Drying the meat in the food dehydrator is quite a tricky job to do in comparison to the vegetables and fruits. Meat needs the right amount of heat for killing the bacteria. Rehydrating the meat is not so easy.
There are so many different types of meats that you can dehydrate in the food dehydrator. Picking the lean meats for drying is always a good idea as they don’t go sour quickly owing to less oil and fast and also the flavors of your foods also easily maintain. The ideal temperature at which most of the meats get dehydrate is 145 degrees F till the time they get dry and hard.
Do you have any idea that which meat can we dehydrate in the food dehydrator?
In the below article, we will provide you the complete list of meat you can easily dehydrate in the food dehydrator. Besides this, we will also share with some useful info about the meat dehydration that you can use while drying your piece of meat next time.
So, let’s have a look!
List of meat that you can dehydrate in the dehydrator
Below is the complete list of meat that you can dehydrate in the food dehydrator easily:
1) Ground beef
The first name of our list of meat is ground beef jerky that needs to get dry at a temperature of 145 degrees F, and it takes around 6 hours in the food dehydrator. You should blot any fat on this meat with the help of paper towels during the drying process. There should be no moisture inside the beef meat, and it should be flexible also.
2) Canned tuna
Tuna is seafood that needs 12 hours for drying in the food dehydrator at the temperature of 145 degrees F. Once the drying process gets completed, it turns into dry, leathery and brittle. You can store it in the room temperature for not more than the period of 2 months.
3) Cooked shrimp
Before drying the cooked shrimp in the dehydrator, you need to boil them in the salt water to turn it into the color of pink. You should dehydrate them inside the food dehydrator at 145 degrees F for the period of 4 to 6 hours in the dehydrator. After drying it will become hard. It is advisable to use medium size shrimp for the dehydration process as they get divide easily in pieces.
4) Imitation crab
This type of meat generally comes refrigerated inside a vacuum sealed bag. You have to cut them into small size pieces before drying. The ideal temperature at which the imitation crab gets dried is 145 degrees F for around 6 hours till it becomes hard in the dehydrator. You can use them for making meals after rehydration.
5) Biltong
Bitlong meat needs to place with the even gapping on the trays of the dehydrator. The ideal temperature at which the bitlong gets dried is 155 degrees F, and it takes around 12 hours in the food dehydrator.
6) Chicken Jerky
You can quickly dry out the chicken in the food dehydrator at an internal temperature of 140 degrees F for 5 to 7 hours in the food dehydrator. You need to place the strips of the chicken evenly on the trays for uniform drying from all sides. The drying time influenced by the thickness of the strips.
7) Fish Jerky
It is one of the most common meats that are loved by lots of people around the world. The ideal temperature for drying fish jerky 145 degrees F to 155 degrees F and it needs 8 to 12 hours in the food dehydrator. You should keep in mind that there should be no excessive salt inside the fish before placing it in the dehydrator.
8) Lamb Jerky
Lamb Jerky is prepared quite quickly in the dehydrator by taking out the excessive fats and internal liquids. It makes the lamb jerky lean and chewable. The ideal temperature at which the lamb jerky prepared in the food dehydrator is 140 degrees F, and it needs 4 to 5 hours for drying. You should not dry them at higher temperatures as this will only roast the meat and does not dehydrate them properly.
9) Pork Jerky
It is healthy and finger-licking meat that you can dehydrate. You have to put the slices of the pork on the mesh trays and set the temperature at 155 degrees F to 160 degrees F. It will take 5 to 8 hours for drying inside the dehydrator. If the pieces bend before getting crack then, it means they dried completely.
10) Turkey
Turkey is quite popular meat that you can consume in the dried form. On most of the occasions or party, people prefer to cook turkey as a symbol of joy and cherished. The ideal temperature for drying the cooked turkey is 160 degrees F. It may need 8 to 10 hours for drying but the drying time varies with the model of the dehydrator that you are using.
11) Venison Jerky
Kids mostly like to eat the venison jerky as junk food or snacks during their leisure time. It provides the right amount of energy and nutrition without any harmful chemicals. You can dehydrate it at 125 degrees F for 10 hours in the food dehydrator.
What are the different Types of meat that are appropriate for dehydration?
The dehydration process of meat is very easy. You can store the dried meat for several months at the room temperature. Owing to the low content of water, the bacterial decay of the meat gets safely prohibited. But, weakening of stand by fatty tissue due to most rotten could not be banned. Thus, it is always recommended to utilize lean meat while drying meat in the food dehydrator.
Buffalo meat and beef meat along with the meat of goat, antelopes, and deer are best suited for the dehydration. The similar thing applies to the livestock’s meat that utilized in certain areas for the production of meat, like yaks or camels. The mutton is not so well suited for the dehydration in the food dehydrator. Meat like pork (lean muscle) is less appropriate since it comprises higher quantities of intramuscular and generally imperceptible intramuscular fat (inside the cells of the muscle) that is inclined to oxidation and therefore goes rancid rapidly.
How to cut the raw meat for dehydrating in the food dehydrator?
The raw meat that is visible to open air and recurrent solar radiation rapidly lose considerable quantities of the moisture in the tissues. The dehydrating procedure shall be faster if the space from the middle of the meat slice to its shallow is shorter. With the aim of speeding up the process of drying especially through the meat’s internal layers, it is always advisable to slice the meat in slender shreds or even bits.
The below are the suggested shapes for meat while drying in the dehydrator:
- even- or leaf-designed slices with cross-sections of 0 cm to 5cm x 3 to 5cm
- strips with a four-sided cross-section of 1 x 1 cm
Inside the big size thick pieces of meat, the content of moisture in the middle might stay elevated for quite long. In such a condition, the high room temperature might quickly result in bacterial decay because the microorganisms may get favorable conditions for development. Therefore flat pieces of meat must always be utilized for effective dehydrating. If the fat turns rancid, then it will easily spoil the food due to chemical reactions. You should also trim off the visible fatty tissues from the lean meat for increasing the shelf life of dehydrated meat.
How to prepare the Cooked Meats for food dehydration in the dehydrator?
If your meat is cooked already then, it means your one step of cooking saved. There is no need to do any preparation for drying the cooked meat.
The cooked meats should have tender cuts that they don’t become tough or chewy. If there is less amount of fat over the meat, it will be better because the fat is always responsible for making the meat rancid.
You can use the dehydrated meats in the soups, stews or the Beef Stroganoff. You should keep in mind that all the pieces of the meat are small so that you can re-hydrate the more uniformly. The dried, cooked meats that are vacuum sealed can last at room temperature for the period of 2 weeks to 3 weeks.
Final word
The dried meat should always be stored in the airtight container to avoid the issue of bacterial growth. You can also keep in the vacuum sealed packs for more safety. But keep in mind that the place at which you store them should be dark and cold. If you want to increase the shelf life of the dried meat then, it’s better to keep them in the fridge or freezer for suing up to one year or more.
The dried meat is only a healthy snack but also an energy booster for the campers or the hikers. We hope that after reading the above information in the article, now you know that complete list of meat you can dehydrate in the food dehydrator. We have also shared the drying temperature and the drying time that required for drying particular meat in the food dehydrator.
Is there any name of the meat that we forget to mention in the above list? If yes then, do let us know in the below comment box. Don’t forget to share this info with all those people who do not know about the names of the meat that they can dehydrate in the dehydrator
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You forgot one delicious, inexpensive (in Australia) meat that you can dry in a dehydrator: kangaroo.
Thanks for the tip!
Hi
Any receipted for lamb jerky you can recommend
Currently, we don’t have any lamb jerky recipes on our blog. We will soon come with one.