Assembly Line

How beef jerky is made

Jerky dries in a few hours because it is sliced so thin that warm moving air can pull the water out.

stations
6
things upstream
12
raw sources
8
steps from the ground
3

The short version

Lean beef is trimmed of fat, sliced into thin strips and soaked in a salty, seasoned marinade. The strips go on screens into large low-temperature ovens with fans, where warm, moving air dries them in a few hours without cooking them. Dried jerky is packed with an oxygen absorber to protect the fat.

  1. Trim and slice thin

    Fat is cut away, because fat spoils faster than lean. The meat is sliced or pressed thin so it can dry fast without high heat, which would cook it.

    Goes in
    Cattle

  2. Marinate or rub

    Salt goes on first, for flavor, preservation and to pull out moisture. Pepper, garlic, sugar and sauces change the taste. Some makers add sodium nitrite.

    Goes in
    Table saltSugar

  3. Rack the strips

    Raw marinated strips are laid on nylon-coated screens sprayed with a light film of vegetable oil so they lift off easily. The trays go on rolling carts.

  4. Dry in warm moving air

    Carts roll into big ovens with many heaters and fans, and exhaust ports carry off the damp air. The combination of fast air and low heat takes the meat down to the target moisture within a few hours.

    smoking, if used, stays under 70 °C

  5. Test the moisture

    Jerky needs the right ratio of moisture to protein to keep. In the United States, the standard is a moisture-to-protein ratio of 0.75 to 1.

  6. Seal with an oxygen absorber

    Cooled jerky is packed in bags flushed with nitrogen or under vacuum. A small pouch of iron particles inside takes up leftover oxygen so the fat does not oxidize.

    Goes in
    Nitrogen gas
End of the lineBeef jerky

Worth repeating

  • The word jerky comes from the Quechua word ch'arki, which means dried, salted meat.
  • Many products sold as jerky are actually chopped and formed meat rather than a single sliced muscle.

Back to the ground

Follow every input upstream and beef jerky starts as these 8 raw sources.

CattleRock saltSeawaterSugarcaneSugar beetWaterAirLimestone

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Sources

Cite this page: "How beef jerky is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/beef-jerky

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