Many years ago I built a food dryer at a night school course. It was a box with 7 or 8 screens. It had vents in the top and bottom with a light bulb as a heat source.

One small problem, it didn't dry fruit before the flys got it .

I think the box was too big and the heat was inefficient.

Anyway,a few years ago we bought a small plastic (ugh) unit by American Harvest? for about 50 dollars. It is easy to clean and store and we have used it to dry cherries , apricots and beef jerky ,It is much faster than the one I built. I suspect due to the fan and the lower volume.

I prefer homemade or FREE wherever possible but this is one thing of plastic that I do like..

With that said , I'd like to hear what others use for marinates in Jerky??

Regards Terry (camping time"s acomming)