In article >,
"Tom Del Rosso" > wrote:

> Alton uses a fan with no heater to dry the meat. The recipe doesn't say
> anything about cooking, and neither do many others. Some call for a
> dehydrator and merely 'recommend' that it has a heater. Isn't cooking
> mandatory?

I've made a lot of jerky out of venison and some from duck. It's been
twenty five years since my last batch. My memory is foggy, except I
sliced the meat to about 1/8 inch, brined it with salt and a bit of soy
sauce for about a day, coarse peppered hell out of it to discourage
flies and hung it in the garage over fishing line during the fall when
temps didn't freeze much nor heat up to much more than seventy F. There
was no cooking. It took one to two weeks hanging out of direct sunlight
in our dry climate. I never saw a fly come close to it.
Puddle ducks make much better jerky than diving ducks from my
experience. Avoid a Ruddy Duck.
I did it. It was good. I'm alive. However, your milage may vary.
I quit making jerky when I quit shooting deer. I didn't quit shooting
deer for any moral reason.

leo