Ground deer jerky

[grizzlygibbs]

So I have a plethera of ground deer meat.  We dont use much of the grind and I am not about to let it go to waste so I just ordered some Babe Winklemans Sweet and Spicey BBQ and some Wildberry Chipotle jerky seasonings and i am gonna attempt to make some since I am a stay at home dad now!  Any body have much experience with ground jerky or the pre-made seasoning?

[bow4elk]

Yes, it's good!  Assuming you're using a jerky shooter of some kind?  I use one from cabela's, the middle of the road model and the drying racks.  I've done burger jerky in the oven but you can do it in dehydrator or smoker just the same.  The pre-mix seasonings usually have a meat preservative in them, so after you mix it per the instructions, you let it sit for 8-12 hours in the fridge to cure before drying.

[7mag.]

I usually make my own brine, I like it better than the pre-made stuff, but that's just me. I've never made jerky from grind before. You may need to get one of those jerky shooters, it might work good. Keep us posted.

[NRA4LIFE]

Yes, I make it all the time.  Just follow the directions for spice amounts.  What I do to form them is take a piece of wax paper and line a big sheet pan.  Then press the meat into the pan forming a sheet.  Make sure it is not too thin either.  I leave mine about 1/4" thick or a little thicker.  Then pop that into the freezer until it's nice and stiff.  Transfer to a big cutting board and cut into jerky sized pieces and dehydrate (or smoke).  It works better if you grind it fairly coarse also.  A 1/4 or 5/16 plate is ideal.

You can also buy a jerky gun, but the one my brother bought was very hard to operate especially if the mixture is stiff.

[7mag.]

Bow4elk, beat me to it! Sounds tasty.

[grizzlygibbs]

Thanks guys for the replies, I am gonna price out dehydrators and jerky guns.  My wife has always wanted one to make our own dehydrated fruit and all that.  But if she doesnt budge I will probably just do it in the oven and use the sheet method!

[billythekidrock]

I have done it a few times and am happy with the results.



Here is a link to a thread on how it went.

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,1016.0.html

[BLKBEARKLR]

It is actually quite good I have done about 20 batches of it, one other thing that I did was on some of it after cooling but not completely cooled I put some in a ziploc bag and let the moisture kind of soften it up some

[Gutpile]

I've done it with ground beef and it was pretty good. Easy too.

[Buckmark]

Skip the jerky gun and dehydrator, buy some of the drying racks though, i am realy cheap so what i do is buy the mix you want (eastmans or whatever) it has the cure agent in it, mix according to the directions, let sit overnight in the refer, then roll out on wax paper (1 sheet on the bottom, 1 sheet on the top) pat/push into a shape with your hands, then use a roller or wine bottle (again im cheap) to about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick, pull off the top sheet of wax an cut with a pizza cutter to the width you want, lay on drying racks and put into the oven (set racks on cookie sheets or foil) cook at lowest setting per directions and in a few hours instant jerky, play with spices and make your own flavor, make some plain and put it into seal a meal bags with franks redhot and seal, freeze an enjoy later, we seal and freeze alot of it and it lasts along time...

[Jason]

A couple of weekends ago I decided to do some ground Elk Jerky since I have about 70lbs of elk burger leftover from last year, so I went to Whole Sale Sports and bought a jerky shooter, WOW I'm hooked on that stuff now  , tasted great and was a lot easier to make than regular jerky, I used about 4lbs of burger, put in the dehydrator for about 6-7hrs.