Patent ID: 8389038

Claim:
A method for preparing a jerky food product, said method comprising: preparing a raw meat to obtain a moldable meat dough; contacting at least a portion of said meat dough with a jerky mold having a pre-determined geometric configuration, wherein a plurality of sectors are spatially separated and defined by ported partitions arranged in a pre-determined pattern; causing at least one of said partitions of said jerky mold to impale said meat dough to dispose portions of said meat dough into at least one of said sectors, thus separating said meat dough into a plurality of meat segments; causing said meat dough to contact a backing that provides a temporary stop to said meat dough to prevent said meat dough from passing through said sectors as said meat dough is impaled and disposed into said sectors and that is separable from said partitions to provide an exposed surface to release said meat dough; removing said meat segments from said sectors of said jerky mold; and treating said meat segments to produce a plurality of jerky pieces.