Cidered jerky (beef or venison) -- and tips on buying a dehydrator

Some great tips for buying a dehydrator, in which you can make this tangy cidered beef jerky or venison jerky.

A big hug and WELCOME to all you jerky fans!

Since my first chicken jerky post two years ago, I have been promising to post another jerky recipe. At long last, it's here.

Why so long, you ask? Honestly, it was the photographs. Let's face it: jerky does not photograph well.

I've made this particular cidered jerky recipe a bunch of times and the photo shoots were miserable failures. The did not pass the "would I eat this?" test.

But recently I realized that, as with so many things in life, striving for perfection was preventing me from being happy. Because this jerky is so freakin' good that it makes me really, really happy to both eat it and share the recipe with all of you.

Regular readers who know of my ongoing battle for backyard produce with the deer on our property will appreciate that the batch of cidered jerky featured in these photographs came from a big buck taken on our property last year by the intrepid young man who hunts our land.

In fact, I gave the hunter some of this jerky to try. The next day he texted me to let me know he ate it all in one sitting and proclaimed it "awesome", with FOUR exclamation points. So it's officially hunter-approved.

Guinness beef stew (aka, Vendetta Venison Stew)

If you asked me last week, I would have told you I hated beef stew. In fact, that's what I told my sister
when she asked me if I had a good recipe for beef stew that I could share. What I said exactly was "Eeew, no, gross -- I hate beef stew."

I was basing this condemnation on being forced to eat beef stew when I was, oh, probably about eight years old. 

So my non-eight-year-old self gave it some thought. Really, what's to hate? Beef? No, I'm the meatasaurus, remember? Root vegetables? Nyet, I dig them. Beer or wine (as either works)? Yeah, that's hilarious -- not bloody likely.

Therefore, I decided to give beef stew a second chance by making my own, with two ninja twists:

1. I added Guinness for a St. Patrick's Day theme
2. I swapped out the beef for venison

Now, this is no ordinary venison, people. This is venison from my backyard. (Can't get much more local than 20 feet from the front door, now can you?) Not to mention venison with which I have had a running vendetta.