How do I make beef jerky with limited equipment?

Can I use rib eye steak for beef jerky? Also how do I get moist and tender jerky?

I really hate to state the obvious here but i just typed “how to make beef jerky” and got literally paves and pages of sites with tutorials aplenty. Im just too tired to try copy pasting a bunch of links from a phone browser. Its too aggravating to try to control it precisely.

Plus im sure there are plenty more on YouTube as well.

You can use your oven (with a few tweaks to give ventilation) You definitely DO NOT want to use rib eye unless you want your jerky going rancid. Ribeye is a very fatty cut of meat.

To make jerky you need to trim off all fat. Use something like brisket instead. Ribeye is one of the fattest cuts. You need something leaner.

And that leads to the second problem with ribeye. Its EXPENSIVE and since youll have to trim all that fat off thats tossing money in the trash.

Id start off with Alton Brown on YT. His show “Good Eats” was on the air for years and years. Not only is he an excellent teacher, hes also very science oriented and frequently has rather technical sciency explanations for why hes doing what hes doing. Plus he has a quirky sense of humor so watching him is never boring.

You need a way to low heat, ventilate and smoke the jerky meat all at once. ^^^^ @Buttonstc has great advice.

Try using ground beef.

A friend was just telling me he makes jerky that way. You need lean ground beef…I don’t know if 80/20 will work, but 90/10 surely would. Likely still be expensive.

Locally, I could buy a cheap cut of meat with very little fat and ask the butcher to grind it fine for me. I might have to leave it to pick up later (when they were grinding), but it would be better, cheaper meat.

Try using ground beef.

No. You want zero fat for jerky, not a fat & meat blend.

Your friend is making ersatz Slim Jims.

I like to use flank steak or eye of round steak. low fat cuts with very defined grain. Then using bamboo skewers hang the strips in the oven from the top rack. set the oven very low and leave the door open a bit.

Opps.

Try using ground beef.

Making beef jerky at home is quite simple. Here is a recipe I found interesting. You can try it as well. It is simple and does not need much of expertise…

http://goldenagecheese.com/blog/beef-pepperoni/how-to-make-pepperoni-ground-beef-jerky-at-home/

Cut it into thin strips, salt and pepper it, and hang in the sun to dry.