The Complete Guide to Making Beef Jerky at Home 

***Correction: if using pink curing salt use 1 teaspoon per 5lbs of meat (not 1lb). Thanks @mikesmicroshop4385 for pointing this out!

I really appreciate how honest and transparent he tries to be

Was just telling my girlfriend I wanted to try making my own beef jerky. Could have easily followed any other type of video like this: but then you dropped this video and man, I’m thankful you did! I’ll definitely try out the oven method first before buying a dehydrator

I’ve been making jerky for about 15 years and learned something new. I could never put my finger on how the store bought jerky always had that extra moisture to it. Now I know they have a high humidity drying process. I also hate that style😂 I literally can’t eat any other jerky than my own because I’m obsessed with how mine comes out. I felt the nostalgia when he pulled out his first ever dehydrator. Mines been going strong for 15 years.

Hi guys I just want share my experience on this exact recipe so you don't make the same mistakes I did, I attempted this recipe the day before last and let it marinate for 24 hours, before drying I laid the marinated meat on a paper towel and patted it dry and left a couple with the marinate onto see if it makes a difference, furthermore I seasoned some of the meat before dehydrating it at 65c for 5 and a half hours and what I learned. 1. There is no need for the additional seasoning and in fact it made it unbearable to eat. 2. Patting them dry produced a similar if not better tasting product because the marinate was able to penetrate the meat and the wet ones were just too slimy feeling for my taste. 3. I'm sensitive to honey so I thought I'd use date honey but that was unfortunately the wrong move to make because it ended up being the only thing you can taste I couldn't even taste the meat so next time I'll stick with the brown sugar. 4. although I think the fact that I used date honey was entirely my fault I still think that the 15-20% sweetness estimate is way too high and I felt that I got nothing but sweet flavours which was a bit disappointing so next time I'm hopefully going for a more conservative 8-10%.

Max is the best, he explains things so that you actually understand. He is the best.

Fantastic guide on how to make jerky!! Gotta try it when i have the time!! Been watching this channel for a long time and there is always soo much to learn!!!! keep up the good work!!!

Thank you so much Max. Loved this instructional style content

Going broke buying all these beef jerkies. Recently added dried meat into my lifestyle for a better eating, real food healthy eating lifestyle. Was thinking about learning to make my own jerkies and boy was i glad i clicked on this video. I thought it was going to be a long sophisticated, constant monitoring type of process but you definitely made it easy to follow and explained it step by step so thoroughly. Thank you my guy! Will definitely support purchasing some jerkies from you as well until i get the ball rolling. Much love.

So glad biltong is here for our SA viewers but you should try all our SA varieties😂🇿🇦 We have: Game biltong Beef biltong Geelvet biltong (which is beef with a side of fat) Chilli bites (beef or game) Biltong sticks (beef or game) Droëwors (beef or game)

Can we please get a series of these videos. They are my favorite!

Lots of good info packed into this video! Thanks, Max!

Its really nice to see such a large creator being so active with his community in the comments. Some people have less than one third the subs and dont give superlikes or reply to any comments.

I typically smoke my Jerky for a few hours until the surface is dry, then finish in my dehydrator. It makes the cleanup MUCH easier since you don’t have marinade baked onto the Excalibur mesh sheets. Very interesting on the moist dehydrating at the factory - I may have to try spraying my jerky while it smokes with apple cider or something along those lines for a similar effect!

i live somewhere i cant get max jerky but i really wanted to try it. Thank you for this. Really appreciated.

I completely forgot about the experimental taste test at the end 😂, almost went to watch another video. Very educational, and I almost forgot about the bit of fun thrown in. Gotta give it to Max to always make his video's interesting, The meat side of youtube is always the best 💯

Now that I've seen this, I'm curious to experiment with the humidity aspect of making jerky more tender. I'm thinking maybe laying the jerky on the top rack of my smoker and filling a sheet pan with an experimental amount of water and putting it on the bottom rack. The amount of water would be the delta. My thinking is that while the water evaporates, it will create a humid environment in the smoker but then at some point the water will completely evaporate and then I can let the jerky finish to a nice dry but tender texture. Unless you make a video doing this experiment, I will report back with my findings

Great video, really informative!

My recepe for jerky (any jerky): Use whatever mid-grade meat your butcher has on hand(it's normally cheaper and faster to get it non-pre cut). Take the jerky and slice it into 1/7th-In, now let it get to room temperature. For a marinade I use 2shots JackDaniel's, .5shot of 80Prof Vodka, and 3Cups of beer per .5lbs of jerky you're making. Now let it rest over night. Now, in the morning, after letting it sit, take it out and prepare to boil it (1min/.5Lbs of meat). For the boil use 1cup of Viniger, 1table-spoon of whatever salt of your liking, 2Litres of water, 1shot Molasses, and 2table-spoons of whatever sugar of your liking. Use this mix and double it per every 1lbs of meat. After boiling smoke it high and fast for half an hour, after let it cool 1min/1lbs of meat, after go low and slow for 1hour. After smoking dry it out. Now enjoy.

im gonna try it!!! thankz for the breakdown!! love the vid 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽😊😊

You are the best, You’ve come so far. Great Job!

