Customer Reviews

Nesco BJX-5 American Harvest Jumbo Jerky Works Kit

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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!

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.

Nesco Jerky Kit BJX-5 / B001795P3K

I purchased this for use with my Nesco FD-75PR 700-Watt Food Dehydrator, but despite the glowing reviews on Amazon, I personally did not find this jerky gun very easy to use.

To start with, if you just load this jerky gun with ground beef right out of the package, you will find that the gun clogs instantly - there isn't enough pressure to force the ground beef through. If you soak the ground beef first in liquid (like, for example, soy sauce) and load it into the gun and press the trigger... the liquid will be forced out, the ground beef will stay in the gun, and another clog will result. In fact, the *only* way to get the ground beef to come out of the tube in strips is to puree it to a liquid beforehand in a food processor, blender, or electric mixing bowl.

Once you've actually got pureed ground beef, you have to actually extrude the jerky from the gun. The major problem here is that there are only two ways to push material out of the tube: either you press the button for short, controlled bursts, or you hold the button down with one hand and push the presser bar until you've gotten the length you like. Pressing the button for short bursts is completely useless, however, since the gun spits out about an inch of jerky (if that) so shudderingly that it immediately disconnects from the gun - so if you want a jerky STRIP instead of tiny jerky bites, you're going to have to hold the button down and use the presser.

The problem with the presser method is three-fold. First, you'd better be pretty strong to push the presser successfully, and I mean *very* strong, and you'd better have a steady hand - if you tremble at all, the jerky strip tears off from the gun. Second, you'd better have pretty long arms because the presser literally doubles the length of the tube. And third - and this is the biggest problem - you need three arms. You have to have one hand on the button at all times in order to work the presser manually and of course you have to use a second hand to operate the presser. If you have a circular dehydrator (and most people do), you're going to have to get a second person to help and turn the plate as you extrude jerky. You can't just extrude some and then use your presser hand to turn the plate and keep going, because that slight motion will break the jerky strip.

Consequently, jerky with this kit is a big production at our house - I puree the meat and stuff it into the jerky gun, my fiance operates the plastic gun while I turn the dehydrator plate to create the necessary long 'jerky spiral' that dries so nicely and breaks into strips. And then, of course, there's the clean-up which takes awhile: not only are these several pieces to clean, but the screwed on top doesn't come off easily after the jerky juices have leached into it during use.

After several uses with this kit, I kind of dread making ground beef jerky, just because it's so tricky to do with this. I wonder if I should have gotten a more expensive machine - maybe one that would extrude in a strip automatically, and just let me worry about positioning and turning? It really shouldn't have to take 3-4 hands to operate a jerky gun. In the meantime, I'm sticking to 'strip steak jerky' just because it's so much easier.

A side note about the seasonings - they are VERY strong. We used them at the given ratio and were completely overwhelmed; even halving the ratio only helped a little. And they're not even really that great - the strongest taste is of MSG and salt. And if you use soy sauce to liquefy the meat, you really don't need MORE salt. I'd recommend making your own seasoning from an online recipe or something because these just didn't taste good at all, in my opinion.

~ Ana Mardoll

I purchased this with the idea of making my own Slim Jim styled jerky sticks but my results were not favorable whatsoever. I started off mixing 5 lbs of ground beef with the provided seasoning and quickly realized that I should have first tested the gun with 1 lb of ground beef. I had read some other reviews which suggested first spraying the inside of the tube with non stick spray, which I did, but after the first pull of the trigger found that the back end would pop off. I though that maybe I had not screwed it on right or tight enough to I put it on again, making sure to tighten it as much as possible with my bare hands. The second time I pulled the trigger had identical results, the back popped off again. I came to the conclusion that the meat was not lubricated enough so I took it out and re-mixed it adding some barbeque sauce to soften the meat a little more. I took the time to wash out the tube and dry it then reapply a thicker coat of non stick spray and once again loaded the tube with the newly mixed meat. Once again after the first pull the back end popped off. I ended up having to make 5 lbs of burgers which were not too good because of the amount of salt in each season packet. What a waste of money and time.

