Is dry jerky food suitable for storm preparation? I am not sure the word jerky is correct word. It can be dried turkey, chicken or beef. <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Dried jerky CAN be used for emergency supplies. It has good protein content, HOWEVER it also usually contains a good amount of fat and salt--and these items cause you to need more water intake. If water is not an issue, the long shelf life of jerky can be a plus.

I've put up a lot of jerky over the years. The problem with jerky is not spoilage in the usual sense, but mold. If you cure it dry, dry dry as a bone, or if you put onto it anti-fungals, you get no mold if you stor it right. But that is not very good quality to eat. I can't remember the exact numbers, but good jerky has still in it 10 to 20% moistured by weight.

Also, there are a lot of variables as to how you do it. Oven? Dedicated dehydrator? Smoke? Sun? Commerical stuff is obviously oven/dehydrator with smoke flavor.

But for usual conditions, eat it, and rotate it. It's great stuff. Throw a good chunk in a pot of cooking dried beans, and you are good to go.

I can turn you on to the the best turkey-jerky cooker in the world, if you want.

I think preserved meat, as a class of food, is one of the worst disaster foods available. Grains, pasta, peanut butter, etc should be cheaper, longer lasting, easier to store, and less dangerous if spoiled. This may simply be a reflection of my priorities: carbohydrates, fats, protein.

In her book Emergency food storage and survival, Peggy Layton wrote "We've all heard the saying, "You can't live by bread alone". I have the philosophy that you can live on bread and soup."

I think it's interesting. Learn to make your own bread with wheat, yeast, powdered milk and dried eggs etc. For soup you have instant bouillon beef and chicken, dehydrated soups and canned soups, stuff like that. You start with it and then you can expand your array of food. Of course you already pack a lot of water because it's not a challenge to store water, it can withstand extreme temperature fluctuation but just make sure to protect them from light.

For the backpacker and bug-out situations it's another matter of course. Chris K. made me aware of an interesting text by Brenda L. Braaten "Pack light, eat right". It has good information :

http://www.thru-hiker.com/articles.asp?subcat=12&cid=39

Frankie

I have one of those round dehydrators and it seems to work pretty well. One thing that has always bothered me about jerky is the excessive salt. What I thought about doing is taking plain, unseasoned meat strips, drying the meat as crisp as I can get it, putting it in the oven at +160 degrees for an hour, and then storing it in the freezer. I'm curious as to how long it might store that way. Of course this wouldn't be for snacking, but rather for soups and stews. Adding water should reconstitute it. Any thoughts?

Regards, Vince

There was a "Good Eats" (hosted by Alton Brown) on making Jerkey recently. One thing I remember from it was that when making jerky, you want to dehydrate it, not cook it, so any dehydrator that uses heat to remove moisture is less than optimal.

His solution? Sandwhich the strips of meat between furnace air filters. Looked like he had a sandwich of 5-10 filters, with strips of meat in the accordion folds of each filter, strapped together in a stack using bungie cord. This was then placed in an open window with a fan blowing through it. 8 to 12 hours later, jerky! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

(Disclaimer: I never tried this. Don't even like jerky. But "Good Eats" is cooking for nerds. Good show.)

<<you want to dehydrated it, not cook it, so any dehydrator that uses heat to remove moisture is less than optimal.>>

That's what my dehydrator does. It adds a little bit of heat (probably around 90 degrees F.) and then just circulates this warmed dry air around the racks of meat. It works pretty good, much better and less messy than the oven, which is what I used to use.

The reason they suggest then putting the meat in the oven above 160 degrees F. for an hour is to kill any Ecoli that might be present on the meat. I have found that after 8-10 hours in the dehydrator, there is not much more that the oven can do to the jerky. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Regards, Vince

Those dehydrators are good -- better than the oven, in fact because they move air.

As for the salt -- well, you need a bit as a preservative. You don't have to gag on it. I have kept jerky in the freezer for a long, long time, not to prevent spoilage, but to keep it from molding. I jerked damn near an entire deer one time, and IIRC, we had forzen jerky that was great 1 1/2 years down the road.

You have to remember: if you have it dry enough, it will still suck moisture out of the atmosphere, and it will still mold. My living space runs about 40% relative humidity, and I can't keep it out for long. I would prefer that it be not so dry. If it breaks when you try to bend it a little, I think it is too dry.

The show good eats went into the stuff about all the little nasties that grow on food. First you cure the meat with a prservative solution....this kills the things that grow. Then it is dried...preserving it. Check it out on food network...I saw the show and it was excellent.