How Do You Make Your Favorite Homemade Jerky?

NESCO original jerky seasoning

Add Some Zip with NESCO Original Jerky Seasoning

There’s no wrong way to make jerky but ask any hunter or outdoor enthusiast and you’ll start a debate that lasts longer than the hunting season itself. Whether you use sliced or ground meat, NESCO has the tools to make your jerky game soar and NESCO’s Original Jerky Seasoning can make any jerky recipe pop with flavor.

Virtually any type of lean meat can be made into jerky—beef, pork, turkey, venison, duck, you name it. While there are pros and cons to using both sliced and ground meat, it mostly comes down to personal preference.

Ground Meat
Using a lean ground meat provides opportunity for more customized jerky options. You can combine two types of meat to enhance the flavors, and using the NESCO Jerky Gun means you can create three types of jerky using the interchangeable attachments for wide strips, dual strips, and round sticks.

Ground meat jerky can be flavored by mixing the NESCO Original Jerky Seasoning directly with the ground meat and loading it into the gun. It typically takes 8–10 hours to dry in a NESCO Dehydrator depending on the thickness of your sticks.

Proponents of ground meat jerky enjoy the flavor and indicate that ground meat jerky is often less chewy, easier to eat, and sometimes more crumbly than its sliced counterpart.

Sliced Jerky
Sliced meat jerky can also be made out of any cut of lean meat. You can cut it yourself to a desired thickness or ask your local butcher to do so. The general rule is 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness for the easiest drying.

Flavoring sliced meat will take a bit longer, however. For the best flavor, you should marinate your jerky for 12–24 hours. It will take the same 8–10 hours to dry in a NESCO Dehydrator, depending on the thickness of your slices.

Proponents of this method enjoy the chewiness, stability, and flavor of the strips, but also say the cost of buying an appropriate cut of store-bought meat can get more expensive than using lean ground meat.

NESCO Original Jerky Seasoning Makes Any Jerky Recipe Pop with Flavor

No matter which method you choose: ground meat or sliced meat, NESCO’s Original Jerky Seasoning, or one of NESCO’s other flavor seasonings, can elevate your jerky game even more.

The seasoning mix and cure packs can be mixed directly into your lean ground meat or, by simply adding a 1/2 cup of water to the seasoning and cure packs, you can turn it into a simple marinade for your sliced jerky.

A few hours in a NESCO Dehydrator or a conventional oven and you have the perfect homemade snack.

Whichever way you make your jerky, enjoy the snack with friends and family and let NESCO help with the process. With products like the NESCO Jerky Gun, NESCO Dehydrators, and NESCO Original Jerky Seasoning we can improve any culinary experience for you.

NESCO: Your Key Ingredient

At NESCO, we believe life is an occasion worth celebrating. We’re dedicated to being Your Key Ingredient in those celebrations by making cooking enjoyable again with our complete line of innovative small kitchen appliances and accessories. NESCO began as the National Enameling and Stamping Company and created the first Roaster Oven in 1931. NESCO is currently headquartered in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

To purchase NESCO products visit nesco.com or for more information call 1-800-288-4545.

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