1st Ground Meat Jerky in MES Experiment, Lessons Were Learned

[tallbm]

Well I did my ground meat venison jerky in the MES for the first time and learned some things. This was an experimental run so I wasn't too worried if the jerky came out sub par... which it did but that's ok I am 100% sure I can fix all the issues and make perfect jerky on my next/real run :)

Meat: 6 pounds of 100% ground venison, squeezed into stick shape not flat jerky shape
Seasoning: LEM's Sriracha flavor for 5 pounds with cure plus I added extra cure for the extra pound of meat used to make 6 pounds
Wood: 100% Lumberjack Cherry Pellets
Cook Time & Temp: about 5 hours at 170F
Smoke Time: Maybe about 2.5-3 hours of smoke using the AMNPS; had trouble keeping pellets lit with draft produced at 170F

Taste: Well the smoke flavor was a little light but not bad, it got better the next day. The seasoning flavor was bland when it came to the savory flavors because I used 6 pounds of meat rather than 5 pounds but was still HOT from the pepper flavor in the Sriracha seasoning. It wasn't too hot for me but would be for most.

Texture: All was a little too dry but some were on the verge of way too dry. These were the lower racks closest to the heating element of my MES.


Lessons Learned:

• Mix the proper amount of seasoning for the proper amount of meat hahahaha, I knew this would likely be a problem but I was fine with the consequences. I had the LEM's Sriracha pack for 5 pounds of meat and figured that since I was experimenting I may as well use it in case I completely botched everything hahaha. It was HOT for 6 pounds of meat but the savory components were bland. Again mix everything with the proper measurements and it should be fine.
• I attempted to use my new smoker/crisper baskets to give me more jerky space and it kind of worked. I will need to work on this approach to make it more feasible. I put jerky on the smoker rack (on a silicon q-mat) and then put the basket with jerky in on (on a silicon q-mat) on top of the smoker rack with jerky. It worked but could be optimized. I'll need to play more with it. Also my existing jerky racks are too big for my MES 40 so I couldn't use them :(
• Silicon q-mats are a must have to keep the jerky from sticking to the racks. It made clean up easy and I actually could remove the entire q-mat with the jerky stuck to it rather than pulling and moving the racks around. The jerky peeled off the q-mats quite easily. Oddly enough this should help when I have to rotate the rack that has all my probes attached the rack. Instead of rotating the rack I'll just pull the q-mat and rotate the q-mats with the jerky stuck to it for that particular rack and another rack I'm rotating with. No need to unhook all the probes and such
• I can probably fit 7-8 pounds of ground meat in my MES40 with my jury rigged smoke rack + basket configuration. This is good to know the limits. Think 5.5 -6 pounds of ground meat jerky in stick formation would be the max to fit on the 4 out of the box smoker racks of the MES if you don't have an extra bit of setup like mine.
• The bottom rack of jerky needs to be rotated at probably hour 2 or so with the top rack
• 5 hours is probably too much time for smoking meat at 170F in my MES. I"m thinking more about 3hr 45 min or so while rotating racks to get jerky sticks that will be of soft texture yet will just break when bent over on themselves. Jerky continues to dry and get more brittle as it cools so I will likely pull when it just starts showing signs of breaking on the bend test.
• Cherry wood pellets do NOT want to stay lit with the draft produced from 170F temps. I will likely use my homemade cold smoker assist device to generate a stronger draft that may work. The device works like a charm on cold smokes so I'm hoping it will give the extra kick needed to keep the cherry pellets going. I did bump the temp to 225F at the end to hit 160F IT in my sticks and I discovered that the draft was strong enough to keep the cherry pellets going... but this lesson was learned at the end of the smoker hahhaha. So this makes me think my cold smoker assist device should produce enough draft to help with the cherry pellets not wanting to stay lit
• 100% Cherry smoke taste awesome on the jerky and I think I want about 4 hours of good smoke or 2.3-3 hours of double smoke by burning 2 rows on the AMNPS. I will continue experimenting with this on my next run.
• Ground meat jerky in stick form vs flat form is the way to go to get more jerky done with less space. I have known this but it still holds true in my MES40 and will be the way I go, plus it helps make softer jerky.

I think that about covers it. I went into this experimenting to learn my setup and try a few unknown things so I was not disappointed in making sub-par jerky.
I hope people who do ground meat jerky can benefit from some of this info. My sticks didn't come out super great but they are edible and I know what to fix for next time.

