The easy way to make beef jerky is not the way the Indians used. They employed a slow fire, or a summer sun, and their quality control was poor. Far better to set a modern oven at 100° to 120° and leave the thin strips of beef in for twenty-four hours. The meat isn't supposed to cook; it's supposed to dry. A good strip of beef jerky is bone-dry, and hard enough to kill you if you file the end to a point. It will also keep practically forever. Beef jerky is too limited a diet to keep a human being alive forever. The time can be greatly extended with vitamin supplements, but it's still dull.
