Beef jerky

[cansmoke]

I know this has been posted once or twice or dozens of times.
I am wanting to make beef jerky in my electric smoker.
A client makes his own and all he explained was he used a rub from traeger. He smoked it for 2 1/2 hours.
I like making my own so........

What meat? Marinade or rub with what seasonings?
Prepped how?
Time to smoke and at what temp?
What wood chips do you use?
Do you add seasonings after?

 

[SonnyE]

I don't use my smoker to make Jerky, but I make a ton of Jerky using my dehydrator.
In your case, I'd suggest you "cut your teeth" over at JerkyHolic.
I've pretty much settled on his Kikkoman Jerky.
But I use Pork Loin as my meat. I just ignore the Beef part.
I get a nice Pork loin about 9-13 pounds, cut it into thirds, and freeze it after trimming. Then cut the frozen meat into ~1/4" thick Medallions with my slicer. Yeah, I had to go big time.
Weighed out in Pounds, or Kg. And marinade in the recipe.
But, I like a bit of heat, so I generally add heat in the way of 1/4 tsp of Cyan Pepper powder, or Red Pepper like is used on Pizza. The Cyan gives a nice warm afterburn in the throat after the swallow. The red Pepper fakes are more like some fireworks on the tongue. Sometimes both. :eek: But that takes a lot of beer with it.
But poke around at Will's Place, and do a few 1/2 batches until you find what you like.
I come from taking Round Steak, cutting it into strips, salt and pepper, and dry it. I use to also do that with Venison or Beef in the old ovens that had a pilot light in them. Jerked, seasoned Meat. Simple as that.
But everything has gotten fancy now.

 

[pa42phigh]

 

[bill ace 350]

I use beef rouladen.
My favorite commercial jerky marinade and cure is Pacific Mountain Farms.
I sometimes use my smoker with or without smoke, other times my oven.

 

[crazymoon]

CS, This is a marinade ,soak 24+ hours .Heres' my favorite recipe for 5 pounds:

2 Tblspn salt

1tsp cure #1

2tsp chili powder

1 Tblspn black pepper

1Tblspn white pepper

1 Tblspn garlic powder

1 cup less sodium soy sauce

1 cup Worcestershire sauce

3 cups cold water

1 small V8 juice

1 Tblspn onion powder

2 swirls of molasses

1 Tblspn red pepper flakes

This recipe is from Eldon Cutlips book with some additions from me tweaking his recipe.

 

[Bspeech]

I like to use top round for my meat. You can either pick up a nice size chunk at your local grocery store and partially freeze it to firm it up and then slice. If you have a local butcher, it might be worth a giving them a call and ask if they would be able to slice top round for you. If I am in a hurry my Butcher will slice it for me. It’s almost with the extra $1-2/lb so I don’t have to freeze and clean my slicer at home.

As far as seasoning goes. For your first batch, the Hi Mountain season packages are pretty easy to use. They have tons of different flavors. You can get them at Cabelas/Bass Pro or order online. Just mix as the instructions tell you. Season all your slices pieces and keep in the fridge for 24 hours. I like to smoke mine around 150 for an hour or so and then I transfer to the dehydrator at the same temp to finish it off. You could just do the whole cook in your electric. I would just cut the smoke off at two hours and finish with just the heat.

 

[Rings Я Us]

