Make venison jerky at home for a healthy snack and a treat to share with friends. Venison jerky is easy to make, keeps well and has plenty of protein.

You can use ground meat for venison jerky, which is much easier to chew than slices of whole muscle. The jerky also has a deeper flavor.

Ingredients

Choosing the right ingredients is an important part of the jerky making process. The best meat to use for jerky is lean, as fat hastens spoilage. Venison is a good choice because it has a meaty flavor and is relatively low in fat.

Trim as much silverskin as you can from the venison and then slice it against the grain into 1/4-inch-thick strips. A meat slicer makes this step easier and faster, but you can also do it by hand.

Prepare a Marinade – For optimal flavor, let the meat bathe in your jerky marinade overnight before drying. This will give the flavors time to meld together and provide a better savory taste.

Combine the marinade and sliced meat in a large bowl or food storage bag. Mix the spices with the venison and then store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to make your jerky.

Once you have the venison jerky mixture ready, load it into a jerky gun (like our LEM Mighty Bite 8.5” Belt Driven Meat Slicer) and spray it onto dehydrator trays until they are all full. Then set your dehydrator to 160 degrees and leave it to dry for about 5 hours. Check for doneness by gently bending the jerky strips to make sure they bend without breaking.

Preparation

Venison jerky is easy to make at home, and is an excellent snack. It can be made to suit your taste and stored safely in the refrigerator or freezer for weeks or months.

The preparation process for venison jerky includes marinating and heat treating the meat. This helps to reduce the risk of bacteria, such as E. coli, and parasites such as Trichinella and tapeworms.

To begin, trim the venison of fat and connective tissue. It is also important to remove as much tough silverskin, sinew and tendon as possible.

Next, slice the meat crossgrain about 1/4 inch thick. This ensures the jerky will be chewy, but not too tender or brittle.

Cut the sliced meat into thin strips about 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide and 4 to 10 inches long. Arrange on dehydrator trays or cake racks for oven drying, placing the strips close together but not touching each other.

Cooking

A great venison jerky recipe starts with prepping the meat and creating a delicious marinade. You can use soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, and a variety of seasonings to achieve a flavorful jerky that everyone will love.

To start, slice the venison against the grain into thin strips. You can do this yourself or you can ask your butcher to cut it for you on a meat slicer.

If you choose to do it yourself, you should partially freeze the venison first so that it’s easier to cut into uniform slices. Next, trim any fat or silverskin off the meat.

Afterward, cut the meat into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Lay them out on dehydrator trays or cake racks set on baking sheets for oven drying.

Storage

As with most meats, venison needs to be stored properly to prevent illness from parasites and pathogens. To help prevent these threats, freeze meat in pieces less than 6 inches thick (at 0 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least 30 days before processing.

Freezing helps to kill parasites like Trichinella that can cause a condition called trichinosis. This is especially important when making jerky from wild game.

After freezing, slice the meat into thin strips, approximately 1/4 inch thick and 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide. Arrange the strips on wire racks, 1/8 to 1/4 inch apart for air flow.

Depending on how long you want to store the jerky, you can choose between using an air tight container such as a stand-up pouch, Mylar bag or mason jar. Adding a food grade desiccant could also be an option to help maintain moisture in the jerky.

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