Inflation markers

I bought a dehydrator to make my own, only to find out buying the meat to dehydrate cost exactly the same as an equal amount of already made jerky.
If a 16oz bag of Jack Link's was actually $16 here, I'd start using the dehydrator again since the fresh, pre-sliced meat I'd use is only $8/lb.
- But you only get like <1/2lb of jerky from 1lb of meat
- I only buy meat if it's on sale for the same cost as tofu... 8$/lbs is a lot!
- You need to go to Sam's or Costco and buy meat in bulk. Buying it from the supermarket is what kills you.

it's because they're sold by weight and since all the water is gone, the jerky pieces weigh so little. to then make a 16oz bag, you gotta add a lot of jerky. backtracking to make that happen means you need way more meat, which means way more money to buy that meat.
I agree though that the prices are ridiculous. I just think it helps to know why, too.
- The bags are 8 oz now. Shrinkflation is double whammy
  
  I just picked a number that sounded good enough lol. I checked the pic above to see what it says but it doesn't have a weight

never understood who bought this stuff, it has always been extremely expensive.
- Jerky is seriously price inflated with a surprisingly large amount of defenders who babble about the cost of meat without apparently having ever made some themselves.
  Or maybe they're just bad at math?
  Buy $20 of beef, rub it with some salt and spices and stick it in a dehydrator, it's not rocket science, it's literally just how humans have preserved meat for our entire history (minus the dehydrator convenience)
  
  How much shrinks away? I've always suspected jercky to be a scam just don't know how much
  
  Jerky is always a food of convenience. It's a food that is always on the shelf, you eat it if you're dead. If I had time, energy, equipment, space, and desire to cook, I would be cooking a meal.

These have always been ridiculously expensive where I live. I used to import jerky from South Africa. Theirs is cheaper (even after shipping) and honestly better. Biltong they call it.
- It's pretty easy to make biltong on your own too. I've done it with strips of meat hanging in a cardboard box with a fan pointed at it
  
  Okay, that's great, but how do you make biltong?
- And you can make biltong much easier than jerky. Literally just a hanger and a room running AC.
  Plus, absolutely 20 times better.

Slice and marinate beef and put it in the oven. 30 mins work for a pound of jerky
- Only 30min?
  You sure you’re not just eating poorly cooked steak?
  
  They probably mean 30 min worth of prep. The oven part is hands off and whatever to them.
  
  Yeah, most of the oven recipes I’m familiar with are several hours at fairly low heat. You’re trying to dehydrate the meat, not bake it.
  
  Yeah.. You might want a couple hours lol till it's chewy but tender
- Anyone reading this, please don't do this if you want jerky...just buy a dehydrator, they're cheap.
  Then use eye of round or London broil cuts...most deli places will even cut them thin for you.
  
  I mean, you can do it, but if you have steak that feels like jerky after 30 min in the over, you just likely just created overcooked steak.
  Oven jerky takes many hours and you should occasionally open and remove the escaping moisture.
  
  I want to buy a little tabletop meat slicer for the very reason. Wife bought a dehydrator because she wanted fruit leather (although I almost never get "leather", instead becoming "chips"). I want homemade jerky.
- 30 minutes works for a pound of jerky
  I have to assume you're using a high temp in which case that's not jerky. You're just cooking the meat. 🤦‍♂️
  If you want to actually dehydrate it and make jerky, you would use the lowest temp your oven can go (typically 150-165F) and let it go for 6-8 hours. Longer if you're using a wet marinade and not just salt or a dry rub.
  
  Obviously, you dehydrate it, maybe 30 degrees. I'm not making mini steaks, and i didnt write a receipe. 🤦🏼 Thats why i said 30 minutes of work
- Trust in Chef John
- I've never done it but I do know you can technically make it by slicing up nice lean cuts of steak. Marinading them so they soak up the flavor. Then dangling them on the rack in the oven on the lowest heat setting with the door cracked open for a few hours. A friend of mine did this and they came out amazing with deer jerky.
- Still gotta buy the beef though
  
  Which should cost much, much less

Jack Link's is probably the cheapest beef jerky you can find in supermarkets in Germany. Its about 5€ per bag (~$5 USD), 3€ if it's on sale.
Its absolute garbage though. Way too sweet.
I switched to making my own jerky at home, using a cheap food dehydrator. That comes out cheaper and tastes a lot better.
- They now have Biltong version, and that one is actually good. The regular is indeed garbage, meat candy, both not good as a jerky and as a candy.

shrinkflation and cheapflation is just as bad. people can tell if you use cheaper ingredients and try to be sneaky and keep the same labels, and pictures.