Dehydrator. Who has them?

[Bassett]

I'm going to start dehydrating fruits and vegetables and make beef jerky. I'm wondering how do you store your products after you have dried them. My book says to store them in the refrigerator or freeze them. Then what is the sense of dehydrating? I don't have an extra freezer and I doubt very much if my refrigerator would hold much of what I want to do. I want to do strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, apples, mushrooms, peppers, you get the idea. So how do you store your dried foods?

Years ago I made beef jerky and I have a super good recipe for it. If anyone is interested I'll post it. My oldest son is in Idaho hunting now and he is going to bring me a bunch of venison to make jerky. Yum. Yum.

Thanks all. I know someone will have an answer for me.

 

[uwharrie]

we freeze or put in the fridge. It does extend the shelf life. ( takes up way less room than undehydrated stuff)

I guess you could vacuum pack or seal it in jars as well.

 

[FoRebel]

When we use our dehydrator we vacuum pack everything if we're not planning on using it any time soon. Otherwise, like with the beef jerky (it doesn't last long here) we just refrigerate it.

 

[ctinsley]

I'd really like to see your beef jerky recipe. I've been thinking about make some

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I freeze mine, except herbs. I just use ziploc bags and take out as much as I want.

 

[Katiean]

I made Ostrich and Emu jerkey. It was real good but it wasn't around long enough to worry about storing it. I kept it in a canister that had a seal on the lid.

 

[Bassett]

Here's my jerky recipe.

1 1/4-1 1/2 pounds meat --------------- 10 pounds

1/4 cup soy sauce ----------------------- 3 cups

1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce---- 12 Tablespoons

1/4 teaspoon pepper--------------------- 3 teaspoons

1/4 teaspoon onion powder-------------- 3 teaspoons

1/8-1/4 teaspoon garlic powder--------- 1 1/2-3 tablespoons

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg--------------------- 1 1/2 teaspoons

1/8-1/4 teaspoon ginger----------------- 1 1/2-3 teaspoons

Marinade overnight.

Dehydrate.

I used to go to the meat department and had them slice me 10 pounds of round steak 1/4 inch thick. That way all my pieces were uniform in size. Then I used 12 times the marinade. But I had a huge dehydrator. This also did not stay around long enough to get old.

To all who try******enjoy.