# Jerkey keep time



## Vovin (Oct 9, 2008)

I have a food dehydrator that I make jerkey with. How long should my jerkey stay good after I make it and where should I store it? Sometimes it's not like professional jerkey and has a little fat left on it, it's either that or have it cardboard dry. Does the condition affect the keep time?


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## Detdake (Oct 9, 2008)

What is having it cardboard dried?


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## DrewDrew (Oct 9, 2008)

What other foods do you dry out?


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## carnut1100 (Oct 9, 2008)

If dried well and kept well away from any moisture it should keep for years.


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## Jack (Oct 10, 2008)

here the aboridginals are not real well known for long term food preserving but they did ok too,

they dryed meats into jerky and excess was often stone ground ( cardboard dry  ) into a powder and stored in clayed bags ( they made a bag from bark string and put clay over the weave making a very effective container)

a naturalist lady in the 60's did some testing on it and some other folks did retesting again in 1991 of a batch made in arnhem land ( northern territory)

after 30 years this was still good with minimal bacteria ( less than a average peice of store bought chicken)

it is a 20,000 year old ( approx) formula for instant soup!!

basically the less fat the dryer the jerky the longer it will last

lean meats are best

here i use Kangaroo as it has bugger all fat, but read Bison meat is good for the US folks as they concentrate fat in area like camels and the rest is pretty lean, deer meat is good a well but i'm only new to that myself and have not tryed any long term stored stuff.

but i have eaten my own 'roo based jerky that was 4 years old

i'm told emu is the best but never tryed it myself 

cheers

jack


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## gds (Oct 10, 2008)

Vovin said:


> I have a food dehydrator that I make jerkey with. How long should my jerkey stay good after I make it and where should I store it? Sometimes it's not like professional jerkey and has a little fat left on it, it's either that or have it cardboard dry. Does the condition affect the keep time?


 You can affect the shelf life by what you use in your brine, other preservatives besides salt, but then you end up with store bought poison.
The dryer you make it the longer it's going to last. I dry my jerky to the point where it will bend without breaking. I also vacuum seal all my dried meats and fruit and store in a cool dark pantry. The longest I have stored it is 3 yrs, only because it is constantly being eaten and replaced.
If you leave it a little moist and store at room temp. that little bit of fat will go rancid unless vacuum sealed.

Keep it in a cool, dry, dark place. Try zip lock freezer bags, squeeze as much air out as possible, seal and put in the deep freeze.


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## JeepHammer (Oct 10, 2008)

Keeping out oxygen and moisture is the key to long term perservation of meat when you Jerk it.

Mine seems to do best when I get rid of all available fat, or use a meat with VERY low fat content (like Venison).

I use the vacuum storage bags, and that seems to help with both the oxygen and moisture intrusion.

Smoking the meat before dehydration will *substantially* increase it's storage life while giving it a flavor boost from the 'Same Old Thing' taste...
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Something I've been trying, but I don't know how it will work since the first batch is only about 7 months old...

I've been replacing the 'Air' (with oxygen content) with CO2 or Argon out of my welding guns.
The factories inject CO2 & CO (Carbon Monoxide) into the bags at the factory, along with a desiccant to keep the moisture out...
I though I'd try it myself! I don't know how it's going to work long term, but I have about a dozen bags sealed up with 100% Argon, and about a dozen bags with 90% CO2 & 10% Argon. (Just the gasses I had on hand for my welders)

No oxygen, no micro-organism growth, or so my half baked theory goes...
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I'm also pretty good at keeping the desiccant bags out of pill bottles, and everything else when I find them.
Throw those babies in the oven at about 200°F for about 4 hours and they are ready to use again!
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Some of the guys I know store Jerky in canning jars, actually Jerk the meat, then put it in canning jars, heat it up to the point all micro-orginsims should be dead, and seal the lid just like you do when canning anything else...

If I'm going to can meat, *I'm NOT GOING TO DRY IT OUT FIRST*!
Something just goes against my grain about drying out meat before you go to the trouble of canning it!

Jerking is for short term storage,
Canning is for LONG term storage, and with Canning, you get to keep the moisture and broth!

WHAT ARE THEY THINKING!?


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## infidel (Oct 13, 2008)

Does deep freezing jerkey take away from the texture / flavor? Can it easily get freezer burn?


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