DIY Food Dryer / Jerky Maker
$60
30 Minutes
Medium
A few months ago I found my ancient "ronco" food dyer in one of my storage sheds. I used to use it quite a lot some 30 + years ago for drying herbs and produce from the garden, I also used it to make home made jerky. I fired it up and ran a batch of jerky through the old plastic contraption. This ole unit had some broken trays and relied purely on convection with its wimpy 85 watt heating element. Needless to say the jerky took a bit longer than I remember but was just as tasty. My two young girls are JERKY fans and love the stuff...they both devoured my small batch in no time.
I looked at getting a more modern upgrade but was turned off by the $300 price tag on some of the more powerful fan assisted units. Being the creative MacGyver type I pulled together some basic components and now have a great low cost unit.
For trays I'm using some baking cooling racks (metal no stick) A local home supply store sells these for about $14 ea, I found some slightly more basic units on E-bay for much less at about $8 a pair with free ship. For heating I picked up a basic hot plate (amazon for about $20) the fan is a 850 cfm computer / electronic cooling fan..again ebay for about $20.
The lumber and hinges were scraps and spare odd stuff from the shop...I ran a batch of jerky (honey terriaki) one of our favorites, through it this weekend. I used my oven meat thermometer to develop some operating parameters.
The unit performed just like the commercial $300 to 400 dollar units I read about in my research. My cost ...about $60 in parts...that can still be used for their original purposes.
Now that the design is proven I'll put some sealer on the raw wood.
I looked at getting a more modern upgrade but was turned off by the $300 price tag on some of the more powerful fan assisted units. Being the creative MacGyver type I pulled together some basic components and now have a great low cost unit.
For trays I'm using some baking cooling racks (metal no stick) A local home supply store sells these for about $14 ea, I found some slightly more basic units on E-bay for much less at about $8 a pair with free ship. For heating I picked up a basic hot plate (amazon for about $20) the fan is a 850 cfm computer / electronic cooling fan..again ebay for about $20.
The lumber and hinges were scraps and spare odd stuff from the shop...I ran a batch of jerky (honey terriaki) one of our favorites, through it this weekend. I used my oven meat thermometer to develop some operating parameters.
The unit performed just like the commercial $300 to 400 dollar units I read about in my research. My cost ...about $60 in parts...that can still be used for their original purposes.
Now that the design is proven I'll put some sealer on the raw wood.
hot plate and cooling racks
box with lower vent and fan on top.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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2 comments
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Brilliant. We have one of those old wimpy systems that we pretty much just use to dry fruit for trail snacks. It works decently for that, but takes forever, as you said. This looks much more effective.
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I could never in a million years come up with all those creative workarounds. You are intimidatingly resourceful!
Frequently asked questions
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Do you have any written plans for the box with the dimensions? What size whole in the top for the fan?