Making Jerky… Use a Jerky Gun or Sliced Meat

Guys and Gals,

When you make your jerky do you use ground meat with a jerky gun or sliced meat and marinade?

I am going to make some this weekend was just looking for opinions. I have an electric smoker which is my cooking device so I can hang meat in there or I can put the ground meat on pans.

If you have a recommendation for a jerky gun that would be great!

I prefer sliced.

Sliced here as well.

Sliced here as well. I’ll do the ground-up method with scraps or if I mix with pork/beef…like duck, pheasant, goose…

For true jerky, its sliced meat. For the jerky gun, its ground meat for mostly sticks to smoke (whether they are flat to look like jerky or round to be sticks, they are still the same).
For jerky, I brine in a marinade. For the jerky gun I use one of the dry seasoning mixes instead.

If your using beef from the store, I’ve found that many places will slice to your spec’s for you for a reasonable or no cost.

I like both and have had samples that were terrible for each kind.

1 thing is to watch the amount of smoke you use. Jerky will suck it up fairly fast. If you can turn off the smoke after an hour, maybe 2 otherwise finish it either in a dehydrator or oven, you won’t have the strong smoke taste and maybe even bitter taste. Some like no smoke but I do like some. Put the meat flat on grates or mesh, not a pan. You will need to rotate them and probably pluck them out as they get done as they will not all dry at the same rate.

Also, I don’t use a marinade but it ends up that way. I use dry seasoning and then mix in water just so it “coats” all the meat. Not too much water wither, oh and use bottled water. It makes the jerky wetter thus more drying time but the flavor gets distributed even.

I don’t think it matters much on the jerky shooter if you use ground meat.

By the way, most of the above info came from Crappie Tom who has a ton of smoking/meat experience. He may chime I here too. I had the opportunity to sit down with him over a Castle Danger Cream Ale last week and pick his brain. Wow, all I can say. The beer was great but the information he gave me was fantastic. I can’t wait to use what he told me! I never knew how little I really knew before chatting with him. He’s got a couple old posts on smoking in here that will be very beneficial if you want to search for them.

Good luck!

I like the jerky gun because the ground meat is not as chewy but has all the flavor. I also have a jaw issue and can’t enjoy the sliced jerky as much. I do find that doing ground jerks works better in a dehydrator with liquid smoke. I like the LEM Jerky Cannon. With that gun you can buy different tips to do sticks or bigger stuff with casings.

Ingredients
o 2 lb of ground venison (Substitute any ground red meat, such as beef or buffalo for the venison)
o ¼ cup Worcestershire or Teriyaki sauce
o 1 tsp paprika
o 2 tsp Garlic Pepper
o 1 tsp Onion power
o 1 tsp tenderizer
o 1/2 teaspoon L.E.M. Cure
o 2 Tb A1 Bold and Spicy OR Sweet Baby Rays wing sauce
o 2 Tb brown sugar
o 1 tsp Ground Mustard
o Liquid smoke
Mix all together and let it sit 24 hours. Mix again, stuff into the jerk gun and fill up the racks.

Rule of thumb smoke time is half the cook time or it will taste like feedback

I almost always grind it and put it thru the jerky gun. The gun is a simple tool, don’t over think them or try to go crazy (it’s just a bigger calking gun basically). I’ve just never had the time or patience to thinly slice the meat. It’s a heck of a lot easier to throw it thru the grinder. I’ve only ever made it with wild game though, never store bought meat. If the store would slice it for you, that might be a different game.

Owen’s BBQ has some really good seasoning mixes.

I prefer sliced as I like to try and make the jerky a little more on the tender side. I don’t like ground jerky as much as it tends to be drier from my experience. I slice beef or venison roasts into 1/4 inch slices and just lay on the racks of my electric smoker and do it that way. This has worked well for me the last several batches

I’ve done Jerky both way’s. Both turn out good. It all depends on what you are in the mood for. The ground seems to cost a fair amount less if you can find a good deal on ground beef at the time. if doing in a dehydrator or oven. make sure you use rather lean Ground, If not you will end up with a ton of mess to clean up. 75-80% lean will drip and run all over the place. If going the sliced route – be sure to use a good cut of beef. Like someone else said have the butcher shop slice it for you to thickness you want. Doing jerky of different thickness can make the process rather hands on and time consuming.

definitely use cure (pink salt),
but use the amount the manufacture recommends.
too much or too little can cause big problems. lots of unsafe recipes on the net.
I make both types.

I do both.

I use ground venison with backwoods cure/ mix from fleet farm. I only add 1 tsp crushed red pepper to pre mix pack. 6 bucks to make 6 lbs, fast and easy! put in jerky gun and spiral onto dehydrator racks, run on high(185) for 4 hours ready to eat! super easy my dehydrator holds 4 lbs and I get 3 lbs finished jerky

Sliced all the way. Good sliced jerky is impossible to beat no matter how great the ground meat recipe may be.

In my dehydrator, I would use ground. I would just roll it out flat between 2 pieces of wax paper, using a plastic drinking cup, cut a hole in the center, to fit the tray chimney… think LP Album, that’s what it should look like, lay it on the tray, remove the paper and repeat to fill the dehydrator. When its done, cut each LP with a meat scissors into the size pieces you want. Simple and fast and easy clean up.

I make both types,smoker for whole muscle jerky and sticks,but when it comes to flat ground jerky sticks,I prefer the LEM jerky racks for the oven,I usually make 12-15# at a time and they do just as good of job,probly better than the dehydrator(get to higher temps)and much faster and I can do 4# at a time in my oven.I also make the skinny round uncased sticks in oven also,hard to beat the jerky cannon for squeezing them out!!

I’ve had both and enjoyed each. It’s like a blended margarita vs one on the rocks.

Yep, both are good.

If you get serious about making sliced jerky, a hand crank slicer is a tremendous time saver. It also makes very consistent slices.

I bought one years ago and have sliced hundreds of pounds with it for myself and friends. Highly recommended and worth every penny. Mine is a stainless Cabela’s, think I paid around $100 for it.

Looks just like this but stainless.

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I use a jerky gun.

I make it both ways. I grind about half of my canada goose breasts, the other half I’ll slice. Same with snows & diver ducks. Sliced jerky is made on the Traeger. Ground is done on the 10 tray dehydrator.