Preserving Meat Without Canning Or Freezing by Making Oven Jerky

Preserving food is always a good idea, but for meats conventional storage methods can be energy intensive, (such as pressure canning), or potentially useless, (such as a freezer full of meat in a black out).  It’s also useful when camping, hiking, or if you are in a situation when you don’t have access to a refrigerator.  Fortunately there are other methods of preserving meat, and I’ve been experimenting with them for my own food storage. Recently I attempted oven beef jerky using this site as a guide and was quite happy with the results.

How To Make Oven Jerky

• Slice meat as thinly as possible.
• Marinate for 12 hours.  (I actually skipped this part).
• Pat meat dry.
• Skewer meat strips, leaving room for air flow.  (I used knitting needles, as I did not have any skewers on hand.)
• Place meat in the oven set on warm (175-180 degrees) so that the strips hang between the bars of the oven rack.
• Prop the oven door open with a towel or pot holder to let moisture escape and let dry for 8-12 hours.
• Eat and store!  The finished pieces should be dry. I had a couple that were sliced too thick and it was quite obvious that they were not cooked.  All the other pieces were flexible, brown, and chewy and looked like jerky!

The hardest part is slicing the meat, which means this is pretty easy.  I was very pleased with the results and the kids were too!  I need to make more in order to have any left in the pantry!  If you liked making jerky and want to try another method, check out how to make hamburger rocks, or dehydrated hamburger.

The other awesome thing about making your own jerky is that you can control how much sugar to use.  I like to have low carb snacks available, and jerky would be perfect if there wasn’t so much added sugar.  When you pick your own marinade, you can lower the sugar too!  Homemade recipes are so useful 😉

Have you tried making jerky?  What did you think?  Do you have any favorite marinades?