use for biltong.
Ostrich biltong is also nice. We have Kudu, Springbuck ec biltong. Just no lamb or pork biltong!

Originally posted by madleo
reply to post by FEDec

 

Hi. About that coiled sausage, it's called boerewors. The site Boerewors.Com has recipies for that too! I don't make it myself, just buy it from the butcher. The pure beef boerewors, becomes the nicest droë wors (dried sausage)!
I have not gone through the recipies on that site yet, but I'm sure they will have the size and the prefered cut to use for biltong.
Ostrich biltong is also nice. We have Kudu, Springbuck ec biltong. Just no lamb or pork biltong!

Thanks! There is an emu farm not too far from me I wonder if that would make a good substitute for ostrich. Either way I'll give that website a good look over.