How many pounds of fresh beef does it take to make a pound of beef jerky?

Question

Beef obviously loses water when you dehydrate it to make beef jerky. What's the ratio here? Does it take two pounds of fresh beef to make a pound of beef jerky?

Answer 1

It depends on how moist you like your jerky. A typical jerky loses half of its starting weight in moisture, so 2:1 is the proper ratio. "Low moisture" jerky can actually be 1/3 the starting weight, a 3:1 ratio.

So 2-3 pounds of beef will make 1 pound of jerky.