Beef Jerky,The good, bad and ugly..

[papagrizz]

The Good: Taste was outstanding and texture really good

The Bad: Darn hard to keep temperature low enough and keep the smoke going.

The ugly: After consuming several pieces, I needed to finish it off in the oven.

Good learning experience and will try it again and again until I get it right.

Thanks, My brothers and sisters of the smoke, for expanding my horizons to culinary excellence! 

 

[pops6927]

"Good learning experience and will try it again and again until I get it right."

That's the spirit!

 

[papagrizz]

Thanks Pops, Thant means alot coming from you..........

 

[spuds]

Nice video,smartest thing of all you said was getting an amazen smoker,that thing is the best!

Ive only done dehydrator jerky,time to expand my horizons too. Thanks,

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

Hey Papa we have the same smoker and after watching your video I thought I would give you a few suggestions that might make your next batch a little better.

You should not have to keep your door open. This is making you rotate your meat. If you can keep your gas at a minimum it’s pretty easy to keep a stable level of heat.

You are using a cast iron skillet which is great but you need to lose the wood chip pan and use something else to hold up the skillet so it gets direct heat. That will get your smoke going at a lower temp.

Above that you don’t seem to have any liquid in the drip pan. You can use water and if preferred add vinegar, wine or any other flavoring to it. This helps to keep the temp stable and the vapor adds to the smoke.

I hope that can help you on your next batch and keep smoking.

 

[dougmays]

90Beater is right the factory smoke pan usually gives people a hard time and there are a few threads on here of how-to's that people have done to remove some factory parts with other redneck engineering to improve the performance.

i actually finish my jerky in the dehydrator after a few hours of smoke because i can get the temps low enough but they only last about that long using charcoal without reapplying. but i've found that 2-3 hours of smoke is just find to get the smokey flavor

looking forward to your next post on round 2

 

[papagrizz]

Hey Papa we have the same smoker and after watching your video I thought I would give you a few suggestions that might make your next batch a little better.

You should not have to keep your door open. This is making you rotate your meat. If you can keep your gas at a minimum it’s pretty easy to keep a stable level of heat.

You are using a cast iron skillet which is great but you need to lose the wood chip pan and use something else to hold up the skillet so it gets direct heat. That will get your smoke going at a lower temp.

Above that you don’t seem to have any liquid in the drip pan. You can use water and if preferred add vinegar, wine or any other flavoring to it. This helps to keep the temp stable and the vapor adds to the smoke.

I hope that can help you on your next batch and keep smoking.

Good tip 90Beater on the loosing the chip pan.  If I use liquid in my drip pan, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of drying out the jerky?

inquiring minds need to know

Thank you

Thanks one and all for the encouragement, to keep on keeping on!

 

[puddy]

Use Ice or frozen bottles of water and keep adding to it when you notice your temp going up add more ice. When making jerky if you use a cure you can get away with a bit more moisture as the cure helps take care of those bad guys.

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

Good tip 90Beater on the loosing the chip pan.  If I use liquid in my drip pan, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of drying out the jerky?

inquiring minds need to know

The liquid is more of a temperature stabilizer. It will evaporate as the meat is dehydrated. In fact you have to keep an eye on it when cooking larger cuts of meat. It will evaporate and become coagulated with the drippings from the meat. I often have to refill it as I’m smoking.

One more thing I forgot to add is to keep you vents open. It will help keep the temperature down.

I cut my jerky at about 1/8” since I like it thin and by slightly hardening it in the freezer it makes it cut much more evenly in the slicer. My last batch I did not do this and it was cut very uneven. That caused me to smoke it longer and it did not turn out as well.

In all the batches I have run so far I think 160* seems to be optimum and it takes about 4 ½ hours to get just right.

I m no expert but what I have posted is what has worked for me.

 

[papagrizz]

The liquid is more of a temperature stabilizer. It will evaporate as the meat is dehydrated. In fact you have to keep an eye on it when cooking larger cuts of meat. It will evaporate and become coagulated with the drippings from the meat. I often have to refill it as I’m smoking.

One more thing I forgot to add is to keep you vents open. It will help keep the temperature down.

I cut my jerky at about 1/8” since I like it thin and by slightly hardening it in the freezer it makes it cut much more evenly in the slicer. My last batch I did not do this and it was cut very uneven. That caused me to smoke it longer and it did not turn out as well.

