Cutting Meat Into long strips - Jerky, Dehydrating, Cooking

I have dehydrated things since I was 20 or so. I have dried almost everything you can dehydrate. I have even tried weird things like pickles that I have not heard of being dehydrated before. 

I wanted to learn how to dehydrate meat and learn to make jerky. I tried many different recipes and meats and over the years, have given up basically due to the cost of meat and the time it takes to dry. 

I can purchase jerky for less stress and cost than I can make it. Now if I had my own cows, it may be worth it to make jerky but basically, the cost doesn't make it worth while. 

I used to order my jerky from a place in Texas and it was SO good. Now, due to the sulfites in the jerky, I don't eat it anymore. My liver is already stressed so it has become a thing of the past but I used to have a bag at all times in the car for long drives. 

While I was learning about making it and trying different recipes, I read a book about how the native American Indians would take large roasts of buffalo and venison and slice it very thinly starting at the top and cutting a thin slice just to the end of the roast but not all the way through the roast, and then flipping it over and cutting another thin slice going the opposite direction just below where the first cutting would come out if you finished the cut, cut the next cut almost to the end and then flipping it over and over cutting just to about the end and soon, they would have these long pieces of meat they could season and hang over sticks to dry. 

I learned that once you have the piece of meat sliced as long as you want it, it can be very wide so I turn it a quarter of a turn and then cut the width slices to make it as wide as I want. I made a video to show this but also took some pictures as I was cutting up some chicken for something I was making. 

I am not sure why I thought to make this video and blog about this but it is a weird thing that I know and didn't find on any sites so I thought I would share it in case any of my girls ever wanted to try and make jerky. 

I also use this method when I make bacon wrapped jalapeno chicken. I slice it thin so I can roll the chicken better. It also depends on the breast of chicken that you get. If it is a nice square type breast, it works better than a small badly shaped breast. 

Beef roasts work well and I never tried it with venison or buffalo as I have never had a hunter in the family so only did the beef. I have dried chicken though and wish I had sliced it super thin as it gets hard as a rock when dried and I used chicken pieces I bought bulk and you can break a tooth on them they turned out so hard. 

I used different store bought sauces to flavor them and some were really good. I suggest buying and trying all sorts of sauces at first to find out which flavors you like the best dried. I will warn you that anything with "oils" in them will cause the meat to smell rancid faster than sauces without oil so avoid salad dressings containing oil as a flavoring if you are going to store the meat for any length of time.  

Have fun experimenting. It isn't a hard technique if you have slightly frozen meat and a super sharp knife..... 

Have a Blessed Day!