I admit that I score pretty high on the list of crunchy. I bike everywhere, hang dry my laundry, and run a fermentation website. However, the idea of turning kombucha SCOBYs into food was beyond me. So the credit for this recipe goes out to my friend Mark.
Mark brought me a large jar of jerky… and it was… amazingly tasty! Even our kids, who were toddlers at the time, couldn’t get enough of it! So I decided to serve Kombucha SCOBY jerky to my not-so-crunchy book club, and everyone wondered what type of meat it was. They all assumed that the kombucha part of the jerky was in the sauce!
That makes this recipe a real winner!
Officially kombucha SCOBYs are mostly cellulose, so the jerky is basically flavor, probiotics, and fiber. So it doesn’t have any particular nutrient or caloric value. However, it’s a delicious way to use up extra SCOBYs!
Besides, who couldn’t use a bit of extra fiber in their diets?
The easiest way to harvest SCOBYs
This recipe works best with thin SCOBYs. Otherwise, the jerky is just too tough and chewy.
If you brew your own kombucha, you probably have a few extra SCOBYs stashed somewhere at the back of your fridge. While it is possible to separate a thick SCOBY into thin layers… it’s also pretty time-consuming.
Here is the secret to getting nice thin SCOBYs:
- Harvest young SCOBYs off the top of your kombucha.
- Depending on how often you brew, it could take a month or so to collect up enough SCOBYs.
- Don’t store the baby SCOBYs in a hotel or extra tea. Otherwise, they’ll start to thicken.
- Instead, store the SCOBYs in an airtight container. They will last for up to a week in the fridge.
- Alternatively, collect the extra SCOBYs in a container in the freezer so you can make a large batch of jerky!
Kombucha Scoby Jerky
Kombucha SCOBY jerky is a flavorful snack that is made with extra SCOBYs. Not only is it delicious, but it is also full of probiotics and fiber!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 hours
- Total Time: 12 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6-8 1x
- Category: Snacks
- Method: Dehydrated
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 5–6 thin kombucha SCOBYs (see the section above for harvesting recommendations)
- 1 Tbsp peeled and grated ginger
- 1 Tbsp finely diced garlic
- 1/2 cup soy sauce (or Braggs)
- 7 Tbsp maple syrup (see notes for alternatives)
Instructions
- Cut the SCOBYs into thin strips.
- Grease your dehydrator trays and lay out the strips of kombucha SCOBYs.
- Dehydrate until most of the moisture is gone (about 4 hours at 105 F).
- Mix up the remaining ingredients into a marinade, and soak your SCOBYs for 24 hours.
- Grease your dehydrator trays again.
- Fully dehydrate the SCOBYs (about 105F for 8 hours).
- Store at room temperature in an airtight jar and consume within 1 month.
Notes
- If you aren’t a SCOBY growing person, you could simply sub-in thinly sliced firm tofu for delicious tofu jerky.
- Feel free to use your favorite liquid sweetener. We’ve tested the recipe with maple syrup and honey, but it would probably also work with brown rice syrup.
- Several readers recommend adding little liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce. Neither of these is in my pantry, so I haven’t tried it. But feel free to add whatever flavor you want to your jerky.
- If you don’t happen to have a dehydrator
, you could use your oven set at the lowest temperature and leave the door propped open with a wooden spoon.
, you could use your oven set at the lowest temperature and leave the door propped open with a wooden spoon.Keywords: probiotic, SCOBY, reuse, free, vegetarian, gluten free, summer, fall, spring
Very interesting! I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to force my extra scobies onto anyone who will take them. Glad to know there’s something else I can do with them, because I just can’t bring myself to compost them all!
My oven only goes to 170°F, and I don’t have a dehydrator. Any suggestions or tips to make this work?
Maybe heat your oven, then turn it off then put your jerky in to dry? If you have very thin slices of kombucha then it shouldn’t take too long.
If you have an 18quart cooker they some times go down far enough if not you can lift off the top to get the temp. I did this for yogurt in the past before I got mine.
Do you mean a slow cooker? Good idea! I haven’t tried it, but it certainly could work. You would definitely need to vent the lid so that the scoby can dry.
I would add a little liquid smoke and worsteshire sauce.
Sounds good! Neither of those things are in my pantry, so I didn’t think of them.
precisely what I did!
Hello I’m very interested in making Scoby jerky. I have the round dehydrator and was wondering how do you dehydrate the scobys without attracting flies?
I always throw cheese cloth over the hole in the centre of my dehydrator to prevent bugs from getting into my food. Enjoy!
any idea what the nutritional information for this might look like in terms of calories and proteins?
Scobys are mostly cellulose, so it would just be fiber from the scoby side of things. There is honey and soy sauce so those would add calories, but I think it would be very little per piece of scoby.
If you live in Arizona. Just dont turn on your AC.
I see people inquiring about what to do with no dehydrator. Instead of buying a dedicated dehydrator, can I recommend the Breville BOV900BSS model toaster oven? It has settings for proofing and dehydrating and is big enough to roast a chicken (but not a turkey). Since buying this several months ago the only time I ever use the wall oven (ancient thing with a pilot flame) is in the winter to incubate whatever I’ve got fermenting, and that’s just off the pilot.
Great suggestion! Thanks for sharing.
Dies the heat in the dehydrator kill off the probiotics?
If you use a setting below 100F (40C) then the kombucha SCOBY should still be probiotic!
I’ve tried slicing a thick scoby with a knife but that wasn’t working to well. I’ve found kitchen shears do the best job. My chickens LOVED their scoby worms! I would snip off pieces about the thickness of red worms using the kitchen shears. My ducks weren’t impressed with them.
If you don’t have a dehydrator and your oven only goes down to 170°, prop the oven door open a little, which you should do anyway. If you shut the door completely the humidity has no way to escape and it will take longer to dry. Trust me! Been there done that. I grow cultivated elderberries and one year I had an over abundance. I had elder berries in every dehydrator and still had a lot left so I put the rest in the oven, and closed the door..completely! 2 days later they were still soft/mushy! I learned the hard way to vent the oven.
Thanks for sharing! I love that your chickens eat SCOBYs, probably good for their digestion!
Hi there Can i use parchment paper on the racks while doing this or must the scobies be on the rack?
How long will these last for after being made?
Hum… they never last more than a week at my house! As long as they are fully dry, they should last as long as other dried foods. So several months I would imagine. Enjoy!
Hi I found this recipe is very interesting. I never made or taste Kampuchea before. I don’t have the SCOPY as well so I had to start the experiment from the scratch. It took too long for the SCOPY to get developed, I is nearly a month ever since I started my experiment. The layer that is formed is very thin, I am not sure it will work.
If I left this layer would another layer will be formed?
Where did you get the kombucha SCOBY from? A store-bought bottle of kombucha? I think if you want to make kombucha SCOBY jerky, you probably should use the little SCOBY to brew more kombucha. Once it’s established you’ll have plenty of SCOBYs. 🙂
Great!
★★★★★