Meat slicer

[Carolina Counsel]

I followed some recs here for a dehydrator for jerky. Do I need a slicer and if so, any suggestions? The reviews routinely suck.

[CurLee]

Just use a good knife and partially freeze before slicing. I've got my grandmother's old slicer made in '48, but I only use it for shaving. If I were to buy another I would look for something similar, or a commercial unit.

[ecu1984]

Put it in the freezer so it firms up (don't freeze it solid though) and this allows you to cut it much nicer at desired thickness.
Cut the meat against the grain for much more tender jerky
I am waiting to catch a nice used Hobart on craigslist from restaurant going out of business

[TheVisorGuy]

I bought a $99 cabelas slicer 10 years ago. Granted I only use it 3-4 times a year it makes it much easier and hasn’t missed a beat

[Kioti]

If you have a place to leave it set up and are going to do a lot at one time the commercial Hobart style might be the way to go. I have one but it ain't worth using to me just to slice up one batch of jerky. It's heavy and takes up a lot of room. One of these years I'll hopefully have it where I can slice up an entire deer all at once.

[SaltMuck]

I’ve got a Hobart and it’s all good til you get down to a small hunk of meat. It’ll make you think about whether you’d rather have jerky or 10 fingers. I used to slice against the grain of back straps but started fileting the bottom of it to make bigger slices. I use kitchen scissors once it’s dry if I want to cutdown the pieces. Drying goes much faster , since you have to handle 1/10th as many slices.

[ecu1984]

I bought a $99 cabelas slicer 10 years ago. Granted I only use it 3-4 times a year it makes it much easier and hasn’t missed a beat

I will check that out.
Those feeders I got from you worked out well. Do you have another to part with?

[TheVisorGuy]

I will check that out.
Those feeders I got from you worked out well. Do you have another to part with?

I’ll see what I got