· By Matthew Richmond
How to Make Beef Jerky at Home: A Honest Guide From People Who Do It For a Living
I started Punk Jerky because I was fed up with the dry, flavourless beef jerky sitting on supermarket shelves. Since then, I've experimented relentlessly with every variable: the cut, the marinade, the drying time, the water content. This is everything I've learned, condensed into a guide for anyone brave enough to try making beef jerky at home.
WARNING: I wouldn't make beef jerky if it wasn't my job. It takes time, equipment, and a lot of trial and error to get right - and even then, without proper preservation, it'll start to go off within a few days.
Still here? Let's get into it.
Step 1: Source Your Beef
Not all beef is equal - and this matters more in jerky than almost any other dish.
When we started out, we used standard supermarket joints. When we switched to grass-fed beef from a butcher, the difference was immediately obvious: better texture, richer flavour, and a cleaner finish. Garbage in = garbage out. Great beef in = Brilliant jerky out.
Go to your local butcher and ask for a lean joint — topside or silverside works well.
Step 2: Prep the Beef
First, trim the fat cap. Fat doesn't dry — it turns rancid. It tastes great coming out of the oven, but leave it a day or two and it'll taste bleh.
Next, slice. Thin and consistent is the goal - the thinner the slice, the shorter the drying time and the better the texture. If you don't have an industrial slicer (most people don't), use a sharp knife. A dull knife is a dangerous knife - it slips.
A meat tenderiser is worth using at this stage too. The more tender the beef going in, the better the jerky coming out.
Step 3: Marinate
There are hundreds of beef jerky marinade recipes online - find one that suits your flavour preferences and go from there. A few things we've learned the hard way:
- Don't marinate more than 1kg of beef per batch in a single container. The marinade needs to reach every surface — too much beef and it won't penetrate properly.
- Marinate for at least 12 hours. Overnight is better.
- There's one ingredient we use to make sure the end result is more beef jerky and less sunday roast— but that's a trade secret. You'll have to buy a bag if you want to find out ;)
Step 4: Dry It
Here's where home jerky-making gets technical - and where most batches go wrong.
Beef jerky and biltong are often confused, but they're different: biltong is air-dried, beef jerky is cooked. Commercially, we use industrial dehydrators calibrated to specific temperatures and airflow levels. At home, you'll be using your oven.
Set it to 75°C fan assisted. Place your strips on a wire rack over a tray, making sure there's airflow between each piece. Leave the oven door slightly ajar — wedge a wooden spoon in the gap. This lets moisture escape. Without airflow, you're just slowly cooking wet beef.
After about 2 hours, flip each piece. Total drying time is roughly 4–6 hours depending on thickness. You're looking for a firm, chewy texture - not crunchy, not soft.
Step 5: Store It (Carefully)
This is the part the internet tends to gloss over, and it matters.
Commercially produced beef jerky is shelf stable because it's been processed to a specific water activity level (below 0.85 aw) — the point at which bacteria can't grow. At home, you're estimating. That's not a scare tactic, it's just food science.
Store your homemade jerky in a zip-lock bag in the fridge and eat it within 3–5 days.
Step 6: Clean up
Before you get to eat your beef jerky, you have to clean up the kitchen and utensils. Unlucky.
Step 7: Give up and buy Punk Jerky instead.
That's how to make beef jerky at home. It's genuinely achievable - but it's also a full afternoon, a lot of washing up, a small window of shelf life, and results that will vary every single time.
If you do make it, we'd genuinely love to see it. Send us a pic.
And if the above sounds like a lot of effort for a snack - well, you know where we are.