Cliff, Read the included link. It explains how you can use an oven to dehydrate things. You can make solar dehydrators too. For those nay-sayers, its in the same link. We used to make fruit leather (roll-ups) simply by using a blender and liquefying the fruit like strawberries. We would lay a sheet of saran wrap on the rack and pour the fruit onto it and let it dry. No kidding, dried tomato slices are just about fought for over here. (Not by me of course) Here is a link that might be useful: Very Good Dehydrator info to be scrutinized by u know who....

My personal POV, when it comes to home-canning fish and meat, I wonder at the balance between, on the one hand, the energy expended and the deterioration in the nutritional quality of the product being pressure cooked for 110 minutes, or just freezing the stuff. I should think there must be some deterioration in the quality of the essential amino acids within the protein. I did a stint, many years ago, formulating and preparing animal feeds. The cooking time is kept to a minimum for this reason. So, I just freeze it. I once caught several hundred lbs of tuna, and as I like the taste of canned tuna and there is just so much sashimi a guy can eat in a few days, I proceeded to water-bath it for 20 minutes or so to get that flavor, and then froze the jars. I got kinda sick of canned tuna as well

It should bend and look like splinters where it bends. It should not break. It also should not feel moist. Cutting 1/2 inch is too thick, it should be more like 1/4 inch thick. Try cutting the meat while partly frozen and it will be easier.

I find that one Nesco dehydrator tray full of jerky can fit into one quart sized ziplock bag. I store those bags in the freezer, moving one bag at a time to the fridge when I want some; I'll usually eat the stuff in the fridge in a few days. Doing it this way I've never had any go bad. I don't use nitrites or nitrates. You didn't ask, but here's my favorite formula for jerky: Guinness Beef Jerky Marinade (This amount of marinade is sufficient for about 5 to 6 pounds of beef, which I find fill my Nesco dehydrator's eight trays fairly full) 5 to 6 lbs lean beef, sliced thinly--see Note 1 2 bottles (12-14 oz each) Guinness Stout 2 tablespoons kosher salt OR 3 to 4 tablespoons soy sauce--see Note 2 2 tablespoons garlic powder 2-4 tablespoons hot stuff --see Note 3 optional: liquid smoke, 1 to 2 tbsp In a large bowl pour stout and add salt, whisking to dissolve salt and decarbonate the stout. Add the garlic powder and hot stuff and mix well. Put the beef strips in the marinade by handfuls, swirling around to make sure all surfaces have come in contact with the marinade. Place the beef in a nonreactive container (a stainless stockpot works fine), pour the remaining marinade over the beef, mix well and refrigerate for at least an hour (more is better--overnight is fine). If you have time, mix up the beef strips every so often in the marinade. Place the strips flat on the trays and dry to your desired amount of dryness. I prefer crisp to leathery, but do it however you want. Note 1: Before slicing the beef, trim all extra fat off the surface of the meat. I like to use round roast because it's very lean; whenever possible, slice the strips across the grain. Slicing it with the grain results in a stringy final product. Eye of round costs a little more, but is very lean and also is very easy to slice across the grain, and that yields a less stringy product. Don't use a fatty cut of meat because it won't dry as thoroughly and won't have the storage properties of a leaner cut. (The fat can turn rancid.) Note 2: I have found mushroom flavored soy sauce at an Asian market. It works great in this recipe. Note 3: For the hot stuff, cayenne works well; you have to judge for yourself how hot your particular cayenne pepper is. (Mass market cayenne from brands like McCormick is relatively mild; powdered chili peppers from a Mexican or Indian market will be much hotter.) If you’re unsure, go easy with the hot stuff. You can always sprinkle a little more hot stuff on the finished product if you wish. I have used chipotle powder with good results; 4 tablespoons in this recipe makes a quite hot product, and 2 tbsp makes a pleasantly zingy one. If you want something quite mild, use sweet Hungarian paprika which would make a product not at all hot but would still have a good flavor. You can also use smoked Spanish paprika (‘pimenton’) which comes in three degrees of hotness (sweet, bittersweet & hot). If you use that, though, or chipotle powder, don’t use any additional smoke flavor. --Don't use a hot sauce that's vinegar based (like Tabasco or Sriracha)--the vinegar taste will be concentrated in the finished product.