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Cut your meat into smaller slices. Place your strips of meat onto a tray and place it inside the dehydrator. Dry the meat at 145155F (6368C) for about 6 hours. Dab ham and beef slices with paper towels frequently throughout the drying process. Take the meat out of the dehydrator once it is completely dry. Store your dehydrated meats in airtight plastic bags. Check your dried meats every couple of weeks or so.

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Be sure your slices are uniformly cut so that dehydration occurs consistently throughout your meat. Slice ham into 1-inch wide strips. They should look like slightly thicker slices of bacon. Cut beef into long, 1/4-inch wide strips if you are making beef jerky. Pull chicken apart into small pieces. It should look very similar to pulled pork. If you plan on consuming meats after they have been dried, be sure that your ham and chicken are precooked. Raw, dehydrated beef is okay to consume as it will turn into beef jerky. Eating raw dehydrated pork can cause an infection called trichinosis, which occurs when raw or under-cooked pork is consumed. Similarly, eating raw chicken can give you salmonella food poisoning. Position slices into neat rows so that they do not overlap or cover one another. Spread the pulled chicken into an even layer so that there are no large clumps. These times and temperatures may vary slightly for different meats but should yield an overall similar result. If making beef jerky, monitor your slices to make sure they are pliable but not brittle. This means they should bend without actually breaking. The moisture that comes to the surface will mostly be oil and fat from the meat. Oils and fats don't evaporate as easily as smaller molecules like water. Therefore, you need to wipe it away in order for drying to be successful. You don't have to wipe the pulled chicken bits as chicken is leaner and contains less fat. Use your fingers to test the meat and see if there is still moisture on the surface. Drying requires a lot of monitoring and is not a precise procedure like baking, for instance. Don't be afraid of opening up the dehydrator to check the meat every few hours to observe its progress. Remember, air also contains moisture, and moisture is the enemy of dried foods. If you're storing the meat shorter than a month, store it in a dry, dark place at room temperature. Your kitchen cupboard should be ideal for dried meats. Don't worry about spoilage; removing the water content prevents meats from spoiling. For long term storage, place meat in the freezer or refrigerator. Even though water has been pulled from the meat, air may still find a way of getting in. Since air tends to carry bacteria and other organisms, sealed meats can still become moldy or spoiled. When storing dried foods, contamination from insects can occur. Don't worry, however, since this is not common among properly sealed meats. It is most likely a result of meats already containing the eggs prior to drying. To reduce insect contamination, pasteurize your meat after drying it. You can either store the meat in the refrigerator for 48 hours or place it in the oven at 175F (79C) for 15-30 minutes. Dried foods can be stored up to one year. Vacuum-packing and refrigerating can double or triple this shelf-life.