My father has made venison jerky now for as long as I've been alive. Spice wise it is pretty standard I assume; liquid smoke, meat tenderizer, cayenne, salt, and a few other things. The meat was just thinned out in a baking sheet and then laid on top of our woodstove for a few days. Sounds pretty primitive, but it dehydrated the jerky out just fine. He now has some cheap food dehyrdater now which works just the same, but a bit more sanitary I suppose. Getting one of those jerky guns is nice to get consistent slices or sticks.