Better late than never...My first batches of jerky, w/Q-view

jp61 · Apr 18, 2012

I decided awhile ago to start making my own jerky, but first I wanted to have some decent equipment to work with. Now that I'm fortunate enough to have them, it's jerky time. I have 10lbs of beef "eye of round" sliced and cut into strips (sliced with the grain and cut into strips against the grain). Recipes I'm using are from Mr. Kutas' book "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" 4th Edition. His recipes are for 3lbs of meat but I'm making 5lbs batches, so I just pretty much doubled everything with the exception of the 1tsp. of Insta Cure[emoji]8482[/emoji] No.1. I'm making what he calls "our basic jerky" and Teriyaki.

Using the Globe-500 for the first time. I like it...

All sliced 3/16" thick and cut into strips

First batch of Teriyaki going in the fridge for 24hrs (second batch looks just like this one

)

The 160L Dehydrator on standby...

Hopefully tomorrow afternoon sometime, I'll have a finished product that's edible

terry colwell · Apr 18, 2012

That Dehydrator is a killer. What in the world do you dehydrate to get one that size? Does it work as a wine rack after your done??/ lol

jp61 · Apr 18, 2012

Terry Colwell said:
That Dehydrator is a killer. What in the world do you dehydrate to get one that size? Does it work as a wine rack after your done??/ lol

Tomorrow will be the first time that I'll be using it. Was planning on doing big batches (didn't want to go through the same process 3-4 times when I could do it in one) of jerky and numerous types of fruits for starters. After that, who knows.... but one thing is for sure, if my clothes dryer ever breaks, I'll still have clean and dry skivvies. lol

smokinhusker · Apr 18, 2012

Looks great so far! Nice looking dehydrator and it's big enough I'll be you could dry clothes in it! Since I got my MES 40, I haven't done any jerky in the dehydrator, it all goes on there and is fantastic. Since October I've done about 150-200 lbs of venison, elk, antelope, and beef.

Keep us updated with the q view and results!

jp61 · Apr 18, 2012

SmokinHusker said:
Looks great so far! Nice looking dehydrator and it's big enough I'll be you could dry clothes in it! Since I got my MES 40, I haven't done any jerky in the dehydrator, it all goes on there and is fantastic. Since October I've done about 150-200 lbs of venison, elk, antelope, and beef.

Keep us updated with the q view and results!

Thanks SH. Sounds like you've been pretty busy. Is there a specific reason why now you favor the MES over the dehydrator for making jerky? What do you use for smoke and what flavor?

ritamcd · Apr 18, 2012

Looks Great!! AND WOW!! That thing is like 3x the size of mine

I don't think I could have much bigger .. I like to do batches of different things all the time and well I may just go poor

jp61 · Apr 18, 2012

RitaMcD said:
Looks Great!! AND WOW!! That thing is like 3x the size of mine

I don't think I could have much bigger .. I like to do batches of different things all the time and well I may just go poor

Thanks Rita! Yeah it is big, probably too big for my little kitchen but I caught it on a really good sale plus I had a $75 gift certificate, so I went for it. The question is, how well does it work? I'll find out soon enough.....it's going on 12:30am here and I just gave the batches one last mixing before I hit the sack. I am hoping to have both batches in the dehydrator by 10am the latest. As I was putting them back in the fridge I found this little piggy hiding in the corner. PP this weekend...:-))

ritamcd · Apr 18, 2012

I suppose one good thing about a taller one is it will save your back

you should have some good stuff in a few about 7ish hours ..

YUM I am still feasting on PP .. great for a lazy dinner outta the freezer

smokinhusker · Apr 19, 2012

JP61 said:
Thanks SH. Sounds like you've been pretty busy. Is there a specific reason why now you favor the MES over the dehydrator for making jerky? What do you use for smoke and what flavor?

Wow I just noticed you are from Cleveland! I grew up way south of you near Marietta, small world indeed. Anyway, I used to make my jerky on a dehydrator and the first plus of the smoker is the smoke! Can't get that in a dehydrator unless you either add liquid smoke to the meat (did this in the past) or throw it on the smoker for a while. I figure if I'm going to the trouble of hanging it in the smoker, then I might as well do the whole process in the smoker. Given the size of yours, you could easily hang it in the smoker for that smoke flavor and then transfer it to hang in the dehydrator. Mine wasn't that large and would have required laying the pieces and then turning them over.

I use pellets (Smokehouse brand, I believe) in my smoker and in the homemade smoking pan for lower temps. And I've used hickory/cherry, mesquite/cherry, oak/cherry for the red meats and change the cherry to apple for duck and goose jerky. We hunt every fall and I got a muley buck and a cow elk this past fall plus my BF spends 2-3 weeks waterfowl hunting. I did an antelope and a deer for a friend all into jerky, my buck and all the waterfowl we had as well as what 3 other friends had. I'm trying to convince my BF to buy another smoker just for jerky!

Here's some elk jerky I did a while back

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/117191/sweet-and-spicy-elk-jerky-in-the-mes

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/118853/elk-jerky-for-easter-lol

jp61 · Apr 19, 2012

SmokinHusker said:
Wow I just noticed you are from Cleveland! I grew up way south of you near Marietta, small world indeed. Anyway, I used to make my jerky on a dehydrator and the first plus of the smoker is the smoke! Can't get that in a dehydrator unless you either add liquid smoke to the meat (did this in the past) or throw it on the smoker for a while. I figure if I'm going to the trouble of hanging it in the smoker, then I might as well do the whole process in the smoker. Given the size of yours, you could easily hang it in the smoker for that smoke flavor and then transfer it to hang in the dehydrator. Mine wasn't that large and would have required laying the pieces and then turning them over.

