meat dehydrating

[tear11]

I would like to dehydrate meats for travel and on occasion for social situtations. Any recommendations on a good dehydrator. Thanks you.

[phatdave]

Check out lex's home made jerky drier.

http://www.rawpaleodiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/jerkydrierinstructions.pdf

[RawZi]

    phatdave, is that one good for making pemmican too?

    Anyone have a dehydrator to suggest for pemmican?  If so, why is yours good, or why is it better than another you've tried?

    I don't think I'll get a chance to try this, but I think it would be good information for you.

[tear11]

for ease I would prefer to just purchase one then build my own although I like the ingenuity:)

[phatdave]

Rawzi - this http://www.traditionaltx.us/images/PEMMICAN.pdf

Its less damaging to the environment to make your own, not to mention incredibly rewarding for such little work.

Think about it, the factory manufacturing of something like a commercial dehydrator, the plastic, electricity for production, circuits, labour costs, etc etc.

The box i got free from the electronic shop that i bought the light bulb, the wire/plug and the plastic part the bulb fits in. I bought a broom handle next door on the way home and some tape. A few snips and cuts later and I have something far superior that I made. I also had the fun of re-wiring a plug which took 5 minutes, and also the fun of figuring out how to make the lightbulb stand up - which took another 5 minutes with a bit of metal i found.

Now i have a simple drier, it works very well. Go on, try it - I promise you'll get a real satisfaction.

[RawZi]

    Thank you

    For now, the most I dry foods, is by leaving it out on a plate, much like AV's latest newsletter.

    I used to put my (wild crafted vegan) food in half a box, put it in the sun, and blow a fan past it.  Yes, I used a fan on my food rather than on me.  I wonder if that would work for meat.

    If I start drying more meat, Lex's thing does look cool.

[Neone]

I just cut my meat into strips and sew it onto some jute string, then i tie it to the roof and let it hang a week.. no electricity necessary

[phatdave]

even better

[robbie1687]

A few weeks ago I was about to buy a dehydrator and asked for suggestions here.  But then it occurred to me that I sometimes dry socks in front of a fan and it takes only a couple of hours.  Then I happened to read somewhere that air movement has a greater drying effect than heat.

So I hung some strips in front of a window fan.  They  got dry enough to be chewy in about two or three hours and completely dry by the end of the day, maybe eight or twelve hours.  My strips are about 1/8" or 3/16" thick.

Once I saw how great this works, I bought a couple of "kebab racks" for $4.99 each.  These are teflon-covered mini grills that clamp together like long clamshells.  You can put strips of meat on them and clamp them shut.  I hang the racks in front of the fan.

I've done this on plates too, but it takes longer because water can evaporate from only one side of the meat.  I also tried paper plates (which wick water away from the underside of the meat) but bits of paper stick to the meat.

I can't remember if I've tried this on an extremely humid day, but it wasn't particularly dry when I did it.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see any need for a dehydrator for meat.