Turn wild game into jerky in a dehydrator made from strips of apple wood or hickory. Dehydrated foods can be stored for several months to years if packaged correctly and stored in a cool, dark place. Make multiple dehydrators with fine and loose weaves in order to prepare jerky using both meat strips and ground meat.
Instructions
1. Mix ten packages of unflavored gelatin with 4 qt. of water in a large stock pot. Bring the gelatin mix to a rolling boil. Add the wood to the stockpot. Stew the wood strips at a full, rolling boil for five minutes. This will allow the gelatin to fully penetrate the wood and make the strips flexible. Remove the pot from the heat.
2. Use tongs to remove the 4-foot strip of wood from the gelatin mix. Lay the strip on its side and bend it into a circle. Overlap the ends 2 inches. Clamp the ends firmly together with a clothespin or chip clip. Working from the left side of the clothespin, wrap a 1-foot strip of wood around the overlapped ends of the longer strip. Clip clothespins to the wrapped portion as you work, until all of the overlapped area is covered.
3. Repeat Step 2 to make a second wooden hoop whose diameter is 1/8 inch smaller than the first one. Clip several clothespins side by side on the wrapped portion of both hoops to hold the wrapped areas in place for 24 to 48 hours, depending on the humidity.
4. For a microwaveable dehydrating tray, cut a circle of fine, plastic mesh screen that's 2 inches larger in diameter than the smaller of the two wooden hoops. Place the screen on top of the smaller hoop. Fit the larger hoop over both the screen and the smaller hoop to sandwich the screen between the two hoops. For a solar dehydrating tray, wrap the tray with cheesecloth after the jerky mix is on the mesh screen. To make an oven-safe tray, use fine, metal mesh screen material.
5. Cut your meat into strips and marinate it in jerk seasoning mix, or mix jerk seasoning into ground meat. Make a single layer of strips or a thin layer of ground jerky meat on the screen. Bake metal-mesh trays at 200 degrees F. Microwave plastic-mesh trays on the lowest setting for five minutes at a time until the jerky is just barely flexible. Wrap solar trays tightly in cheesecloth and place in full sun.
Tags: mesh screen, dehydrating tray, five minutes, ground meat, jerk seasoning