High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Jerky is lean meat that has been trimmed of fat, cut into strips, and then been dried to prevent spoilage. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt, to prevent bacteria from developing on the meat before sufficient moisture has been removed. The word "jerky" is a bastardization of the Spanish charqui which is from the Quechua word ch`arki. which means to burn (meat). Jerked meat was one of the first human-made products and was a crucially important food preservation technique for survival. All that is needed to produce basic "jerky" is a heat source to provide drying without cooking the meat, and salt to inhibit bacterial growth.