Smoked Dried Beef with lots of Qview

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Bearcarver

Gone but not forgotten RIP
Original poster
OTBS Member
Group Lead
Sep 12, 2009
45,279
18,182
Macungie, PA
OK guys & gals, I've been waiting to try this for a long time, and I can finally do it the way I wanted to, now that I have the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER.
Now I can put on all the steady smoke I want to, regardless of whether I have heat going or not.

Dried Beef and American Cheese with Miracle Whip on white bread has always been my favorite "lunch-box" sammie. That's what I carried on construction jobs, Beth Steel jobs, and cabinetmaking jobs.
Just about every deer I ever shot had at least one hind quarter turned into "Dried Venison" by one of our local butcher shops in SE Pennsylvania.

Now I can finally make my own:

Preparation:
I trimmed all fat off of each Eye Round.
Mixed 3 ounces (6 TBS) of TQ with 12 ounces of water, and injected 2 ounces of this solution into the middle of each 3LB Eye Round.
Rubbed 1 1/2 ounces (3 TBS) of TQ and 1 tablespoon of Brown Sugar on each 3 LB Eye Round.
Put each Eye Round in it's own individual Zip-Lock bag & put in fridge at 37˚/38˚ for about 10 days.
Remove from fridge, rinse & soak in ice water for 1 hour, draining once at the half hour mark.
Dry each piece the best you can with paper towels.
Put on smoker rack & put in fridge unwrapped overnight to start drying.

NOTE: In the future I will cut my eye rounds, or whatever meat I use into thinner pieces (3" thick, or less).

This would eliminate having to mix TQ with water & injecting it into the meat.

All the curing would be done from the outside of the meat.

Next Day:
Preheat Smoker to 100˚.
Put meat in smoker for 1 hour at 100˚----No smoke.
Light both ends of the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER filled with Hickory dust, and put in smoker.
After second hour is up, bump to 130˚.
After hour 5, A-MAZE-N-SMOKER stopped smoking (4 hours), so I pulled it out, reloaded it with Cherry dust, re-lit it, and stuck it back in.
Then I bumped the heat to 150˚.
After hour 6, bump it up to 160˚.
After 8 1/2 hours, the smoke stopped (3 1/2 hours), so I removed the A-MAZE-N-SMOKER, and bumped it up to 170˚.
At the end of 10 hours, bump up to 180˚.
Stay at 180˚ until the internal temp hits at least 158˚ on each piece.
Total was 13 hours.
This stuff is unbelievable !

Enjoy the Qview:

Four Eye Rounds @ $3.20 per pound:
125584n.jpg



There's the little guy that made this easy (A-MAZE-N-SMOKER) burning from both ends:
5z1hqd.jpg



Look at the nice smoke coming out of my MES vent:
1607s6a.jpg



One Eye Round done in MES:
nezrzb.jpg



First Eye Round ready for slicing:
1zvtz01.jpg



First Eye Round sliced:
351sfpu.jpg



First Eye Round ready for freezer:
i5q1kh.jpg



The other 3 Eye Rounds smoked:
2960txh.jpg



The other 3 Eye Rounds sliced:
egwdq8.jpg



The other 3 Eye Rounds ready for freezer:
1zznn0p.jpg



Thanks for lookin',
Bearcarver
 
Last edited:
Thanks macbillybob,
If you had to by this stuff around here (dried beef), it costs over $20 per pound, and doesn't taste near as good as this.


Bearcarver
 
That looks awesome. I was just thinking the other day about trying so make some of this. The local butcher shop back home where I grew up use to make dried beef and it was to die for. We use to buy it at lunch durning school. I will have to follow your lead on this one I think.
PDT_Armataz_01_37.gif
points.gif
 
Thank You, you old S.O.B.
PDT_Armataz_01_12.gif


I had to say that,
Bearcarver





Thanks a lot RB, Go for it---You won't regret it.
I combined about 5 different recipes to come up with this one. I had a 5 day backup plan, but didn't need it. I forgot to mention, that's why I only did one Eye Round on the first smoke. If it wasn't what I was looking for, I was going to use the 5 day smoke on the other 3 Eye Rounds. This stuff was perfect!


Bearcarver
 
Now it's time to make some S.O.S.!!!

I've got 2 roasts in the freezer marked for "Dried Beef".
Points My Friend!
points.gif



Todd
 
Thanks Todd,

This stuff is MUCH too good to waste it in SOS. The gravy kills the great taste. When I carried a lunch box, this was the only kind of cold sammie I could eat day after day after day.

BTW: I could have never done it without your A-MAZE-N-SMOKER. My son likes his too.
PDT_Armataz_01_37.gif


Thanks again Todd,
Bearcarver
 
That looks fantastic Bear. Very very nice, well done. Would this also be the same as the dried beef you get in the stores that one would use for chipped beef?

points.gif
On a nice tutorial and successful smoke.
 
Meathunter,
Yes this is that same stuff, only this tastes much better. This is more moist, because it hasn't been dried for 5 days or more. I was going to do that with the other 3 eye rounds, if this didn't come out as good, but this was better. The way Knauss' Dried Beef makes it (Alderfers now), it gets too dry & too salty, because they turn 10 pounds into 4 pounds (that's why it cost at least $25 per pound). I only lost about 25 % of the original weight of my eye rounds with this recipe.

Like I may have mentioned before, this is the same stuff may people use to make SOS, but I like the taste of this stuff so much, I consider it wasting good Dried Beef. I like SOS, but the gravy kills so much of the great flavor. Like I said, my favorite cold lunchmeat sammie is Dried beef, American Cheese, with Miracle Whip on nice fresh white bread.

I used to get confused, but:
Chipped Beef = Dried Beef
Dried Beef = Chipped Beef
Chipped Steak = Philly Cheese Steak Sammies

BTW: In case anyone is interested, Knauss' Dried Beef used to be the largest manufacturer of Dried Beef on the East Coast. I graduated with the third generation owner of Knauss' (Bill Knauss). He was a great guy, but died of cancer a few years ago (real heavy smoker). As soon as he died, his son sold out to Alderfer's, and took his millions, and moved out.


Thanks,
Bearcarver
 
Thanks for the points Steve!
BC

Try it---You'll love it!
My 4 eye rounds cost me $41. If you use Venison hind quarters, you don't even have to buy the meat, and it will be just as good---Maybe better!


BC
 
Last edited:
Looks wonderful!...I love dried beef. I just boght a half of beef last week and the butcher shop i got it from makes awesome dried beef but like you mentioned it was pretty expensive so i opted out. I would like to have the confidence to try this.

nice job, Micah
 
Now I can't recall having any chipped/dried beef growing up but my mother was from New York City but me dad was from Memphis, Tenn. I still can't remember eating any of this but you sure do know how to make is look really really good. Enough where I think that I will have to try it soon. We alawys have some beef roast something in the freezer for roast beef sammies. So now maybe we will have some dried beef sammies if our future. Thanks
points.gif
 
You can do it Mica----Just follow it step by step---You can't miss!

Bearcarver




Thanks a lot Mark,
If you do make some of this stuff, I would be able to enjoy reading your post, telling how much you like it, almost as much as I enjoyed making it myself!

Bearcarver
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Clicky