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it’s because they’re sold by weight and since all the water is gone, the jerky pieces weigh so little. to then make a 16oz bag, you gotta add a lot of jerky. backtracking to make that happen means you need way more meat, which means way more money to buy that meat.
I agree though that the prices are ridiculous. I just think it helps to know why, too.
The bags are 8 oz now. Shrinkflation is double whammy
I just picked a number that sounded good enough lol. I checked the pic above to see what it says but it doesn’t have a weight
I bought a dehydrator to make my own, only to find out buying the meat to dehydrate cost exactly the same as an equal amount of already made jerky.
If a 16oz bag of Jack Link’s was actually $16 here, I’d start using the dehydrator again since the fresh, pre-sliced meat I’d use is only $8/lb.
But you only get like <1/2lb of jerky from 1lb of meat
You need to go to Sam’s or Costco and buy meat in bulk. Buying it from the supermarket is what kills you.
I only buy meat if it’s on sale for the same cost as tofu… 8$/lbs is a lot!
never understood who bought this stuff, it has always been extremely expensive.
Jerky is seriously price inflated with a surprisingly large amount of defenders who babble about the cost of meat without apparently having ever made some themselves.
Or maybe they’re just bad at math?
Buy $20 of beef, rub it with some salt and spices and stick it in a dehydrator, it’s not rocket science, it’s literally just how humans have preserved meat for our entire history (minus the dehydrator convenience)
How much shrinks away? I’ve always suspected jercky to be a scam just don’t know how much
Not much at all. I’ve made salmon, venison, and beef jerky - at most the meat contracts maybe 18 to 20 percent in size. If you have a multi level dehydrator and do it in bulk you can make it very cheap. Bonus is you can season it any way you like. I love teriyaki salmon and super spicy beef with mustard powder and onion.
Jerky is always a food of convenience. It’s a food that is always on the shelf, you eat it if you’re dead. If I had time, energy, equipment, space, and desire to cook, I would be cooking a meal.
Yeah, but you can make like 20 servings of Jerkey at once. You could even buy a large amount of beef at Costco or a bulk meat market and use part of the beef for a meal and Jerky the rest of it.
Yes. If you have time, energy, equipment, space, skill, and desire to cook. Working people this days rarely have it all
Slice and marinate beef and put it in the oven. 30 mins work for a pound of jerky
important to note that you’ll probably want to crack the oven door open a bit, for which you might need something to keep it open, and dear god make sure everything in the path of the heat won’t burn. Ask me how i know!
Also works great for mushrooms, particularly because it slightly roasts them as well and that makes the flavour meatier and the texture when rehydrated chewier. Also also how the fuck did i never realize that you can do this with vegetables, i have to try that now!
Only 30min?
You sure you’re not just eating poorly cooked steak?
They probably mean 30 min worth of prep. The oven part is hands off and whatever to them.
Youre the only person who gets the obvious
Yeah, most of the oven recipes I’m familiar with are several hours at fairly low heat. You’re trying to dehydrate the meat, not bake it.
Yeah… You might want a couple hours lol till it’s chewy but tender
Anyone reading this, please don’t do this if you want jerky…just buy a dehydrator, they’re cheap.
Then use eye of round or London broil cuts…most deli places will even cut them thin for you.
I mean, you can do it, but if you have steak that feels like jerky after 30 min in the over, you just likely just created overcooked steak.
Oven jerky takes many hours and you should occasionally open and remove the escaping moisture.
The issue with making jerky in the oven is the temps. 99% of the ovens can’t get below 200, where most dehydrators do 160 easily. But you are correct, you can do it in the oven, it’s just not recommended and it uses so much more energy.
You can fake it by setting your oven to the lowest temperature and leaving the oven door slightly cracked. I did it last winter with some flank steak and it turned out great.
I think I left it for about 4-5 hours?
I want to buy a little tabletop meat slicer for the very reason. Wife bought a dehydrator because she wanted fruit leather (although I almost never get “leather”, instead becoming “chips”). I want homemade jerky.
Hit up used restaurant equipment stores or check on used marketplace. The good ones new are stupid expensive, but used they’re reasonably priced.
30 minutes works for a pound of jerky
I have to assume you’re using a high temp in which case that’s not jerky. You’re just cooking the meat. 🤦♂️
If you want to actually dehydrate it and make jerky, you would use the lowest temp your oven can go (typically 150-165F) and let it go for 6-8 hours. Longer if you’re using a wet marinade and not just salt or a dry rub.
Obviously, you dehydrate it, maybe 30 degrees. I’m not making mini steaks, and i didnt write a receipe. 🤦🏼 Thats why i said 30 minutes of work
I’ve never done it but I do know you can technically make it by slicing up nice lean cuts of steak. Marinading them so they soak up the flavor. Then dangling them on the rack in the oven on the lowest heat setting with the door cracked open for a few hours. A friend of mine did this and they came out amazing with deer jerky.
Still gotta buy the beef though
Which should cost much, much less
These have always been ridiculously expensive where I live. I used to import jerky from South Africa. Theirs is cheaper (even after shipping) and honestly better. Biltong they call it.
It’s pretty easy to make biltong on your own too. I’ve done it with strips of meat hanging in a cardboard box with a fan pointed at it
Okay, that’s great, but how do you make biltong?
Get some strips of meat, put it in your adidas shoe box that’s in your closet, point a fan at it, voila
I’ll be honest; I was engaging in innuendo regarding the original comment. However, I do appreciate the sincere answer. Does it work with other brands? Outside of my closet, even?
Indeed.
Good to know. Perhaps I’ll even mix it with hemlock. Thanks!
If you go very literal on the Dutch etymology, you put your tongue (tong) in between some butt cheeks (bil = butt)
We’re talking about meat snacks, not my nightly rituals, but the input is appreciated.
the input is appreciated.
That’s what (s)he said!
And you can make biltong much easier than jerky. Literally just a hanger and a room running AC.
Plus, absolutely 20 times better.
Jack Link’s is probably the cheapest beef jerky you can find in supermarkets in Germany. Its about 5€ per bag (~$5 USD), 3€ if it’s on sale.
Its absolute garbage though. Way too sweet.
I switched to making my own jerky at home, using a cheap food dehydrator. That comes out cheaper and tastes a lot better.
They now have Biltong version, and that one is actually good. The regular is indeed garbage, meat candy, both not good as a jerky and as a candy.
shrinkflation and cheapflation is just as bad. people can tell if you use cheaper ingredients and try to be sneaky and keep the same labels, and pictures.
Wait, are you saying adding new trade war strain on an already troubled economy wasn’t the right call???!
B O E U F
Not to mention that stuff is just garbage. Pumped full of chemicals. You can buy jerky with no added ingredients except flavoring for the same price.
Even before inflation, jerky was stupid expensive. Slim-Jims were, per-pound, more expensive than prime beef.
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