In all the batches I have run so far I think 160* seems to be optimum and it takes about 4 ½ hours to get just right.

I m no expert but what I have posted is what has worked for me.

 Thanks Bro!

 

[smokinhusker]

Great video! I've made a lot of jerky and it took lots of meat and smoking to get it where we finally agreed it was perfect for us.

I have the MES 40, which as we know is way different than your smoker. I never add any liquid in the drip pan and MES seems to keep enough moisture in there. Mine usually takes about 7 hrs. 

To determine when it's done, I do the bend test to several pieces throughout the smoker - I bend it and if it has a white thready appearance, it's done. Mine doesn't come out dry and crackly - it has a nice chew to it.

You mentioned the condensation in the bag...normal again. I bring mine in and let it cool for a couple hours, then put it all in a ziploc bag with one corner open overnight. This allows the moisture in the meat to redistribute. 

I use a dry cure like you (haven't tried Hi Mountain, I use Hi Country) and I never have any drips from the jerky.

I have finished some off in the oven and it's just as good as what I've finished on the smoker.

Good luck on your next endeavor!

 

[papagrizz]

Use Ice or frozen bottles of water and keep adding to it when you notice your temp going up add more ice. When making jerky if you use a cure you can get away with a bit more moisture as the cure helps take care of those bad guys.

 Thanks Puddy,  I trying the ice thing as I type...seems to be doing the trick holding temps @ about 140*. It's been about an hour now and there is no build up of condensation.

SmokinHusker said:

To determine when it's done, I do the bend test to several pieces throughout the smoker - I bend it and if it has a white thready appearance, it's done. Mine doesn't come out dry and crackly - it has a nice chew to it.

You mentioned the condensation in the bag...normal again. I bring mine in and let it cool for a couple hours, then put it all in a ziploc bag with one corner open overnight. This allows the moisture in the meat to redistribute. 

I use a dry cure like you (haven't tried Hi Mountain, I use Hi Country) and I never have any drips from the jerky.

I have finished some off in the oven and it's just as good as what I've finished on the smoker.

Good luck on your next endeavor!

Thanks for your reply Alesia, Doing a sweet and spicy wet cured jerky right now, great tip about letting it cool and cutting a corner off the bag....You guys and girls are all the tops...and are proving you can teach an old dog new tricks...

 

[papagrizz]

Thank you one and all for all the hints and tips.  I am totally happy with my second attempt....

I made a sweet, hot and spicy Jerky this time. Swiped this recipe from DIXYCHIK from allrecipes.com.

Of course I added a few things to satisfy my taste buds...More Peppers....

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon onion powder 1 tablespoon garlic powder 2 teaspoons cracked black pepper, or to taste 1 pound lean beef sirloin tip, sliced into 1 /8 inch strips 1/2 cup brown sugar 2/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup teriyaki sauce 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar 5 tablespoons liquid smoke flavoring 1/2 cup pineapple juice 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste (optional)

Directions:

1.	In a small bowl or cup, mix together the onion powder, garlic powder, and some cracked black pepper. Season the meat lightly, using only part of the mixture. Reserve the remaining spices. Place into an airtight plastic container or bowl, and refrigerate.
2.	In a saucepan over medium heat, mix together the brown sugar, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, liquid smoke flavoring and pineapple juice. Heat until the brown sugar has completely dissolved. Refrigerate marinade until cool.
3.	Pour cooled marinade over the seasoned meat, and mix by hand to coat. Seal the bowl, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
4.	Arrange the beef strips on the rack of a dehydrator, and sprinkle with a little bit more of the spice mixture and red pepper flakes if using. Dry for 5 hours, or to your desired dryness.

I used 2 pounds of rump that I had in the freezer, and changed the amounts accordingly, except added more pepper flakes and some Cayenne....

Sorry for the crappy picture but wanted to show the set up to keep temps down.

Thanks Puddy!

Three hours and looking good, temps held nice!

Took the hint from 90Beater and got rid of the chip pan and just put an unused grate over the burner...worked like a charm...thank you !

To say these were tasty would be an understatement...In the immortal words on Tony the Tiger

   

Theeeere Great !

Hey Alesia, thanks to you I knew exactly when to pull them..notice the white thready appearance on the piece about 7 O'clock in the pic?

Thanks again to everyone !!

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

Oh yea, that looks great. I bet it's some tasty jerky.

 

[spuds]

That looks like a GREAT recipe,will copy that for sure.

Thanks.