Homemade Beef Jerky in Oven

How To Make Homemade Beef Jerky in Oven for Backpacking

Before we set out for our first overnight on the Appalachian Trail, I did a ton of research on how to make homemade beef jerky. We don't have a dehydrator, but I saw that we already own something that would do the trick - our oven! So, here's the recipe I used and how I did it:

Alton Brown's beef jerky recipe

I bought about 2.75 pounds of london broil for about $19 at my local Earthfare where we get the best meat. Brought it home stuck it in the freezer for a couple hours to make it easy to slice. Don't freeze it all the way, of course. Just get it nice and firm. Then, Allen sliced it paper thin (maybe a little too thin - but it worked fine.) Grace mixed up the marinade and we put it all in a zip lock bag to marinate. I couldn't get back to it the next day, so it marinated 2 days before I had time to dehydrate.

For the dehydrating process, Grant and I layered the meat in a single layer on paper towels. So it was paper towel, meat, paper towel, meat, etc. That way, we could press down on the whole stack and absorb the marinade.

Then, we spread the meat on wire racks - the kind we use to cool cookies. I only have 1 big one and 2 little ones, so I was going to take 2 rounds of dehydrating. I put the oven on warm - which is 170 degrees in my oven. Then, I propped the door open with a cork as I had seen as a suggestion somewhere online. And that's it. After 2 hours, voila! Beef jerky - and it was super tasty! For the second batch, I put the oven on autocook and set it for 1.5 hours and went to bed. The oven went off by itself and I figured it would stay warm long enough to finish the process.

Sorry - I don't have pics. Didn't think about doing a blog til we were on the trail. Next time...