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[Bar-B-Lew]

I decided to try out my new Cabela's dehydrator today.  It appears to be having a bit of a challenge getting up to temp of 160° in my 48° garage.  Best it is doing is 125°.  Good thing I followed the instructions of a method from a new book I bought (The Spicy Dehydrator Cookbook by the guy that runs the Chili Pepper Madness blog) and put them in the oven first.  The meat appeared to be cooked fully when pulled out of the oven before going into the dehydrator.

Rubbed the meat in a different rub by sort of dry dredging it in a bowl.  Here is the bacon.  I did 1/2# in Cabela's pecan honey rub and the other 1/2# in Cabela's maple jalapeno rub.  I really like both of those rubs on ribs so I figured I would try it on bacon.  I then put in the oven on 170° for 30 minutes before they waited to go into the dehydrator with the other meats.



Ready and waiting on the dehydrator rack.  I bought more of the inexpensive "frog mats" on ebay from China.  I cut off 1 3/4" from the end of the mat and it fits perfect into these dehydrator racks.



Cut a boneless pork loin into strips and did the same dry drudging process with Cabela's Maple Bacon Chipotle rub.  I had previously cut 3 roughly 1.5" chops that were used (approximately 1#).  I then put them in the other oven for 10 minutes at 350°.  Here they are on the dehydrator rack ready to go in.



Lastly, 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into slices (approximately 1.5#-2.0#), dry drudged with a mixture of Frank's Red Hot seasoning, blue cheese powder, hickory smoke powder, and charcoal seasoning for about 2/3 of the strips and cinnamon chipotle rub for the remainder.  These were also put in the oven for 10 minutes at 350° before getting ready to go in the dehydrator.



Only needed 4 of the 12 racks for this cook.



More to come later this afternoon.  Will see if I need to finish in the oven or not.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Well, I don't think I am a fan of how the chicken or pork jerky turned out.  The bacon tastes like candy though.  It recommended 24 hours in the dehydrator.  I pulled at 9.  Not sure what it would have been like at 24 hours.

[BigDave83]

chicken and pork are great, the cooking of it first ruins it, or that has been my experience when I tried it that way. I usually use the jerky kits from Cabeles or high mountain even Owens BBQ.

I have found that when using the kits I like to let it marinade for a couple of 3 days before drying.

The cooked stuff was a texture thing for me, along with the original mess from baking it..

[Bentley]

I know my friend and roommate at the time tried either chicken or turkey one time in the oven.  He did marinate it, not sure how long or with what.  We used to do a lot of backpacking in the Sierra's.  I think I have made this comment before, but the texture was like putting cotton balls in a cardboard wrap and eating it.

I would not believe you could get bacon to render at those temperatures...was it very flaccid?

[yorkdude]

I have an Excalibur and have never used it outside in the cold, used it plenty inside. When doing jerky I always let it sit for a day and tried to go for 2. Never cooked prior so not much help there.
To your point, mine would not be able to even get close to 148 in that temp, at least not for me

[Bar-B-Lew]

I know my friend and roommate at the time tried either chicken or turkey one time in the oven.  He did marinate it, not sure how long or with what.  We used to do a lot of backpacking in the Sierra's.  I think I have made this comment before, but the texture was like putting cotton balls in a cardboard wrap and eating it.

I would not believe you could get bacon to render at those temperatures...was it very flaccid?

No, it breaks apart when you bend it.  The rub is pretty sugary and sort of crystalized on the bacon.

[Bentley]

So Pig Candy with no heat?

[Bar-B-Lew]

So Pig Candy with no heat?

I guess so.  It was in the oven for 30 minutes at 170 and then cooled before going into the dehydrator.  The machine did get to the mid 130s but never above that.

[Bentley]

Pig candy is bacon, brown sugar and cayenne pepper!

[Bar-B-Lew]

My buddy bought the same dehydrator as I did and was using his today.  Inititally, he too was having issues getting up to temp.  So, I decided to put a Thermoworks Dot probe inside and check out the temp difference versus the display.  I only checked it a few times over a 2+ hour period.  It looks like the dehydrator was at 125° and the probe was at 147°.  My garage was 45° and Cabela's recommends it be at least 60° to get optimal performance from the unit.  If I add the 22° spread to the temps I hit yesterday on the display, it would put me real close to 160° which was the set temp.

His unit hit 156° on the display while set at 160° with an inside temp of 65° on his enclosed patio where he was using the unit.

I will monitor on the next use to see if there is a significant variance.  I guess the dehydrator is like a new pit, and I just need to get to know it like I have the variances on the pellet grills.