Help, help, cold smoking beef for jerky

[Doesnt Matter]

I'm looking for but can't find an exact how-to for cold smoking beef for jerky. My dad brought some home when I was a kid (a very long time ago). I don't want flavored marinades, just cold smoked jerky. I see posts to use 1/4 of 1% curing salt per weight of the meat. Is this correct? Doesn't seem like much. Wet or dry brine? Using a Smokai and 30 gallon barrel.

 

[crazymoon]

DM, Not sure what you are doing here. Cold smoking for a few hours and then dehydrating? Cold smoking for days to dry the meat like biltong ?? Rule of thumb is one teaspoon of cure #1 per 5 pounds of meat usually done in a marinade for equal distribution. IMHO I would avoid a straight cold smoke for fear of pathogens etc settling in even though there is cure involved. Hopefully more knowledgeable folks chime in.

 

[tallbm]

I'm looking for but can't find an exact how-to for cold smoking beef for jerky. My dad brought some home when I was a kid (a very long time ago). I don't want flavored marinades, just cold smoked jerky. I see posts to use 1/4 of 1% curing salt per weight of the meat. Is this correct? Doesn't seem like much. Wet or dry brine? Using a Smokai and 30 gallon barrel.

Hi there and welcome!

As you are learning to cure this calculator will make things easy: https://forums.egullet.org/cure-calculator/

For reference, for every 1 pound (454gm) of meat or stuff to cure you need 1.13 gm of cure #1. This is roughly a 1/4 teaspoon but those spoons are not always accurate.

Yes using grams because everything converts SIMPLY with less chance of error when using grams versus ounces and pounds.

If you follow that calculator and coat well you can dry brine. I would also lower the salt to like 1.65-1.75% so it's not so salty.

Also as already mentioned by crazymoon, you probably want to smoke and dehydrate and not "cold smoke". Cold smoking implies no cooking or dehydrating.

You can put your smoker at like 160-200F and apply smoke and dehydrate it with no issues.

 

[sandyut]

I might be all wet here, but I kinda thought cold smoking beef was not a great plan safety wise. Dont you want to get it quite a bit warmer to be safe? I always smoked jerky much warmer so...