I use pellets (Smokehouse brand, I believe) in my smoker and in the homemade smoking pan for lower temps. And I've used hickory/cherry, mesquite/cherry, oak/cherry for the red meats and change the cherry to apple for duck and goose jerky. We hunt every fall and I got a muley buck and a cow elk this past fall plus my BF spends 2-3 weeks waterfowl hunting. I did an antelope and a deer for a friend all into jerky, my buck and all the waterfowl we had as well as what 3 other friends had. I'm trying to convince my BF to buy another smoker just for jerky!

Here's some elk jerky I did a while back

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/117191/sweet-and-spicy-elk-jerky-in-the-mes

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/118853/elk-jerky-for-easter-lol

Yeah...... I'm a Browns fan......maybe this year, if not, there's always next year, lol. Thanks for the links....they look really nice!! I hope mine will turn out good also. Will see how this jerky thing goes.... you never know, soon I may have both the 160L and the MES40 loaded. IMO $300 for the MES is money well spent...it's not the greatest thing in the world, but it's a nice little smoker. I really like mine so far.

jp61 · Apr 19, 2012

Here We Go.......Game On! I mean beef on!

Laid out on paper towels to soak up some of the marinade

Right on schedule :-)

Eight racks loaded (10lbs) out of 24

Set the temp. at 140° F... took about 35min. to get there.

The whole house is smelling pretty good right now

Put some foil on the bottom to make clean-up easier.

Now it's just wait, check, maybe rotate racks, check again...... and hope for the best. Gotta cut the grass now.... I just love mowing the lawn! I'll be back later with more pics...

bluebombersfan · Apr 19, 2012

looking good! Love that dehydrator!!!

jp61 · Apr 19, 2012

BlueBombersfan said:
looking good! Love that dehydrator!!!

Thank you BBf!

ha.... it's been on for about two hours+ now. I decided to have another cup of coffee (grass is still waiting). Turn on the coffee maker (Keurig), it starts heating the water then all of a sudden, silence. Tripped the 20 amp breaker....then it came to me, that when I went over the owners manual I think it said to use on a dedicated circuit. It was only off for a minute, temp was still 137° when I turned it back on. Another little project... guess I'll have to run a circuit for the BEAST...lol BTW, if any of you have the Keurig coffee maker and haven't tried the Folgers K-cups, they are really good imo.

jp61 · Apr 19, 2012

Rookie mistake, even though I know better! I did make a dry run with the dehydrator prior to today, but I didn't check the accuracy of the temp sensor in the dehydrator. It's hard to tell now with a load on it. At first I set the temp. at 140° and started drying. Well it turns out that I should have set it at 160° (highest setting) and adjust from there. Jerky has been in there for four hours now. Earlier I bumped up the set temp to 160° because at 140° I was 10° lower than where I wanted to be. Right now my ET-732 is reading 149° and slowly climbing ( I didn't have this in to start with). There are many factors at play, including amount of meat loaded and it's temp., ambient/outside air temp and humidity, etc. It's 65° F outside with 50% humidity. Haven't taken a temp read in the kitchen. With experience I will get a feel for this unit and will worked it like a rented mule. This is crazy....haven't even finished drying my first batches and I'm already getting a text request to do some venison. Can't wait to see how these turn out....

jp61 · Apr 19, 2012

..."is it done yet, is it done yet, huh, is it done yet???"..... hahaha. He's growing a gray beard like his owner.

ritamcd · Apr 19, 2012

He looks like "go ahead open that door" lol
Looks great so far! That waiting game can be frustrating .. but so worth it when its done ..
I also foil the bottom .. I spray it with store brand pam and it kinda sticks better haha but it sure saves a lot of elbow grease later on ..

jp61 · Apr 19, 2012

RitaMcD said:
He looks like "go ahead open that door" lol
Looks great so far! That waiting game can be frustrating .. but so worth it when its done ..
I also foil the bottom .. I spray it with store brand pam and it kinda sticks better haha but it sure saves a lot of elbow grease later on ..

Getting close, I think..... this will probably be the hardest part for me. Knowing when to pull them. Have not rotated at all, did try a couple small pieces earlier for taste.... didn't even let them cool. I'll take out a couple more bigger pieces let them cool then go from there. It's been 6+ hrs.

smokinhusker · Apr 19, 2012

Looking good so far and of course you'll have to get the hang of it just like we did with the MES. Anyway, do the bend test to see if it's done. Bend a piece and if you see white fibers then it's done.

Can't wait to see the final pics!!!

ritamcd · Apr 19, 2012

I do the bend test and also hold it up to the light .. if you can see light through it with no dark spots its done ... Lookin close tho

jp61 · Apr 19, 2012

All done.... Well worth the investment and effort IMO. I like both flavors and I am pretty sure they were pulled on time... texture is good. Not even going to bother with the vacuum seal, they won't last long even if I had to eat it all by myself. Nothing to clean other than the racks.Thanks for looking, commenting and thanks ladies for your help! I'm a happy man! Now, I'd better go cut the grass.

Better late than never...My first batches of jerky, w/Q-view

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