Well, this could go in the "electric smokers" or "jerky" area, but it's really more about the test of the MES Custom SS build than it is about the product being smoked, so I'll put it in "electric smokers".
As I recently completed the complete tear down, heavy modification, and rebuild of a MES Custom SS (SS for sticks and sausage), it was time to actually put some meat on those racks and see how this build would perform. I did expect some learning curve as this is about as far from stock as a MES can be so I'm in unknown territory on performance.
I had some Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade that I needed to use, so since I was familiar with the flavor profile it produced, I figured some sliced muscle jerky with SGJM would be a good trial for the first run. I like this stuff, and wish there was someone closer to me (or Amazon) who carried it as it costs me more to ship it to GA than a gallon of the marinade costs in the first place. Yeah, I know... there are plenty of good recipes out there that can be made locally (and I have done so), but I like the "jerky rounds" made with SGJM.
Trimmed up about 4.5 lbs of beef round and cut into 1/4" thick slices by hand. Then divided into 2 zip lock bags. I put a cup of marinade in each bag after mixing in the appropriate amount of cure #1. I know the SGJM says no cure needed, but I use cure in all my jerky or ground meat projects that are going to be smoked. Marinaded for about 14 hours, mixing the bags up every time I walked by the fridge.
I had previously run a couple of trays of chips at 170* thorough the MES Custom SS to start seasoning the interior. No oil, just smoke. You can see the results of that in the photos below.
4.5 lbs took about 3 1/2 racks. I could have probably squeezed it into 3, but wanted decent air flow. I should be able to fit 10 lbs in on a run without any difficulty (I'm ordering 1 more rack to replace that top rack that I moved or else I'm building something to slide in the drip pan area). For this smoke I took the stock rack for the water and chip pans out and moved the top rack to that position to hold a disposable pan top as a drip pan and heat baffle. I also moved the PID pit sensor to the top rack position on the right side. I expected the lowest temps at the top due to the meat sucking heat out of the air column as it rose.
Here we have the finished product. I did rotate the racks twice during the smoke which ran about 8 hours. I ran an hour at 120* to dry the surface, then kicked to 140* for 2 hours with smoke, then to 165* without smoke to finish to desired bend-a-bility of the jerky. The temps seemed even side to side and front to back on a rack, but as expected the lower racks ran hotter. But, I can deal with that by rotating the rack positions in the heat column.
The finished jerky had a better flavor profile (as far as smoke flavor) than the exact same marinade from the same batch on Jerky that was smoked in my e-WSM mod. I'm very pleased with the results and this was worth the effort. Next smoke will be some snack sticks.
Mmmmmmm..... tasty!!!!!!!!
As I recently completed the complete tear down, heavy modification, and rebuild of a MES Custom SS (SS for sticks and sausage), it was time to actually put some meat on those racks and see how this build would perform. I did expect some learning curve as this is about as far from stock as a MES can be so I'm in unknown territory on performance.
I had some Smoking Gun Jerky Marinade that I needed to use, so since I was familiar with the flavor profile it produced, I figured some sliced muscle jerky with SGJM would be a good trial for the first run. I like this stuff, and wish there was someone closer to me (or Amazon) who carried it as it costs me more to ship it to GA than a gallon of the marinade costs in the first place. Yeah, I know... there are plenty of good recipes out there that can be made locally (and I have done so), but I like the "jerky rounds" made with SGJM.
Trimmed up about 4.5 lbs of beef round and cut into 1/4" thick slices by hand. Then divided into 2 zip lock bags. I put a cup of marinade in each bag after mixing in the appropriate amount of cure #1. I know the SGJM says no cure needed, but I use cure in all my jerky or ground meat projects that are going to be smoked. Marinaded for about 14 hours, mixing the bags up every time I walked by the fridge.
I had previously run a couple of trays of chips at 170* thorough the MES Custom SS to start seasoning the interior. No oil, just smoke. You can see the results of that in the photos below.
4.5 lbs took about 3 1/2 racks. I could have probably squeezed it into 3, but wanted decent air flow. I should be able to fit 10 lbs in on a run without any difficulty (I'm ordering 1 more rack to replace that top rack that I moved or else I'm building something to slide in the drip pan area). For this smoke I took the stock rack for the water and chip pans out and moved the top rack to that position to hold a disposable pan top as a drip pan and heat baffle. I also moved the PID pit sensor to the top rack position on the right side. I expected the lowest temps at the top due to the meat sucking heat out of the air column as it rose.
Here we have the finished product. I did rotate the racks twice during the smoke which ran about 8 hours. I ran an hour at 120* to dry the surface, then kicked to 140* for 2 hours with smoke, then to 165* without smoke to finish to desired bend-a-bility of the jerky. The temps seemed even side to side and front to back on a rack, but as expected the lower racks ran hotter. But, I can deal with that by rotating the rack positions in the heat column.
The finished jerky had a better flavor profile (as far as smoke flavor) than the exact same marinade from the same batch on Jerky that was smoked in my e-WSM mod. I'm very pleased with the results and this was worth the effort. Next smoke will be some snack sticks.
Mmmmmmm..... tasty!!!!!!!!
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