I usually hand cut mine, to lazy to clean the slicer I guess.
I cut mine with the grain, 3/8" or a little over usually. Cut with give you a more chewy, and against more tender.
Never tenderized.
Fat, I don' get that picky about, I get most of the big stuff, I don't mind some on it, I save those pieces for myself. They will mold eventually, but I have had jerky in a lock n lock container on the counter for months and no mold.
I use Cure 1 in all of my jerky. I just got used to using it especially when I started doing pork and poultry jerky years ago.
I will occasionally use ground meat but I can't seem to get it to come out the way I think it should, but I still give it a shot now and then.
I have really come to like the dry marinade/cure, I don't remember but I think it was on a post from Yorkdude where he just used a dry seasoning instead of a wet marinade. I was never a big soak it in soy sauce guy.
Usually cure for 3 to 4 days.
If you have a seasoning you like about 1.5T per pound of meat works well. Add the cure in if you so choose. Depending on the coverage I will sometimes lightly dust with more of the seasoning or maybe even a little different one once I lay it out on my racks, no cure in it a this point.
I like 150 to 170 for a temp range. Also thanks to Bar B Lew for the idea of smoking for a few hours and then finishing in the dehydrator.
No matter what method of drying I use i have found it best to rotate top to bottom and even front to back at least once.
Also save those little scraps and odd pieces, put them on the front of the rack for a snack when you check it now and then. If the pieces are really small and want to fall through the rack just kind of smash them all together, when they dry they kind of fuse together.
