Making Jerky in the Oven

Jon from Lancaster, Ohio asked:
How can I make venison jerky in the oven? What temperature should I set it on and how long do I leave it in the oven?

Jon,

I have used my household oven to dry jerky many times and it works very well! Not to mention: it makes the house smell wonderful also!

One thing to note is that you will have to add a little bit of liquid smoke to your seasoning marinade to get the smoke flavor into the product because you won't be burning wood. Be careful when doing this! If you add too much, you can really give your product a bitter smoke flavor! I like to mix the liquid smoke with a little water to dilute it down and get it evenly spread throughout my meat.

When drying jerky always remember you're doing just that - drying it! Not baking it! So keep the temperature nice and low. Start out at 150F for 1 hour then go to 170-180F until dry. The trick here is don't over dry! There's a fine line between dry enough and crispy, so be careful!

You really should look at our Advanced Jerky Processing DVD. It's 2 full hours of great jerky processing tips! Great DVD!

Brad Lockwood
"The Meat Man"