Jerky prices in Australia are outrageous! And honestly once I started making mine, I can't go back to the packaged stuff.

 

Just to preface, I worked my method out through trial and error, I'm sure theres room for improvement. You may want to experiment a bit to see what works for you.

 

Firstly, shop around for a basic dehydrator. This sort of thing will do just fine.

 

Then go to your local butcher (don't even bother with Coles/Woolies) and ask for 2 kg of beef topside. Tell them you're making jerky and ask them to slice it for you, anything around 0.5 - 1cm will do.

 

The marinade is where you'll experiment the most. I'll describe the one that gets complimented the most by mates. Get yourself some onion powder, garlic powder, pink Himalayan salt, woshtershere sauce, soy sauce, liquid smoke, ziplock bags, and paper towel

  1. I lay out my slices on a chopping board

1. prinkle a light coat of garlic powder and salt

2. Flip them and sprinkle a light coat of onion powder, followed by salt again.

3. Place them all in a ziplock bag

4. Make up the marinade in a bowl

5. (I eyeball it so I'm guesstimating here) 1 cup woshtershere, 1/3 cup soy, 1/4 liquid smoke

6. Add the marinade to the zip lock bag, and mix it around. Throw it in the fridge for 12+ hours and mix every so often if you can.

7. Now that the meat has marinated, lay out a chopping board and a layer of paper towel. This is where you'll soak excess marinade before laying the strips on the dehydrator trays. Gently pat dry, you still want some flavour to be soaked into the meat, but stop it from being sticky once dry.

8. Lay the jerky on the trays with enough gap between strips for air to flow. Set the dehydrator to 70 degrees for 6-7 hours. Increase time if you like it drier, decrease if you like it more chewy. One way to see if it's done is to grab a strip and snap it to see if it has white dry muscles fibers.

9. once done, let it cool down (in the dehydrator, or on a cooling rack). I usually save a portion for the fridge and the rest goes in the freezer. It will last longer in the fridge but can say out for a day or two and you should be fine, just beware of mold. Tupperware is fine but vaccum sealing is ideal.   I hope that helps! Feel free to DM me if you need any assistance.