Nesco BJX-5 American Harvest Jumbo Jerky Works Kit

by Nesco

• Jerky-making kit for home-made jerky in about 4 hours
• Large jerky gun with stainless-steel trigger and ratchet bar
• See-through meat chamber holds up to a pound of ground meat
• 3 attachments and 5 jerky spice and cure packs included
• Measures approximately 11-1/2 by 3 by 6-1/5 inches

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 3 x 6.2 inches ; 1.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B001795P3K
• Item model number: BJX-5
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (160 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,084 in Kitchen & Dining (See Top 100 in Kitchen & Dining)
  • #28 in Kitchen & Dining > Small Appliances > Specialty Appliances > Dehydrators

Product Description

Delicious jerky in as little as four hours. These flavorful snacks are ideal for healthy eaters who want a treat tasting lower calorie snack. This large jerky gun with stainless steel trigger, ratchet bar and see through meat chamber holds 1 pound of ground meat which yields approximately 1/2 pound of jerky after dehydration. It comes with three attachments to make jerky strips, sticks or double strips. Includes five original flavor jerky spice and cure packs.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

109 of 109 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a long term relationship March 10, 2011

By K. Liang

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a great product designed to make your ground beef jerky making process easier.

What I like:

The gun itself is very helpful in forming strips and sticks of jerky. The different nozzles allow me to make my jerky into whatever shape I like. The gun is easy to use and quite precise. All you have to do is load it with seasoned ground beef and squeeze it out. You can control the length of the jerky. It even makes a pleasant clicking sound as you watch your neat strips/sticks of jerky come out from the other end. I would not know how to form ground beef otherwise. Your hand WILL get tired after a while, but that is why we have two hands =)

I LOVE the seasoning & cure packets that came with it. They were delicious, and make your jerky taste exactly like store bought stuff. They give you a good amount, too. Enough to make 5-10 pounds of jerky depending on your taste. After finishing them I decided to mix my own cure & seasoning by buying salt cure and liquid smoke, etc. but so far I haven't been able to come up with a consistently tasty seasoning for my jerky. If you want consistent great tasting jerky, I highly recommend ordering more of these packets individually.

However, this jerky gun, as convenient as it is, does have a major, major, MARJOR problem...

Major problem:

The VITAL piece that pushes out the jerky is made of PLASTIC!!!! Oh lord, what are they thinking?! I am talking about the piece that connects to the end of the core metal stick. It is made of a thin piece of plastic! I understand that it needs to come off so it can be cleaned, but can't they make it metal too? My jerky gun is lying in the bottom storage drawer of my oven right now, because that one little piece of plastic cracked after making jerky 9-10 times. Yes, I made a lot of jerky with it, yes, it was great while it lasted --- but if you want a long term relationship with your jerky gun, and not have to toss the whole thing just because one little piece malfunctioned, you need to look else where for a sturdy gun.

One (not so good) way to fix it:

This vital piece began cracking after my 6th batch of jerky. It did not fall apart, just a little crack, so I found a temporary solution: I found a metal jar cap that is the same size, cleaned it well, and placed it in front of the plastic piece. It worked for a while, but eventually the meat escaped from the space around it and made a mess (what was I thinking). Also, you can try super glue. I haven't tried it yet, but super glue works wonders with plastic.

Over all:

With all its imperfections, this one does seem to be the most economic jerky gun--- precisely because it is imperfect. So I would say if you are a first time jerky maker, and you're not sure if you would want to make jerky forever, then give this a try. If you are like me, and eat jerky as a part of your stable diet, please skip this item and buy an all metal jerky gun. They do have those, though they are much more expensive.

Thanks for reading!

57 of 60 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Too Easy! December 12, 2008

By Kenneth R. Kadan

Amazon Verified Purchase

If you or someone you know loves beef jerky and you also love to save money on this wonderful treat - then look no further because this is the extruder you want. Simply purchase ground sirloin with a 3% to 5% fat content, mix in the included two seasoning packets for each pound of beef you use, shove the meat into the extruder, pull the triger and BAM you've just made your jerky strips. I use the superb Nesco dehydrador and in five hours I have turned four pounds of sirloin into many, many strips of excellent beef jerky. Get this kit and make the jerky you love quickly and conveniently. Highly recommended. Enjoy.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad design-broken from the start February 14, 2011

By Bonecrusher

Amazon Verified Purchase

I don't normally complain if I can repair a problem, which I probably can with this one. But-I won't spend half the value of this jerky shooter to ship it back for repair. I'll try some JB Weldish type stuff instead. That being said, let's get to the problem. This is a neat gadget, but it has a design flaw where the ratchet mechanism meets the plunger disk. Mine is cracked almost through after one use. I could see that this might not be a problem if you were trying to dehydrate some chocolate pudding, but anything similar to ground meat being pushed through this meat caulk gun is going to crack the parts at the joint I described. I don't know if there are any other available jerky shooters, but I will definately research that. It is an inexpensive item, but, it should be able to supply more than one usage. Use at your own risk-maybe do a glue up with the JB Weld before using to prevent frustration.

Nesco BJX-5 American Harvest Jumbo Jerky Works Kit