Ground venison can be shaped into strips or sticks for jerky. This guide covers preparing the mixture, shaping it evenly and following the heating steps required for ground meat.
Keep the mixture cold while you season and shape it. Consistent thickness helps pieces dry at a similar rate. Grinding can spread bacteria throughout the meat, so use a tested ground-venison process.
The method
Sort out the fat question
Use the meat and fat proportions specified for ground jerky. A mixture intended for fresh sausage is not automatically suitable for drying as jerky.
Mix cure & seasoning cold
Keep the meat cold and distribute the seasoning evenly. Add cure only as directed by the tested recipe and the label for that exact product.
Press even strips
Form strips with a jerky gun or roll the mixture between parchment and cut it. Use the thickness in your recipe and keep it consistent.
Clear the kill-step
Before dehydrating, steam or roast beef and venison to 160°F or poultry to 165°F, measured with a food thermometer in several strips. A dehydrator setting or a fixed oven time does not confirm the temperature of the meat. Then dry according to a tested recipe and the appliance instructions.
Dry until it bends & cracks
Space the strips in one layer and follow your recipe’s drying instructions. Cool a piece before checking texture, and check more than one area of the tray.
Weigh the cure, don’t guess
Use the cure calculator alongside your recipe and curing-product label. Check the product concentration before weighing anything.
Open the Cure CalculatorUse a recipe written for ground meat.
Preparing ground meat safely
Ground meat needs careful handling and a measured heating step. Keep these points in mind while preparing the mixture:
- Weigh the cure #1. 0.25% of the meat, about 1.1 g per pound. Distributed nitrite is your margin against what the grinder spread around, don’t eyeball it.
- Mix it evenly. Cure and salt have to reach every part of the batch, so mix cold and hard for a couple of minutes until the meat turns tacky and binds.
- Measure before drying. Before dehydrating, steam or roast beef and venison to 160°F or poultry to 165°F, measured with a food thermometer in several strips. A dehydrator setting or a fixed oven time does not confirm the temperature of the meat. Then dry according to a tested recipe and the appliance instructions.
- Press an even thickness. Fat pockets or thick spots dry slower and can harbor moisture. A uniform 3/16"-1/4" strip dries, and finishes safe, all the way through.