For home-dehydrated meats:

1.  Use the highest temperature setting your dehydrator can produce.  155 is good, as noted.

2.  To be safe, do not store dehydrated meats for long periods of time at room temp.  Vacuum pack them and store in the refrigerator for short-term storage or the freezer.

3.  Be wary of storing dried meats in plastic such as ziplocs which are not completely moisture-proof.  Dried meats will absorb moisture from the air and it doesn't take a lot of moisture to allow it to begin to spoil.

When I dehydrate meats I do it a week or two before the trip, vac-pac, and refrigerate until I pack it to minimize food-safety problems.

Smoking is a great way to cook whole-muscle meats such as jerky, chicken, etc.  Obviously not a good way to cook ground meats, of course.  But smoking will make any sort of meat, even those eventually dried much more resistant to spoilage.  If you are making dehydrated chicken chunks you can smoke the chicken breasts to cook them, then dice and dry them for maximum safety.

I have not tried this but I wonder if smoking cooked ground beef before drying it would decrease the spoilage risk.  You'd have to get a fine-mesh screen to do it on, but I think it might work.

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As far as the timer goes, I just use a plug-in timer like the kind folks use to turn their lights on and off while on vacation.  I think I bought it for about $8 Canadian in The Pas, Manitoba.  Maybe you have one of those around anyway?

I doubt that I am going to be able to justify that kind of money to myself. $189.00 is the cheapest I could go to get the timer you speak of. I do not mind tending my dehydrator.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Mark

Understood.  If you ever tire of moving the trays and/or your current machine try the one I linked above.  Everything is done at once and you don't need to mess with it.  I run my jerky on an automatic timer so I just set it and forget it.  If I come back sometime the next day I know it will be done.

Yes things on the top finish first, unless you follow the directions and keep rotating them...

I  move trays about one an hour. Top to the bottom... Keep rotating.. The last few trays take a little longer than the rest.

M

Thanks!

Do you notice any heat stratification with the one you use?  In other words, do the items on the top or bottom finish first? (assuming everything is of the same thickness and material)

I use the round one you hate so much... It is a Nesco American Harvest Snack Master. Top Motor... I have had it for about 5 years and I love it. I have had no problems with it what so ever!

I had a Nesco bottom motor that I burned out within weeks... I called Nesco and they replaced it with a top motor that I have had every since.

Mark

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What kind of dehydrator do you use, if I might ask?

Bottom motors suck! I burned through one of thoe too.

M

I'm a little late to this discussion, but the comments so far have been very interesting.  I have many, many years of experience in dehydrating ducks and geese into jerky and I strongly recommend the (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links).  I burned through two of those white plastic ones (bottom heat, round trays) before I wised up and bought the Excalibur.  With the old ones the drippings would fall down into the heating element/fan and burn it out.

The one I use has the fan and heating element at the back, which evens out the heat.  It is also much easier to clean when done.  The maximum temperature setting on it is 145 F, which is where I keep it when drying marinated bird meat.