In Norway, winters are long, and they get longer and colder the further north you live. In the past, one of the only ways to survive was to preserve food, for example by drying fish or boiling down fruit and vegetables. Meat was also dried or salted, for example, to preserve it for the winter.
As a vegetarian, I really appreciate modern food supplies and am happy that I am no longer forced to eat meat or fish to survive. In 2025, there are 8.47 million vegetarians living in Germany, which is an increase of 58.06% (IfD Allensbach, 2025). However, being a vegetarian also meant that I never tasted the product I made. But I had friends who tried my final product and gave me feedback.
Beef Jerky
Beef jerky has a long history and was originally made by the indigenous peoples of the USA. However, jerky was originally made from buffalo, alpaca, or llama. Dried meat is also widespread on other continents. (GrizzlyFoods, n.d)
Beef jerky is now a very popular snack in the USA and is available in almost every store. In Europe, however, the snack is still relatively unknown.
I chose beef jerky because it is an uncomplicated and individual method of preserving meat for longer. Preserving homemade beef jerky for a long time is a little more difficult, and it doesn't turn out as well as the industrially produced variety.
I used the following recipe, which is slightly modified from the original recipe based on the ingredients I found and had available. (GuteKüche.de, n.d.)
300g beef
½ onion
1 clove of garlic
55ml soy sauce
38ml Worcester sauce
1/6 tsp salt
¼ tsp sugar
¼ tsp pepper
¾ tbsp ketchup
First, prepare the marinade for the meat. To do this, chop the onion and garlic and mix with the liquid ingredients to form a marinade.
Cut the meat into thin strips. However, they should not be thicker than 3-4mm and ideally no wider than 3-4cm. That was my first mistake: I didn't cut them wide enough.
Cut beef stripes Source: Stine Koopmann
The cut strips are then marinated for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight. I left mine in the marinade for a good 14 hours and they ended up being a little overmarinated.
Beef in the marinade Sources: Stine Koopmann
After marinating, the meat is carefully patted dry and dried in a dehydrator or oven. In the dehydrator, the meat should be dried at 65 degrees Celsius for 6-8 hours. In the oven, it should be dried at 70 degrees Celsius for 4-6 hours. It is important that the oven is left slightly open the whole time and that the meat is turned halfway through. I left my meat in the dehydrator for a good 7 hours and it came out with a good consistency.
The Beef Jerky after a few minutes in the food dehydrator Source: Stine Koopmann
To extend its shelf life, I vacuum-sealed the beef jerky so that no more air could get to it.
In my analysis of the production process, I noticed a few things that I would do differently in hindsight. Among other things, I would measure the marinade much more precisely than I did. I made the marinade in my dorm kitchen to save some time in our teaching kitchen. However, I don't have a measuring cup here in Norway. So it would have been smarter to measure the liquid ingredients with a measuring cup. As it is, my beef jerky turned out very salty and tastes primarily like soy sauce.
Finished and dried beef jerky Source: Stine Koopmann
When cutting the meat, mine tended to be a little too warm. I read afterwards that it is probably easier if you freeze the meat briefly beforehand. This makes the meat a little more stable in texture and not so soft and easily deformable. However, the meat should not be frozen too quickly, as this can affect its texture. The texture of the meat also changes when it is defrosted too quickly. (Freiräume München, 2025).
I should also have dabbed the marinade off more thoroughly. As a result, pieces of onion were dried along with the meat and are now stuck to it.
I didn't do everything right when vacuum sealing either. There is still some air in the vacuum. The air was probably removed from the packaging too quickly.
Overall, making beef jerky is very easy. It just takes time and needs to be planned in advance. So it's not a snack that you can quickly prepare and then eat on the same day. It takes at least two days to make. I now know what I could do better in the future and that a lot depends on the marinade and how long the meat is left to soak in it. I understand why it is a popular snack among carnivores and why many Americans enjoy eating it so much. However, I don't think I will make it again because it contains meat. I can imagine making and trying vegan jerky, though. It's usually made from seitan or soy fillets and then prepared in a similar way. Unfortunately, I haven't found any seitan or soy fillets here in Volda yet, so I haven't been able to try it.
Ressources:
B, Felix. (2025, October 24).Richtig einfrieren: So bleibt die Textur perfekt. Freiräume München. https://freiraeume-muenchen.de/richtig-einfrieren-so-bleibt-die-textur-perfekt/
Grizzly Foods. (n.d.). Trockenfleisch rund um die Welt. GrizzlyFoods.https://blog.grizzlyfoods.de/trockenfleisch-weltweit/
Gute Küche. (n.d.). Beef Jerky selber machen. gutekueche.de.https://www.gutekueche.de/beef-jerky-selber-machen-rezept-11082
IfD Allensbach(2025, september 03). Anzahl der Personen in Deutschland, die sich selbst als Vegetarier einordnen oder als Leute, die weitgehend auf Fleisch verzichten¹, von 2015 bis 2025. statista.de. https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/173636/umfrage/lebenseinstellung-anzahl-vegetarier/
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