Jerky discussion: Food dryer, freshness, etc

[mbryson]

With our recent power issues in the land of yard rocks (Bountiful), we were wanting to start leveraging our food dryer a little more to dry meat/jerky. Questions I've run across are below.

1- freshness.... How long can I keep jerky in a vacuum sealed bag? I've read between 45-180 days

2- recipes.... Who's got a good recipe to start with? (our food dryer literature has one and would be a good place to start... maybe someone has solid stuff)

3-better tools to use than a dryer....?

 

[Kevin B.]

I don't know exactly about freshness, I've seen a lot of different estimates too. If you do it right it ought to last nigh onto forever, that's the point of jerky, but "right" might not = "tender and tasty"...

I'd vacuum bag it and then freeze it. Then you've got 45-180 days from when the power goes out instead of from when you bag it.

 

[ID Bronco]

I've eaten and enjoyed Jerky for about a year after it was dried and frozen. No problem with it at all.