Tweet
As promised, here is my review of the All Around Jerky Maker made by Elk Mountain Products. They also make the Dakota Sausage Stuffer which I believe is a water powered stuffer.
First off I ordered it from here. I usually buy this kind of stuff from Allied-Kenco or Butcher & Packer when I put in a big order. But Mid Western Research had the best price and shipped it pretty quick. I paid right at 30 bucks for it.
It comes in this package.
Took it out of the package and laid it all out. Man are there a lot of adapters here. I was kinda put off by the fact that I had to pay for everyone else's adapter, but who's to say I won't sell it on eBay someday.
Instructions are good, but the pictures are tiny and even a guy with super man vision like mine needs help seeing these.
Here's the stuffer we'll be working with. It's just a basic 5 lb vertical from Grizzly. It still has plastic gears, but it works flawlessly. I bought the steel gears from L.E.M. back when I bought this stuffer with the intention of putting them in when the plastic ones break, but it's looking like I'll be sitting on the steel ones forever.
Pretty straight forward on assembly. And of course, I didn't have to use an adapter for my stuffer. The tube fits right in the stuffing tube nut and a collar threads on from the inside.
For the first run, I made 2 lbs of jerky and 1.25 lbs of snack sticks. I ground up a round roast from our steer and for the jerky, added cure #1 and teriyaki sauce. For the snack sticks I added a quarter pound of ground pork butt, cure, and just used a Slim Jim clone recipe. I then let them cure in the fridge for 24 hours. The next day, I reground through a medium plate and loaded up the stuffer.
Start cranking and in no time the meat starts to come out. You have to pull the paper out as the meat will bunch up if you don't. It doesn't take long before you figure out how fast to pull the paper. The faster you pull it, the thinner the jerky. The slower you pull, the thicker the jerky.
I bought some drying racks from BPS that are 18 inches long, so that's how long I made the strips of jerky. Once they are to length, you simply cut the paper and meat with a sharp pair of scissors and lay out to dry a bit.
When the stuffer bottomed out, I loaded the snack stick meat, cranked out what jerky meat I thought was left in the tube, then simply switched from the jerky extruder plate to the 3 hole snack stick plate and went right on cranking. The plate slides in and out for easy changing.
Once everything is is extruded, you let it set up and then it's easy to flip the strips out onto your drying racks. You can't see the jerky very well in this pic, but if you look hard, it's there. I love these drying racks.
Then it's off to the smoker. When done, cut to the length you want and pack.
The only problem with this device is the waste meat that's left in the tube. If you can think of some way to push the meat out, great. Bread doesn't work. So I cleaned it out and fried what was left. It was about a 1/8 of a pound.
I like this. I never had any desire to own a jerky gun of any sorts, but my teeth have deteriorated with the diabetes. And until it rains the $7000.00 that the Doc wants to take them out, whole muscle jerky is out. So this is a great alternative.
I do recommend this product if you want to make ground meat jerky.
First off I ordered it from here. I usually buy this kind of stuff from Allied-Kenco or Butcher & Packer when I put in a big order. But Mid Western Research had the best price and shipped it pretty quick. I paid right at 30 bucks for it.
It comes in this package.
Took it out of the package and laid it all out. Man are there a lot of adapters here. I was kinda put off by the fact that I had to pay for everyone else's adapter, but who's to say I won't sell it on eBay someday.
Instructions are good, but the pictures are tiny and even a guy with super man vision like mine needs help seeing these.
Here's the stuffer we'll be working with. It's just a basic 5 lb vertical from Grizzly. It still has plastic gears, but it works flawlessly. I bought the steel gears from L.E.M. back when I bought this stuffer with the intention of putting them in when the plastic ones break, but it's looking like I'll be sitting on the steel ones forever.
Pretty straight forward on assembly. And of course, I didn't have to use an adapter for my stuffer. The tube fits right in the stuffing tube nut and a collar threads on from the inside.
For the first run, I made 2 lbs of jerky and 1.25 lbs of snack sticks. I ground up a round roast from our steer and for the jerky, added cure #1 and teriyaki sauce. For the snack sticks I added a quarter pound of ground pork butt, cure, and just used a Slim Jim clone recipe. I then let them cure in the fridge for 24 hours. The next day, I reground through a medium plate and loaded up the stuffer.
Start cranking and in no time the meat starts to come out. You have to pull the paper out as the meat will bunch up if you don't. It doesn't take long before you figure out how fast to pull the paper. The faster you pull it, the thinner the jerky. The slower you pull, the thicker the jerky.
I bought some drying racks from BPS that are 18 inches long, so that's how long I made the strips of jerky. Once they are to length, you simply cut the paper and meat with a sharp pair of scissors and lay out to dry a bit.
When the stuffer bottomed out, I loaded the snack stick meat, cranked out what jerky meat I thought was left in the tube, then simply switched from the jerky extruder plate to the 3 hole snack stick plate and went right on cranking. The plate slides in and out for easy changing.
Once everything is is extruded, you let it set up and then it's easy to flip the strips out onto your drying racks. You can't see the jerky very well in this pic, but if you look hard, it's there. I love these drying racks.
Then it's off to the smoker. When done, cut to the length you want and pack.
The only problem with this device is the waste meat that's left in the tube. If you can think of some way to push the meat out, great. Bread doesn't work. So I cleaned it out and fried what was left. It was about a 1/8 of a pound.
I like this. I never had any desire to own a jerky gun of any sorts, but my teeth have deteriorated with the diabetes. And until it rains the $7000.00 that the Doc wants to take them out, whole muscle jerky is out. So this is a great alternative.
I do recommend this product if you want to make ground meat jerky.
... I like that you don't need casings for the snack sticks 
for the excellent review - but where's the signature black gloves ? 
Comment