Jerky is so easy to make, everyone should try it. It’s the getting it the way you want it part that can be tough. It’s fun to experiment with different things to see what works.

I just made jerky for the 1st time today using left over tri tip. Smoked it at 200 for 7.5hrs thank you Max! It was delicious

Yay! Max listened to my advice from like a year ago 😊

this video singelhandedly has me wanting to attempt making homemade jerky. Thank you for showing the process, it's not that much to do. An morning & afternoon on a day off can end in a tasty treat.

I would have appreciated if you would have elaborated how we might add more humidity to our at home jerky ventures, but other than that this was unbelievably informational. I've always loved beef jerky and have thought about making it before, but this video really lays everything out better than any other video I've watched on the subject. I'll definitely be making my own for the first time soon.

I would advise You to experiment with ultrasound marinading process - ir can be done bagged or if marinade is thin as is. It's quite superior to vacuum tumbling for taste penetration. I think it's absolutely the future both for alcohol production as it speeds flavour dissolving and penetration but also for meat taste penetration. It would be incredible for thicker cuts such as steaks at home.

Max tasting meat at the end is truly a beautiful sight to behold

I always wanted to know this! Done with the industrial beef jerky’s 🤤🤤

I gotta say you are right sugar does make it better and bounds out the salt because once I made in a beef jerky weird like a type of soda but we got rid of all the fizziness and a balance out the salt so much and it was so good

Saw your road trip video the other day when you stopped and got some jerky. So I order yours and just go them about to try it.

As I have a family history of Cancer I need to avoid meat (due to IGF-1 and BLV in beef in particular) but miss jerky so I'm going to try making jerky with seitan and tofu this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration

I started making my own jerky because of the price. Get a 5lb round and flavor like I want at the time. Throw it on the smoker at 180 until done. I even do those odd pieces you would cut off to square the meet up for cutting. They became sample pieces during the cook. Not sure how long it would last because between the kids and I we usually kill it within 3-4 days.

the crazy part of doing this type of video against your own product is respectable, shows that there is value in both sides of the coin well done.

I make my jerky in my instant pot air fryer usings its dehydrate setting. I've found that it leaves it much more tender and less dry than my dehyrator

I love making my own jerky. Lately tri tip has been one of the cheaper cuts and it makes some GREAT jerky

Pretty solid advice! Gotta update to the excalibur for home use instead of the Nesco. Nesco is still dope, but always been a fan of the Excalibur 9 tray. Especially for fruit leather.

Hearing Max trying to pronounce Worcestershire is why I watch RU-vid. 😅

I kid you not 2 hours ago i talked about making beef jerky for the fun of it but didnt know where to start, this video helped me so much thanks

Such a great video I’ve been making jerky for years such a great snack and hobby been cooking it in my pellet smoker the last 5 years instead of a dehydrator…a week or 2 to eat the jerky more like 2-3 days 😂😂😂

I'm Digging The Tasting History type transition 😂🎉

I guess you could smoke your marinade and add back water when done. You would just need to weigh it beforehand and when you're done, then put the missing weight in water back in it. That would prevent you from using liquid smoke.

I have an older circular Nesco dehydrator similar to that one, just ancient. I’ve used it to make jerky for years and it works really well, I just need to get more trays for it. Apparently with those kind you don’t need to rotate trays like you would the box oven style ones.

I never thought I would be interested in meat until Max poped on my yt shorts

Ayyyyy, Max the Jerky Guy! Let's goooooooo!!!!

I love making smoked salmon and sturgeon and can't forget elk and dear. Here recently I find myself wanting to make pemmican. Just like you I enjoy making jerky. Thank you for a great video

I’ll be honest, biltong is far superior to jerky for me. It’s a lot less dry than jerky is

Sophia is my favorite character on this show. Simply from that joke.

Thank you! Weights and measures are missing, or not there on so many vids. Very helpful.

My homemade jerky is a 3 day process day one slice and marinade day two dry outside in the sun with a big screen to keep away the critters and day three smoke all day with a cold smoker will last months and months even a year in a paper bag left in the fridge

Hey max, have you tried to do bak kwa before it be kinda nice if you include in your future video sometime comparing American style jerky and Chinese style jerky

Mans brought out the biltong😮 thats the best one from far

This was great info. I learned a lot.

I’ve had two Nesco dehydrators over the past 15 years. I didnt buy the second one because the first one broke or anything, I just bought it because I wanted more racks. They last forever and you won’t regret purchasing one.

It always makes me happy when people mention biltong.

I would also like to note that having grown up where snow every now and again would zap the heat out of the house getting so cold we would run the oven open instead … I too did this as an adult and actually ended up blowing out the heating element or was it the coupler… I forget but when you run an oven open for long periods of time it can never “get to temperature” so the constant running fries it… this wouldn’t happen with what you’re doing here say a handful of times over long periods of time but if someone was to attempt to do jerky daily or at least frequently in an oven it would begin to fry those elements. But doing this every now and then would be fine.

