Calories in homemade Jerky AFTER dehydration?

I just added our families recipe for homemade beef jerky using eye of round beef and spices/sauces. My question is - does the beef not change weight alot when it is dehydrated - and if so, how do I know what the FINAL caloric amt is for it?

ie: I plugged in the recipe. I just made beef jerky with the following ingredients: 3.06kg of eye of round beef trimmed of all fat, 1/2 low sodium soy sauce, jerk sauce, splash of celery salt, sprinkle of sea salt, worchestershire sauce and liquid smoke. When I did all the ingredients it shows that 1 oz of beef jerky (uncooked) will be 53 CALORIES, 2 g FAT, etc.

But I'm assuming that does not mean I can eat 1oz of DEHYDRATED/DRIED beef jerky for that 53 calories.

Anyone with any advice on how i figure it out?

Replies

  • jennifeffer
    jennifeffer Posts: 98 Member
    What if you were to cut it into one ounce pieces before you dried it? Then each piece would be 53 cals......

    But maybe that's easier said than done....
  • leslielightfoot
    leslielightfoot Posts: 34 Member
    I can weigh the 1 oz out after its done but i don't think it will be right because I *think* the meat loses about 70% of its weight during dehydration. I need to figure it out.

    So, i know how much calories 1oz would be pre-dehydration but i'm guessing it weighs a lot less (and therefore is a lot more calories per ounce) after dehydration. I'm going to try weighing it all, together, once its dried to figure out how much weight it 'lost'.

    math - it was never my strong suit.
  • onehurt
    onehurt Posts: 143 Member
    My guess is if you weighed out 1 oz raw at x amount of calories it would be the same after you dehydrated it .... What did it lose? Water! And how many calories is water? None, so it should be the same as far as calories. Maybe I am just being simple minded, but that is how I did my deer sticks I made. They were smoked but will still be lighter after smoking. But I had them in a casing so they were all the same size so all I had to do was divide how many sticks by the total weight of the batch.

    Mark
  • rosered93
    rosered93 Posts: 69 Member
    I can weigh the 1 oz out after its done but i don't think it will be right because I *think* the meat loses about 70% of its weight during dehydration. I need to figure it out.

    So, i know how much calories 1oz would be pre-dehydration but i'm guessing it weighs a lot less (and therefore is a lot more calories per ounce) after dehydration. I'm going to try weighing it all, together, once its dried to figure out how much weight it 'lost'.

    math - it was never my strong suit.

    Do this. You know the total number of calories beforehand as you will essentially have lost only water (maybe some very minimal fat). Thus the number of calories in the dried batch will be roughly the same. So if you start with (arbitrary numbers) 1000g and 2000 calories (so 2kcal/gram) and end with 400g but still 2000 calories, you now have 5kcal/g.
  • davidchorney
    davidchorney Posts: 4 Member
    I believe approximately 3 ounces of raw meat make one ounce of jerky. So in your case, if you ate 1 ounce of jerky, it would be approximately 159 calories.
  • harper16
    harper16 Posts: 2,564 Member
    I believe approximately 3 ounces of raw meat make one ounce of jerky. So in your case, if you ate 1 ounce of jerky, it would be approximately 159 calories.

    Hopefully after 7 years she's figured it out.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 7,334 Member
    I know it’s a zombie thread, but for future reference:

    I make jerky every month. I create a recipe each month and enter everything in the marinade plus the weight of the beef. It’s all “one” serving. After I dehydrate, I weigh it back out.

    So if it was 40 ounces wet, with marinade, and comes up to 20 ounces dried, I take that “one serving”, and .05 is my one ounce serving.

    Surprisingly, the jerky has been pretty consistent at 100-105 calories per ounce, no matter how I tinker with the recipe.

    I use a Ninja Foodi to dehydrate. It does a fabulous, fast, consistent job compared to the stand-alone with the horrible PITA plastic trays.

    I generally use some soy sauce, teriyaki, pineapple juice, ginger (fresh or dried), and a dose of black pepper. I’m marinating some with a healthy dash of Trader Joe’s umami seasoning right now.