The Best Food Dehydrators for Jerky

This is the classic round jerky dehydrator, with the fan and the 600-watt heater in the lid, blowing down through five stacked trays. Nesco sells extra ones, and the stack goes up to twelve. It's made in the USA; only the motor unit comes from China, Nesco says.

At full heat it can run a little under the mark on its dial. One owner's probe read 152°F with the knob turned to 160°F, which is still hot enough to dry strips you've heated first. The strips nearest the fan finish first, and a longtime owner who has made jerky in hers since 2012 swaps the top trays with the bottom ones partway through.

The trays and the base go on the top rack of the dishwasher. If you're after ground-meat jerky, I'd buy the bundle that comes with Nesco's Jerky Works gun.

Ten stainless shelves slide in behind a door that drops down and tucks under the machine, and an 800-watt heater blows air across them at anything from 85°F to 165°F, for up to 80 hours. Taste of Home made it its pick for big batches, and jerky took 4 hours there at 155°F.

Excalibur's own jerky method is short: lean meat with all the fat trimmed, strips about an inch wide, 155°F for 4 to 6 hours, and blot off the fat as it beads up. The manual also suggests turning the trays halfway through, even though the listing says you don't have to. I'd do it for the first few batches and see.

Excalibur gives it three years of warranty. If $50 matters more to you than steel shelves, the Select Series 10-tray is the same size and power with chrome trays and a 60-hour timer.

The manual is the reason I'd hand this one to a beginner. It asks for curing salt, sends the meat into the oven until it reaches 160°F (165°F for poultry), and only then into the dehydrator, held at 145°F to 158°F. Flip the strips after 2 hours and start checking at 3 to 4. Beef and venison take about 3 to 4 hours at 145°F to 150°F.

The six trays are big, 14.65 by 11.7 inches with quarter-inch holes, and they go in the dishwasher along with the drip tray. The timer runs up to 24 hours.

Fill out the warranty card and mail it in with your receipt. That's what gets you two years instead of 90 days.

It's 12 by 12 inches and 9 tall, five plastic trays stacked on a 350-watt base, and you twist the trays to set them farther apart when the strips are thick. The temperature moves a degree at a time, the timer runs to 48 hours, and the trays go on the top rack of the dishwasher.

There's an air opening in the middle of the base that isn't covered, so pat the marinade off the strips before they go in, or it drips down there. If it ever overheats, it shuts off for good and you call Cosori, which gives it two years of warranty once you register it.