I love Prather Ranch's Cowboy Style Beef Jerky, and am lucky to work within spitting distance of the Prather Ranch store in the San Francisco Ferry Building. The jerky contains no soy, and the only sweetener listed in the ingredients is pineapple juice. But it's pricey as hell.
After reading this blog post by The Paupered Chef, I'm thinking about making my own jerky. It actually sounds kind of fun to do it the Alton Brown way, using air conditioning filters, box fans and bungee cords. Perhaps it's time to unleash my inner MacGyver. (Or more accurately, my inner MacGruber.)