How to Tell When Ground Beef Jerky is Done

Have you ever wondered when eating a ground beef jerky if the jerky is even done? That’s the same question I ask myself when I make a batch of ground beef jerky.

To properly dehydrate ground beef jerky, your dehydrator should be able to maintain temperature from 140 to 145 degrees for the entire process of the dehydrating time which depends on the thickness of the jerky (minimum 3+hours).

The best way to tell if your ground beef jerky is done is by doing the bending check. All you need to do is bend the jerky and if it doesn’t break, your beef jerky is done.

Beef Jerky Bend Test

The bend test is a great way to check the dryness of your beef jerky.

After the ground beef has been dehydrated for the recommended amount of time which is roughly 3 to 5 hours at 165°.  

Some dehydrators do not heat up to 165 degrees so a constant 140 degrees to 145 degrees is recommended.

Once the jerky is done dehydrating, you’ll want to remove the jerky from the dehydrator to rest the jerky until it gets to room temperature.

Now you want to slightly bend the jerky strip, you want the strip to bend and slightly crack but not far apart.

Best Temperature for Dehydrating Ground Beef Jerky

First off, you always want to pre-heat your dehydrator or oven to 160º which is to kill any bacteria for 15 to 30 minutes.

Then the temperature can be then adjusted to 130º – 140º for the remaining dehydrating time which is anywhere from 5-10 hours depending on the amount and thickness of your ground beef jerky strips.

Simple Ground Beef Jerky Recipe

Meat

  • 1 lb Ground beef or venison, lean

Produce

  • 1/2 tsp Garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp Onion powder

Condiments

  • 1 tsp Liquid smoke
  • 1/2 cup Soy sauce

Baking & Spices

  • 1 tsp Sea salt

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and let sit (refrigerated) for at least a couple of hours.

I mixed this up at bedtime and let it sit until after lunch the next day, and it wasn’t too strong. 

Load the mixture in the jerky gun and use the gun to load your dehydrator trays. I do recommend using the mesh inserts or fruit leather trays for your dehydrator.

This mixture is fairly soft because of the added liquid, which makes it easier to fire through the gun.

If you don’t have a jerky gun, roll the mixture out very thinly (1/8 inch thick) and score lines where you would like the pieces to break apart.

Dry at 145° – 165° F (63° – 74° C) for 4 to 12 hours, until jerky is hard but still flexible and contains no pockets of moisture. For extra safety, heat-finished jerky in a 275° F (135° C) oven for 10 minutes.

How to Use a Beef Jerky Gun

The beef jerky gun could be a great tool when making jerky from ground jerky.

It’s basically like a chaulking gun but instead of chaulk, you have delicious well-seasoned ground beef in the tube.

LEM makes a great ground beef jerky gun here!

Step 1 – Add the ground beef into the barrel of the gun.

Step 2 – Pull on the trigger and let the beef jerky gun squeeze out nice clean flat strips of beef!

Step 3 – Done

How to Make Ground Beef Jerky without a Jerky Gun

Ok, so you don’t have a ground beef jerky gun. It’s ok here’s how you can make ground beef jerky without the gun.

Step 1 – Get a handful of ground beef and roll it into a ball.

Step 2 – Slowly roll this ball into a rope stripe.

Step 3 – Flatten this ground beef rope stripe to about 1-2 cm thickness.

Step 4 – Done.