Next time I will be doing my Italian Caccetore Salami style ground meat jerky and I am positive I will knock it out of the park!!!

 

[motocrash]

Good write up as usual.Looking forward to your future experimentation.
A 6 Lb "test" run :eek: Our ground meat trees were hit by a blight here years ago :)

 

[tallbm]

Good write up as usual.Looking forward to your future experimentation.
A 6 Lb "test" run :eek: Our ground meat trees were hit by a blight here years ago :)

Hahahaha thanks!

Well I had the 5 pound seasoning pack to use up and it seems that when I stuff my ground meat bags full of ground venison they average more at the 1.2 pound side than the 1 pound side of things. I pulled 5 bags and they came out to 6 pounds hahaha. No biggy, though it's all getting eaten and I have about 15 more pounds of 100% ground venison to turn into jerky so I'm good for a bit :D

 

[SmokinAl]

When I make ground beef jerky I set the smoker to 145 degrees.
That higher temp may be why it dried out too much.
Al

 

[tallbm]

When I make ground beef jerky I set the smoker to 145 degrees.
That higher temp may be why it dried out too much.
Al

I agree Al that the temp died them pretty good. I wasn't checking them regularly and I was trying to keep close to what I believe the temps do in my oven to be as "apples to apples" as possible with my previous experience.

I think I will lower the temp some and I will surely be checking the jerky meat at about the 1.5 hour mark and go from there on checking and rotating.

 

[mosparky]

Just curious about your reasoning. Why did you opt to do a straight cook at 170* as opposed to the slightly more typical dry at 120ish for an hour then start smoke and ramping temps every hour to a final of 170 ?

 

[tallbm]

The way I've done it in the past was in an oven at 200F with the door open at the first stop. No ramping or anything.
I figured I would try 170F to try and see how close that would be to the oven based steps I follow.
Also I read where a number of people were doing jerky at 170F, so I figured that was the number I would experiment went. This was all experimental to find out what was working, what was close/not, and what was a failure.

That was all of the reasoning :)

 

[mosparky]

did you do this in the past with a gas or electric oven ? I'm wondering if it makes a difference. I watched Alton Brown bake bacon and he gave slightly different directions for gas vs elect due to the dehumidifying tendencies of one or the other. I know when I had electric heat in the home, my windows sweated a lot in winter but with the gas heat now, they do not.

 

[tallbm]

did you do this in the past with a gas or electric oven ? I'm wondering if it makes a difference. I watched Alton Brown bake bacon and he gave slightly different directions for gas vs elect due to the dehumidifying tendencies of one or the other. I know when I had electric heat in the home, my windows sweated a lot in winter but with the gas heat now, they do not.

My electric oven was used in the past. I did this smoke in my MES. I figured they may be similar but I needed to know how different think would be.

 

[mosparky]

Ok, just trying to cover all the variables

 

[pc farmer]

Only thing I can add is cherry is very hard to burn by themselves. They need to be mixed with something.

 

[chopsaw]

Didn't read thru the entire first post , but I do my jerky in electric oven at 170 .
One time I did half in the oven , half in mes 30 . 170 temp in both . The mes jerky was over dried and the oven jerky still had a couple of hours to go .

 

[tallbm]

Only thing I can add is cherry is very hard to burn by themselves. They need to be mixed with something.

Yep Cherry is notoriously hard to burn alone. I've had success at higher temps which causes a stronger draft and airflow. At 170F the draft just wasn't enough. At the end when I turned the smoker temp to 225F to get the meat to IT of 160F the cherry pellets had no issue then, that was an interesting discovery lol. In the past I did 100% cherry burns with temps 225F or higher and with the microwave treatment of the pellets it was no issue keeping them lit.

Didn't read thru the entire first post , but I do my jerky in electric oven at 170 .
One time I did half in the oven , half in mes 30 . 170 temp in both . The mes jerky was over dried and the oven jerky still had a couple of hours to go .

Thanks for the feedback. I will likely drop my temp down a bit in the MES. Also I have a convection oven fan installed in my MES which makes my cooks even faster than the average MES user.
I think I will be able to do really well on my next attempt and I should have it nailed down in the attempt following that.
Like with any smoker or new type of cook/smoke you just gotta learn the quirks of your setup and approach :)