My husband is making jerky out of squirrel meat. (yes, i do realize he is a redneck). he did not cook...?!
Answers: the meat or anaything prior to putting it in the dehydrator. my question is: do squirrels carry any sort of diseases or parasites that may still be alive throughout this dehydration process? i don't want him to "catch" anything from a yard rat because he didn't heat the meat up to the degree necessary to kill any dangerous organisms.
If he brines it first it will be safe...It might be hard to convince a redneck to do this, though...It will taste better though so maybe if you make some...you can convince him.
Also thinned soy sauce with a little sugar will give it that classic jerky flavor AND protect him...
(plus all the nasty parasites are on the skin and in the intestines...any well cleaned meat is "edible" insist he washes up well after skinning and cleaning...)
the dehydration process is all that is necessary, our founding fathers ate squirels and we all survived :) Don't worry.
I live in the south, but squirrel jerky, UGH.....no offense, but UGH!! I would imagine like the other person said, your suppose to marinate it in soy sauce prior to dehydrating it, aren't you??
Should not be a problem. The drying process has some heat, the drying takes care of the rest of any bugs that could be there, but they are probably not the squirrels fault, but a bad dressing job...just make sure he uses kitchen cutlery and not his pocket knife!!!!! You know what I mean! We just don't want to know where all that knife has been! LOL!
from another with a redneck...we lived on squirrels, rabbit, frogs and poached, even sometimes legal deer meat, while we were in college!
Their probably like deer meat. Dehydrate and eat. We make alot of deer jerky.