DEHYDRATORS
What you wanted to know about
dehydrators and dehydration.
Dehydration
is a process that millions of homeowners have turned to as their choice for
drying everything from beef jerky to fruit and spices. So what's to a dehydrator?
A dehydrator is a dehydrator is a dehydrator right? Well, not exactly...
So You Want to Use Your Oven as a Dehydrator...
You can dry beef jerky in your home oven by laying the brined meat on your oven racks, but boy-oh-boy--- What a mess!!
Conventional Dehydrators
Inexpensive consumer dehydrators typically use a multiple plastic tray concept; stacked one upon the other in an interlocking means, so that air can be forced from the lowest tray through the top tray, thus drying out the items. While this is an efficient way of using heat and air, plan on having a lot of time on your hands-- making beef jerky can take anywhere from 4-24 hours depending on many variables such as meat thickness, amount of brine used, and the overall quality of the dehydrator being used.
If you're in the market for a dehydrator, Toxic Tommy's recommends a dehydrator that contains both a blower motor and heating element.
If you are fortunate enough to find a top quality (blower and heater) dehydrator in your local department store, you will want to be careful about these last few items; size and expandability.
For those with the desire to make beef jerky and a tight budget ($50), I recommend the Mr. Coffee Brand dehydrator. This unit has a blower/heater combo, and can be expanded to a maximum of seven trays. Better yet, the unit has a 12-inch diameter; this allows for easy dishwasher clean-up, and it has just the right amount of square inches to make five pounds of jerky in one loading. The result is a jerky dehydration time of 8-10 hours with only one rotation of the trays required. You can find this unit in your local K-Mart or Wal-Mart stores.
Commercial Dehydrators
While Toxic Tommy's uses commercial ovens from the manufacturers of Vulcan & Blodgett , the more-than-casual beef jerky hobbyist whose budget allows for a $50-$200 investment can take a look at the Excalibur Dehydrator line of products. These units are premium quality for making beef jerky at home; equipped with a variable temperature control and an analog timer as well as large multiple trays. Best of all, these units incorporate a horizontal air flow technology. That is, the air flows from the back of all trays simulaneously to the front of all trays. This gives even cooking and no rotating as well as about a 6 hours cook time versus 8-10 for circular stackable units. To order an Excalibur Dehydrator, inquire at their site, or do a search on "Excalibur" using your favorite search engine.
Back to Homemade Jerky.
