Beef Jerky

One of the snacks that the boys in the family love (and I'll admit, the girls do too although I would never eat any store bought ones now- almost all have HFCS and are super expensive) is beef jerky. I recently started buying my beef products from M & M Farm, which has a stand at the Central Market in York. I bought a skirt steak from them and it was the perfect cut to make jerky. It was long and slim and I easily took my kitchen shears to cut into strips.

I used the following recipe and made the Traditional version, although with my next batch I am going to try the other flavors as well. The traditional was a hit, although it probably needed to be dehydrated a little longer, but since I was using my oven, and it was hot, and every time I tested it I had to eat a piece...I just decided it was better to stop dehydrating or it would all be gone by the time it was done enough!

I did not have organic Worcestershire sauce (but I do now!) for the first batch. I marinated in a glass dish overnight. Here's what it looked like:

Yummy, right? ;)

Then I laid the beef out on a foil lined cookie sheet to dehydrate. My oven didn't go down to 145 as the directions suggest, I believe 170 was as low as it went so I did prop the oven door open some, although I might just try it with it shut next time, not sure. I would really like to get a dehydrator and eliminate the excess electricity cost of using the oven. I flipped the beef about once each hour, about 4 hours total. It turned out a little darker than store bought, but the taste was amazing! Can't wait to make the next batch!