I've been making quite a bit of jerky lately & though I keep it all in zip lok bags, a few days later, it tends to dry out & becomes too tough to chew. Any ideas ?
How dry are you taking it with heat? Try leaving it a little more moist to see if that is the problem.
Is it in the fridge or at room temperature in the zip lok?
Yeah it sounds like you have the same problem I do. I never seem to get it out soon enough. You have to be able to bend it still when you take it out. I always get that wrong.
I always store mine in a paper sack instead of ziplock - but I don't think that should affect the hardening. I suspect like these guys said you left it in too long. Sometimes it looks wet on the surface when you're cooking, but that is usually just grease not water.
Whats the heat at when you start your jerky? I start at 140* then work up to 160* After 4 pucks of smoke its into the dehydrator at 150* until its bendable and not brittle. I dont store in a zip bag, it needs to breath. Its either in a glass or plastic 1 gallon jar with holes in the lid or the Amish brown paper bag trick.
I'm sure your seeing all kinds of methods from everyone here.
Thanks for the replies. I don't use the smoker, just dehydrator. I do take the jerky out when I see that it's getting done. It does bend ok, so I also put it in the brown bag & fridge to begin with, then after a day I dump into a zip lok bag. I start at 160 & usally keep it there, or I'll drop it down some, but still, I keep an eye on the process as it doesn't take long at all until finished. If nothing else I guess, I could just start at a lower temp for the duration & see if that helps. Like I've previously said before, I can get a batch done in two hrs, so I dunno.
Do you slice with the grain or against it ?
I always slice with the grain but if you want to you could slice on an angle to the grain which would shorten the fiber of the grain and make it less chewy.
I use eye round and slice against the grain.
I've not had a problem with toughness or having it fall apart.
ODF,
Completing a load of jerky in two hours seems awfully quick in my experience. Is it possible your dehydrator is actually running hotter than you think?
KyNola
I was thinking about that too, KyNola -- Mine takes 4-6 hours @145-150F - depending on how much meat I have in there.
FLBR,
That's more in line with my experience. I don't think I've ever had a load come in much under 6 hours.
ODF, if your dehydrator is running hotter than you think, you may actually be cooking the jerky rather than drying it. I would test the IT of the dehydrator with some sort of probe or instant read thermometer. That just seems excessive to me.
KyNola
Thinking the same thing. 2 hrs is way too fast even for a pound.
My Cabelas dehydrator can take from 6 to 18 hrs depending on the amount i am doing. Check your dehydrator like others have stated.
The time is very quick unless you are slicing very very thin. When my dad was alive, I would slice the meat extremely thin as that is how he liked it. It would only take a couple of hours and it was typically pretty brittle.
I slice most of the jerky 1/8 to 1/4 inch and it takes much longer to dry. I also brown bag and refrigerate the jerky but if I forget to take it out of the bag after a couple of days, the fridge will dry the jerky out and make it undesirable. I vacuum pack what won't get eaten in a week and store in the freezer.
I use meat sliced about 3/8 in. and then marinated. I put it in a 6 tray nesco,full up and it takes 4 hrs. with no tray rotation and no diff. between top and bottom. It comes out very bendable and easy to chew. I also cut across the grain as my teeth are not that great. I run it at 155f. Piker
Sounds a bit overdone to me. Couple that with a very cold dry fridge and your jerky would have a tendency to get even tougher.