Here's the Q-View then the writeup:
So I think I may have reached the end of my jerky evolution hahaha.
This was the last 10 pounds of my 100% ground venison I had form last year's hunt [no hunting this year :( ]
Yep that is 10 pounds flattened into 4 sheets and loaded into the smoker on q-mats.
The meat was roughly just over 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick when smashed into sheets.
I smashed it flat onto parchment paper into rectangular shape that would fit onto my q-mats. No rolling pin just my hand with a glove on it smashed onto a sheet of parchment paper for each rack I was loading.
Before I took this leap I was doing the same BUT then taking a butter knife and forming my jerky strips before it went into the smoker. The problem is that left a lot of little pieces of meat that turned into jagged edges or points which is not friendly to the mouth. So after seeing someone post where they did think sheets and then cut with meet scissors I decided to take the leap and try it myself.
I won't be doing my jerky any other way!
This was done with 2 packs of LEM's Original Jerky seasoning. One pack was super old and the other pack was newer. It seems the newer seasoning is different from the older seasoning. I like the older one better as the new one has some sort of black flecks of something in it that kinda taste strong and I dont like them. I'm not sure what it is or maybe I'm taking a ton of fennel or something in the new seasoning that wasn't an ingredient in the old seasoning. Either way they came out good but I will be avoiding that flavor going forward.
My Evolution:
Anyhow thanks everyone for the inspiration and helping me get to this point. Now I just need to get back to deer hunting next year for more venison and I need to stay away from whatever the hell that seasoning is that I've encountered in 2 different jerky packs I've had on hand because I do NOT like the taste of it.
After I am done with all this jerky seasoning I was gifted or came came with equipment I will focus on my own simple jerky seasonings. I haven't had to because I had all of these packs to go through haha.
Let me know if you have any questions about this adventure :)
So I think I may have reached the end of my jerky evolution hahaha.
This was the last 10 pounds of my 100% ground venison I had form last year's hunt [no hunting this year :( ]
Yep that is 10 pounds flattened into 4 sheets and loaded into the smoker on q-mats.
The meat was roughly just over 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick when smashed into sheets.
I smashed it flat onto parchment paper into rectangular shape that would fit onto my q-mats. No rolling pin just my hand with a glove on it smashed onto a sheet of parchment paper for each rack I was loading.
Before I took this leap I was doing the same BUT then taking a butter knife and forming my jerky strips before it went into the smoker. The problem is that left a lot of little pieces of meat that turned into jagged edges or points which is not friendly to the mouth. So after seeing someone post where they did think sheets and then cut with meet scissors I decided to take the leap and try it myself.
I won't be doing my jerky any other way!
This was done with 2 packs of LEM's Original Jerky seasoning. One pack was super old and the other pack was newer. It seems the newer seasoning is different from the older seasoning. I like the older one better as the new one has some sort of black flecks of something in it that kinda taste strong and I dont like them. I'm not sure what it is or maybe I'm taking a ton of fennel or something in the new seasoning that wasn't an ingredient in the old seasoning. Either way they came out good but I will be avoiding that flavor going forward.
My Evolution:
- A long time ago I did whole muscle jerky in a dehydrator which was good but takes some effort with slicing and is way tougher in the teeth. I discovered ground meat jerky and it had so many advantages over sliced whole muscle jerky I switched to it.
- I hunt and processing having a to of 100% of venison jerky was awesome since I could substitute it for anything ground beef that I eat AND still be able to do jerky when I wanted... Max flexibility here. Doing ground meat jerky I bought a jerky gun. It was nice but even the largest jerky cannon out there doesn't take even 2 pounds of meat and it's slow loading and messing with it. Plus there is more stuff to clean and not all of it dishwasher safe.
- Next I saw people rolling out ground jerky into sheets so I gave it a shot and worked well but I would make my jerky strips using a butter knife to separate the meat with a butter knife. This left jagged points and areas of the jerky where the meat dehydrated so that was a downside. The upside was that I didnt use a roller and just smashed with my hand so WAY FEWER things getting dirty and having to clean up and the jerky process was WAY faster than the cannon. The jerky came out great as well
- Finally, I have now done the whole sheet jerky which is even faster on time AND I just cut my strips to size with meat scissors. I can do a 10 pound batch of jerky faster than I could do jerky in any way I would do it before. Also this jerky is thicker which I was confident would work because the jerky cannon would do "tubes" of jerky which was this thicker or more and it came out fine. I have now confirmed it is all good to go AND I can load 10 pounds of meat into the smoker for doing nice big sized batches making it more bang for the buck with all the trouble and mess :)
- Smoker Temp 200F
- Applied smoke 3-4 hrs (mix of char oak, mesquite, alder)
- Took roughly 5-6 hrs (i didnt time it I just put it in around 2-3pm and pulled around 7-8pm when done)
- Rotated racks periodically (3 times total?) to evenly dehydrate the sheets
Anyhow thanks everyone for the inspiration and helping me get to this point. Now I just need to get back to deer hunting next year for more venison and I need to stay away from whatever the hell that seasoning is that I've encountered in 2 different jerky packs I've had on hand because I do NOT like the taste of it.
After I am done with all this jerky seasoning I was gifted or came came with equipment I will focus on my own simple jerky seasonings. I haven't had to because I had all of these packs to go through haha.
Let me know if you have any questions about this adventure :)
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