file cabinet smoker + jerky A go

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webowabo

Master of the Pit
Original poster
Dec 25, 2010
1,382
41
Arlington, TX
Well. I am giving the filing cabinet smoker a go today for some jerky. Yesterday morning I sliced up 5lbs of an eye of round roast... 1/4" thick by 4-6" inches.
I Did two different wet marinade / cures overnight once everything was sliced and split up the slices.
2.5lbs of cabela's peppered seasoning/cure mix.
2.5lbs of ForLuvOfSmokes Hot Pepper jerky recipe.
I had some extra long bamboo skewers.. and they fit great once halved to go from one side of file draw to the other. That was until I added the meat and the wieght made them bow to much. Luckily I had some dollar store skewers that where metal and fit perfect in the drawers so I spread the meat between the new three skewers.
In the cabinet they go.. filed under "jerky"..lol
With out even firing up the propane burner on low.. its already hot this morning its 100* inside smoker... so I put hung the meat in the smoker for 30mins with no heat.. a little air dry I guess.
After. Turned burner on lowest it will go with bottom door half open.
Cant really see flame. .. but its on.. smoker held for 120* for another hour..
Thats where im at now. Will light up the AMNPS with some aulder pellets and hickory dust [now its dust.. the hickory bag of pellets got rained on and they swelled. I dried them out and now have dust...who knew]

We will see how they go. Plan for TBS for 2-3 hours.. bumping temp slowly to 150* for that 2-3. Will kinda go by color on the smoke time...

See ya soon
 
Im pretty excited that this cabinet will hold a temp of 125*.. its already 99* ambient temp... I cant wait to do some fish in this thing.. I could hang a lot for sure.
 
Right now my only exhaust dampers are some 3/4 holes drilled in the top (5 right now) I can tell ill need a bigger hole.. since the cabinet has alot of depth to it. I have jerky on middle drawers and I have the top drawer cracked open about an inch to let the smoke escape. ..
 
Off to a good start! I'm hoping that my electric conversion for my GOSM will allow me to do the same thing. Like your cabinet the GOSM being metal is usually 10* + hotter (10*+ colder in the winter) than the ambient temp outside. Until I can build a dedicated smoke shack it will be my jerky/sausage/fish smoker!
 
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My jerky smoker will be that pellet UDS smoker..should allow me to smoke from 100-150 pretty easy...lower of course with a cold smoke generator attached. I can't wait

Regular flavor jerky?
 
Well I wanted to build a little smoke shack.. I saw pops post about a year ago I guess and was gonna model after his.. (where I got the idea for the burner was from pops) but ... so far I can tell this is holding just fine.. and I know I can get it to 400*+ with all three burners running at full blast. I bought the amnps for this exact thing. The amnps doesnt work at all with my propane vertical.. even with mailbox and other side mods...
 
Oh man...now thats a nice build. I will for sure read that whole post for sure. Not sure how I missed that one.

And I will getthe tube one of these days. I opted for the bigger for christmas... im sure I could find a use for the tube in one of these smokers ... hehhe...
 
They are getting close... wish I knew how much longer for sure. I need to run some errands... they are still bendable.. but very close. Still a little to chewie for me... either way.. this original 1/4" slice was perfect. Very happy so far.... smoker hasnt budged from 167* for 3 hours... nice!
 
Looks great dude... I'll be doing a batch soon but since I don't have a "deluxe" file cabinet smoker I'll heavy cold smoke it for an hour and dehydrate. My smoke daddy should soak some good smoke in it.... I'm going to skip the liquid smoke this time.
 
Looks great dude... I'll be doing a batch soon but since I don't have a "deluxe" file cabinet smoker I'll heavy cold smoke it for an hour and dehydrate. My smoke daddy should soak some good smoke in it.... I'm going to skip the liquid smoke this time.
A little real smoke goes a real long way ... my amnps actually snuffed out while I was away from the house... probably a good thing.. they have the perect amount of smoke vs spice....
Cant wait to see your take on some jerk.. if its anything like your chics.. its gonna be the bomb....
Cant believe I just said the bomb.... sigh!
 
Great job and that's some fine looking jerky! I have that same burner in the home built propane smoker and it works great! I'm still doing jerky in the MES though cause I know exactly what I have to set it at. 
Thanks Alesia...I think I gonna get alot of use out of this set up.. already wanting to do another batch.. but my start with 15lbs... that would fill my two top drawers... might be abke to fit 20lbs. We will see come sunday. And I love the burner.. I take it camping all the time for breakfast cooks... its great for $30..
 
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