So Max. You having your own Jerky and Learning everything you could. I want you to order some No Man's Land Beef Jerky. And Do a Video Review. Best Beef Jerky I've Ever had (No Disrespect To Your Brand, Obviously, Which Come At 2nd For Me). Although, it is on the pricier side, I Highly recommend everyone to try it at least once. Would Love to know your Honest opinion. Love Your Videos Man. Keep Doing What Your Doing. Very Happy for Your Success.

Man can’t believe there ain’t elk or deer jerky cause that stuff is amazing

I had jerky once that was made with ahi tuna, and it was some of the most flavorful jerky I've ever had!

Hey man I know your the guy to try this, I’ve always wanted to see steak marinated or dry aged in homemade chimichurri if you can make a video on that I’d really appreciate it I’m scared to do it myself

I just got an air fryer that has a dehydrator and was definitely looking at the cook times. I knew you’d have a video to help me out lol

I make beef jerky from cheap steaks i slice in thin strips, cover in lots of mixed pepper and then dry in the oven at 55 degrees celsius for about 4 hrs. chewy, peppery and feels like meat as opposed to off the shelf products that often have a weird soft and fiberless texture that does not feel like chewing meat....

I'm salivating just watching 🤤😋 I don't eat sugar, can stevia, allulose, monk fruit or xylitol be used as sweetener in the marinade? Looking forward to your reply 🙏

I can't believe Max made impossible bacon with that impossible sausage. The innovation of the dehydrator knows no bounds.

I was expecting a video like this since you come up with your own jerky brand

"This looks like a dementor" 😂

It’s Always Great When Max Uploads ❤🥩 🔥

Great video 🔝👍

You are the man max

Did you have to stack the different meats in the dehydrater in a specific order to avoid possible cross contamination?

Funnily enough, my favorite Seasoning so far has been just throwing the meat in Green olive brine, great flavor

The pride I felt at the mention of biltong- the best kind of dried meat loved all over South Africa

Now that you said humidity adds that tender touch to jerky couldn't you just add some water obviously separate in a metal bowl or my dehydrator has some fruit sheet attachments to maybe get that better texture.

Okay if you're using liquid smoke, what's wrong with hickory, sure I'd prefer white oak, or pecan, but there's nothing wrong with hickory.

omg i love ur content

One of the best meat guys on RU-vid

I’ve made jerky with my dad a few times and it’s so good (oh and a tip try using an file knife for me it works better I don’t know if it works better then yours)

you did not just say that "that's not the sausage party I want to be invited to" 🤣🤣🤣

definitely right about store bought jerky, health and safety costs too, expensive industry to get into, but when they get it right it tastes soo good.

The best I've had was from Opa's smoked meats in Fredericksburg Tx. It was really good

My mom uses an air fryer when making jerky she has only done it twice but it has been pretty good, what do you think of that method?

Amazing video thanks

Could you add some water in a bowl or pan in the oven to create the humidity?

Smart video idea. Sold me on trying your jerky. Just ordered the variety pack

Nice video! a lot of info! big thumbs up for the meat joke!!

Cant wait til you start shipping International. New Zealand!!

Thank you for the excellent, and extremely in depth video. I've never tried jerkey, given that it's not a thing in Serbia, but I will try to make some in my oven. Do you think it might help if I add some pan with a bit of water bellow the jerkey? That might add to some more humidity in the beginning of the process. Or, perhaps, spray water in the oven from time to time in the beginning?

I’ve made beef jerky before, and all my God is in amazing. Your is taste better than the brands when you make it like off making it you taste the brand and just think it doesn’t taste as good as it used to. It just doesn’t end that funny.

Any ideas for chicken/fish/turkey jerky???

When max pulled the pink salt, I was worried for a second

Any thoughts on pre or post dehydrate pasteurization?

Would've loved to see Maitake (Hen of the Woods) mushroom jerky. It's incredible!

@MaxtheMeatGuy try making your own biltong. It will be a lot better than packaged biltong and it will change your opinion about it.

Hey do you think you can try to make biltong( basicly South African jerky)

Max the Jerk guy 😂 Love jerky for sure 😊

I just ordered a custom 8 pack off this vid can’t wait to try it!

Facts bro

Max love the content, I used to sell jerky back in high school...I made Bank!!! but boy was it a lot of work. It has always stayed a big hobby of mine, Currently trying to start my own bbq food truck. Just wanted to say I appreciate all the hard work you've put in. But above all that beef pork joke at 10:13 was extremely out of line, it almost makes guga's jokes funny.

I just put in my marinade lot of fresh garlic and onion. Maybe littlebit chili flakes and pepper and that much soy sauce so they swim in it. That’s got you really good jerky. Do not use sugars

“we got a giant chub” 😂