In my opinion this is a great idea but a poor execution of design. Don't waste your time or your money.

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

Awesome product. Easy to use and the tube holds over a pound of meat so you don't have to keep refilling it all the time. Loved all the different tips to make flat or round jerky.

This fun gadget is essentially a meat caulking gun. I bought it with my square Nesco dehydrator, in order to create Slim-Jim-style beef sticks. While it is not the sturdiest device I have ever seen, it is easy to use, and worth the relatively small price, if only for the novelty of creating sticks and slabs of ground beef jerky.

A few points:

-- Ground beef jerky is not actually traditional beef jerky. "Real" jerky is thin strips of steak, marinated (I do mine for 36+ hours), and then dried. This device creates tubes and slabs from ground beef or other meats.

-- This type of jerky is faster to create than the "real" stuff. You simply add seasonings (Nesco's packets and/or your own additions) to the meat, stuff it in the gun, extrude it onto the trays, and fire up the dehydrator. 4-5 hours later, you have jerky!

-- It is helpful to allow the beef to come near room temperature before extrusion. This just makes it easier to squeeze the stuff out of the gun. Also, make sure you use 93/7% hamburger (or even leaner if you can). It's healthier, dries faster, and "sweats" less while drying.

-- Food safety is even more critical with ground beef than with lengthily-marinated solid beef strips. Ground meat tends to contain more bacteria, so all your mixing utensils, bowls, the dehydrator trays, and the gun parts themselves should be thoroughly washed with a mild bleach and dish soap solution and very hot water JUST PRIOR TO USE. This will help prevent any chance of food-borne illness, and extend the life of the finished product. I also wash my hands repeatedly, and use disposable latex examination gloves when handling the meat.

-- Be aware that the round beef sticks you create will NOT resemble the fatter and perfectly tubular sticks created in factories and sold in various mail order food catalogs. They are thinner and more rustic, and probably way more tasty, mainly because YOU control the ingredients. They will also have WAY less fat than commercially-made sticks.

-- Treat the gun somewhat gingerly, as it is made of thin hard plastic. If you handle it carefully when disassembling, washing, re-assembling, and extruding, it should last awhile. That said, mine has quickly developed some alarming small cracks in the plastic at the attachment point behind the plunger. This has not affected operations and does not appear to be getting worse.

Overall, this is a fun gizmo that's worth getting, even if you only use it 4-5 times. It's quite easy to use, makes 2 different shapes of beef sticks, and not very costly. And if you don't like the beef sticks, you can always try re-caulking your bathroom grout with it...

i ordered this when i got my food-dehydrator. i read and then immediately discounted the negative reviews. then i started to wonder if i should have worried more. ever more nervous, when it arrived, i swiftly opened the package. to my surprise... NOTHING WAS WRONG! IT WORKED PERFECTLY!! i have used it every few days since then (I have a big family) and we all love it. the mechanism was fairly easy to use. the jerky mixes i have made all came out perfectly. i wish i could give a sample of the buffalo jerky i made with this to everyone who reads this.

the long and the short of it is, this is an amazing product. it is plastic with metal gears and handle. it is not made of k-monel or spring steel, so don't abuse it. all i did was wash after using it each time and we have been deliriously happy.

i recommend this product for anyone who has the desire to control what they eat and that likes beef jerky. plus, it has none of the cancer causing characteristics of well done beef. healthy food, healthy mind...

enjoy

For the money, this is a great product. I've tried the small and large flat tips and both have worked great, although we prefer the size of the large one. The season packets are also very tasty. I would prefer one's without MSG, but other than that, they work and taste great.

The shooter seems like it will hold up for a long time. There isn't much to it, so there isn't much that could break. I purchased another one for a friend.

I used my gun to make hamburger jerky. I found it very easy to use and I have arthritis in my hand, not terrible, but enough it does impact things like opening jars for example, and I found the ratchet squeeze gun very easy to use. We had nice even strips and I have jerky drying as I type this. Because I just bought this and am new to jerky making I can't speak to longevity, but it's very easy to use.