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

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.