Beef Jerky

As I think I've mentioned I have a dehydrator with 8 trays. Last weekend we seasoned and cured 8lbs of ground beef (93%) into four 2lb batches.

Two batches were store bought seasoning: cracked pepper with garlic and hickory. The other two were mixed up using sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings: Asian Zing and Spicy Garlic.

After gunning it out into trays and dehydrating for six to eight hours we had some jerky.

The hickory was hickory. Have had it before, nothing too exciting from the normal. I definitely like hickory better than mesquite. The pepper and garlic was delicious. The Asian Zing was good as well. Have done that before as well. It comes out a little softer than seasoned jerky due to the moisture of the sauce. The spicy garlic is normally a really good wing sauce, but once jerkied it doesn't carry the same flavor. Not sure what got lost there.

Maybe it just needed more sauce, but then the meat gets difficult to work with. I wonder if it would be possible to dehydrate the sauce into a paste, or dust, then mix into the meat. Get the flavor and seasoning without the moisture. Will have to try that out and hopefully not make a giant mess.