Jerky: The Complete Guide to Making It

Don’t pay a fortune for jerky at the convenience store—make it yourself with dozens of jerky recipes!

If you buy a lot of beef jerky, if you hunt, fish, or hike, or if you’re just looking for a healthy low-fat snack, this book is for you. Gourmet dehydrated meat is the most popular meat snack today. It’s low in fat and calories and high in protein, making it a favorite among hikers, hunters, bikers, skiers, and those on the go. Make beef jerky, venison jerky, and much more—all without preservatives with names you can’t pronounce.

In this DIY guide to making your own jerky in an oven, smoker, or food dehydrator with beef, venison, poultry, fish, or even soy protein—ground or in strips—you’ll learn the basics for concocting a simple teriyaki marinade as well as easy gourmet recipes for such exotic jerky delights as Bloody Mary, chicken tandoori, mole, Cajun, and honeyed salmon jerky. Discover the subtleties of cooking with jerky to make everything from slaw, hash, and backpacker goulash to cake and ice cream.

This book is more than just instructions and recipes. Author Mary T. Bell makes sure to address safety concerns about dried meat. For a broader understanding, she has included a history of jerky. The jerkies and recipes for using them were taste-tested by family, restaurant staff, friends, and show audiences. So pick up a copy of Jerky now to create your own great-tasting meat snacks!

Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Good Books and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of cookbooks, including books on juicing, grilling, baking, frying, home brewing and winemaking, slow cookers, and cast iron cooking. We’ve been successful with books on gluten-free cooking, vegetarian and vegan cooking, paleo, raw foods, and more. Our list includes French cooking, Swedish cooking, Austrian and German cooking, Cajun cooking, as well as books on jerky, canning and preserving, peanut butter, meatballs, oil and vinegar, bone broth, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.