I do mostly liquid marinade.
1/4 tsp cure per lb
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup Worcestershire
1 Tbs each of garlic and onion powder
1 Tbs or so red pepper flakes
1 Tbs cracked black
Cup or so of water to add enough liquid to cover.
I use 2 gallon bags for up to 3 lbs of the meat strips. Squeeze the air out giving great soakage.
Eye of round whole packed roast in cryovac is usually 5-7 lbs and you only need to trim off the outter fat. I cut mine in half and then each half down the center with the grain to get individual pieces cut across grain. I freeze the chunks 2-3 hours to really firm it up before using an electric deli slicer.
I marinate 2 days often.
Drain the jerky and lay it out on paper towel lined baking sheet in layers.. adding paper towel between.
I use double thickness to dry best.
After drying I remove the towels and sprinkle all the strips with brown sugar and whatever flavor of McCormick seasoning I feel like. Mostly the Sriracha Chili powder stuff.
I rub that stuff in and come back 10 minutes later and blot the strips with a paper towel again.
Then it goes in the smoker for some lite smoke. 160 ish for like 5 hours . Rotate or switch racks to smoke evenly and it with bend and crack without breaking when done. Should see white fibers in the cracking pieces as you bend them.

I should add: I use a lite smoke for the first hour. That's all it needs. I use like 2 chunks or a half cup of chips

I use seasoning on one side of the jerky before it goes in.. this gives jerky a big bold flavor advantage over a plain marinade only type.
If I do a plain teriyaki jerky, I reduce the soy and Worcestershire sauces a bit and add the teriyaki. I may add a bit of fresh pepper flakes on the jerky before it goes in.. Depends who it's for.

 

[cansmoke]

Thanks to all. I guess I need to start making jerky.

 

[Jbell2160]

Hello everybody, I have been experimenting with my Master built electric smoker trying to make beef jerky.

I found a recipe online that uses the smoker and followed it. But something is not working. My meat after 3 hours is grey and the edges are really dry. I’ve used a dehydrator before and made it with some good success but that tool is now broken.

I smoked at 165 with very little smoke and the vent fully open. The meat is not getting that dark or Carmel color to it and is just very dry. Any tips on what could be the problem? Would really like to figure it out so I can stop wasting meat now that I am buying since I’m out of deer steak.

 

[HowlingDog]

Actually, just wanted to say Thanks. I made one batch of jerky a few weeks ago and it was pretty good, enough so that I will be doing it again. I almost posted a bunch of questions about "How do I"... "What do I do about".... but I spent some time just reading old posts and found all the information I needed. This place is a wealth of info and, Thanks!

When I get some meat, I will post the pics... I like using my smoker so I am not sure if I am actually drying it or making steak strips. Whatever they were/are, they were tastee.....

HowlingDog

 

[uncle eddie]

Eye of round - fat trimmed - if very very easy to make jerky with

Cut the strips with the grain

 

[Winterrider]

A lot of recipes using pork (much cheaper) for jerky , until you kind of get the hang of it. Big long pork loin, cut in half and try a couple different. The Thai recipe is "very" good, and Bearcarver has good one on his step by step, just to mention a few

 

[ErikAlan]

I don't use my smoker to make Jerky, but I make a ton of Jerky using my dehydrator.
In your case, I'd suggest you "cut your teeth" over at JerkyHolic.
I've pretty much settled on his Kikkoman Jerky.
But I use Pork Loin as my meat. I just ignore the Beef part.
I get a nice Pork loin about 9-13 pounds, cut it into thirds, and freeze it after trimming. Then cut the frozen meat into ~1/4" thick Medallions with my slicer. Yeah, I had to go big time.
Weighed out in Pounds, or Kg. And marinade in the recipe.
But, I like a bit of heat, so I generally add heat in the way of 1/4 tsp of Cyan Pepper powder, or Red Pepper like is used on Pizza. The Cyan gives a nice warm afterburn in the throat after the swallow. The red Pepper fakes are more like some fireworks on the tongue. Sometimes both. :eek: But that takes a lot of beer with it.
But poke around at Will's Place, and do a few 1/2 batches until you find what you like.
I come from taking Round Steak, cutting it into strips, salt and pepper, and dry it. I use to also do that with Venison or Beef in the old ovens that had a pilot light in them. Jerked, seasoned Meat. Simple as that.
But everything has gotten fancy now.

When you say you slice the frozen meat, how frozen are we talking about here? I've been leaving mine in the freezer for about an hour to slice easier, but I feel like it needs more time.