Jerky is a snack food known at least since ancient Egyptian times. In early times humans made jerky from animal meat that was too big to eat all at once, such as bear, buffalo, or even whales. North American Indians mixed ground dried meat with dried fruit or suet to make "pemmican". "Biltong" is actually a dried meat made in many African countries. Our word "jerky" came from the Spanish word "charque."

Jerky is a product that is a nutrient-dense meat that has been made lightweight removing moisture by drying. A pound of meat or poultry weighs about four ounces after being made into jerky (most manufacturers will add sugar, spices and other items to help to offset this). Due to the fact that moisture is removed down to “safe levels”, the product is considered shelf stable. It can be stored without any refrigeration — making it a handy food for backpackers and others who don't have access to refrigerators.

In order for this jerky product to be legally safe as determined by the USDA, we will need to talk about internal meat temperature as well shortly.

With commercially manufactured jerky products, the process is monitored in federally inspected plants by inspectors of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Products may be cured or uncured, dried, and may be smoked or un-smoked, air or oven dried. At commercial plants, both internal meat temperatures and water activity percentages (among other things) are continuously monitored and validated to regulate processes and assure safe quality products to consumers.

When raw meat or poultry is dehydrated at home, usually in a slightly opened warm oven or a food dehydrator, you should understand that it is possible to make jerky which will be stored on the shelf, but that any pathogenic bacteria are likely to survive the dry heat of a warm oven and especially the 130 to 140 °F of a typical inexpensive food dehydrator. This means, if you bought meat that was contaminated or somehow had something within your process that was contaminated that you introduced to the meat, you would have a high probability that your finished product would be contaminated upon completion of the dehydrating process. If meat is not contaminated and you proceed as typical, you won’t have any issues.

Some other risks that come to my mind at the time of writing this ( I accept every day) that you may or may not associate or accept, but that you could also get sick from;

Raw eggs found in home made ice cream (BRING IT ON)

Rare steaks (The only way to fly)

Slightly undercooked or dare I say raw hamburger!!!

Raw cookie dough (Daddy, I got a tummy ache!)

Soft chewy bacon (The rubberier, the better)

Illnesses due to Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 from homemade jerky continue to raise questions about the safety of traditional drying methods for making beef and venison jerky. The USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline's current recommendation for making jerky safely is to heat meat to 160 °F and poultry to 165 °F before starting the dehydrating process. This step assures that any bacteria present will be destroyed by wet heat. But most dehydrator instructions do not include this step and a dehydrator will not reach temperatures high enough to heat meat to 160 °F. After heating, maintain a constant dehydrator temperature of 130 to 140 °F during the drying process is important because:

1) The process must be fast enough to dry food before it spoils

2) It must remove enough water that microorganisms are unable to grow.

The risk in dehydrating meat and poultry without first cooking it to a safe temperature is that the appliance (dehydrator) will not heat the meat to 160 °F and poultry to 165 °F — temperatures at which bacteria are destroyed — before it dries. After drying, bacteria become much more heat resistant. Within a dehydrator or low-temperature oven, evaporating moisture absorbs most of the heat. Thus, the meat itself does not begin to rise in temperature until most of the moisture has evaporated. Therefore, when the dried meat temperature finally begins to rise, the bacteria have become more heat resistant and are more likely to survive. If these surviving bacteria are pathogenic (BIG IF), they can cause food borne illness to those consuming the jerky. If you must make jerky at home, here are some recommendations directly from the USDA for helping to insure your protection;

1) Always wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before and after working with meat products.

2) Use clean equipment and utensils.

3) Keep meat and poultry at 40 °F or slightly below; use or freeze ground beef and poultry within 2 days; whole red meats, within 3 to 5 days.

4) Defrost frozen meat in the refrigerator, not on the kitchen counter.

5) Marinate meat in the refrigerator. Don't re-use marinades. Using a brine will help to keep the meat moist while attempting to reach the 160 °F or 165 °F as described below.

6) Steam or roast meat to 160 °F and poultry to 165 °F as measured with a food thermometer before dehydrating it.

7) Dry meats in a food dehydrator that has an adjustable temperature dial and will maintain a temperature of at least 130 to 140 °F throughout the drying process.

Good luck on #6. Technically, the most important of working with “contaminated” meat. Attempting to open an oven and check the internal meat temperature of about 1/8” or 3/16” thick piece of meat with any level of accuracy, will be impossible. Cooked it too long and you will have burnt to a crisp jerky crunchies.  Just trying to find a temperature probe would be one feat, making certain your oven doesn’t have any cold spots another…don’t forget about thermometer calibration…..I think you get my point…..there will still always be some risk here!! If I was really concerned about this, my recommendation would be to preheat my oven to about 180 °F and cook my jerky for about 30 minutes until you can really see the jerky bubbling and juices dripping off. Then either turn your oven down or transfer your product to an already preheated dehydrator.

There are other special considerations when making homemade jerky from venison or other wild game that are also worth noting. Wild game meat is not regulated or reviewed by the USDA prior to processing. Venison can also, in some instances, be heavily contaminated with fecal bacteria (poop), as directly related to the degree of varying with the hunter's skill, wound location, and other factors. While fresh beef is usually rapidly chilled, deer carcasses are typically held at ambient temperatures (whatever the temperature is outside at the time of the kill), potentially allowing bacteria multiplication. Reaching internal meat temperatures of 160 °F with wild game meat is even more important as the risk of contamination is definitely higher.

So what type of “insurance” do you require for your home made jerky adventures? It really is up to you.

Best regards and good jerking to you,

Toxic Tommy