I tried to stuff the SV24- came close to full: q-view

[forluvofsmoke]

I thought the SV24 is gonna burst at the seams with this one…I almost found out what the max is for the amount of jerky space I have available right now. The lower rack position isn’t the best choice when heavily loaded with jerky due to heat/air circulation issues just above the perimeter of the water pan, though I added a 5th rack and stayed away from the outside edges of the racks, which increased the space by about 1.5 racks, to 9.5 racks…yeah that’s a lot…if this weighs out similar to the last run of 9lb-6oz, it should be 12.55-12.70 lbs. This is 1/3 larger by weight than the last round.

My good neighbor and friend stopped by for a visit, and I couldn’t resist handing her some regular and hot pepper jerky, along with some frozen spares and PP from last week Thursday, 10-01-09. She’s a Q lover and I knew she’d appreciate it. She really liked the jerky, so much so, that she asked if I’d do up another batch if she’d spring for the beef and we’d split the batch out when done. I agreed and she promptly returned with the freshly packaged 85/15 ground chuck from the local grocer.

COOOOOOOOOOL!!! Yes, she REALLY likes my cooking skills.

So, here I sat lastnight with enough Nesco regular seasoning and mix for 6 lbs, a recipe and plenty of ingredients & TQ for the rest of 12.81 lbs (per the label) of 85/15 ground chuck.

Hmm…I had to break out the big guns for this jerky shoot. 8 levels in the SV24 would not handle all of it. I had the meat, seasonings and cure mixed up lastnight and let it cure for 12 hours before I started shooting it out. 55 minutes later, it was all into the Vault.

Weather forecast was 20% chance of rain & 55* Today, and 40% chance of snow & a high of 37* on Thursday, so today was my nest window.
Man, this is crazy…3 jerky runs in…I don’t know, but, seems like less than 2 weeks.

The Vault is capable of running 20~* lower on “low” burner setting than I need today with ambient temps currently @ 52*, so no problems with high temps.
　
The lower racks are loaded with 6lb-10.25oz of my pepper jerky seasoned/cured, the upper half is 5lb-15oz of the Nesco regular seasoned/cured.


Another mod...2 grates from my 3405GW GOSM (smallest) wired together to form a single full grate for the Vault, and a 10" x 14" baker's rack on top of it for an extra level, loaded & ready for TBS:



All loaded up for the day...note the darker color, changing from darker red to lighter brown/tan, from bottom to top as the smoking/drying has begun to take effect (I started loading from the bottom up):


Here's the goods @ 2hrs-55min since I started smoking the first pair of racks on bottom, the top is @ 2hrs flat:


My best calculations indicate that with closely crowded racks as I did with most here, I can load it with approx. 14lb-6oz of the jerky gun strips, so that will probably be the target weight for my next run. A full smoker is a happy smoker!

I'm in cruise mode now, just watching and waiting for pat-downs of rendered fat, texture checks and rach rotations to keep the drying fairly even.

Back later with weights and final pics...until then, good smokes!

Thanks all!

Eric

EDIT: Smoker temps are 150-160*F

 

[beer-b-q]

You missed a spot on the bottom rack...

Looks like someone likes jerky at your house...

 

[forluvofsmoke]

HEH-HEH-HEH!!! No, I wanted to keep clear of the edges and ends just above the water pan (dry) because that area gets pounded pretty hard with high heat as it travels past the pan.

We do like our jerky! I'm not ashamed to say that I'll probably be keeping a close eye on inventories so we don't run out. It's a good bribery tool for the kids

, and my wife really likes it too...she can benefit from the high-density protien content in her diet as well (gut probs), so this will really be a great thing to have on hand at our house.

Thanks!

Eric

 

[forluvofsmoke]

The lowest pair of racks came out nice and leathery, so I did a final pat-down and rechecked texture...felt good so into the towel layers it went. After applying some good steady hand pressure, turning the towels over and repeating, they came out weighing 15.5oz.

Just after the 2nd pat-down, time for a good squeeze:


Quite a bit of rendered fat still remaining on the surfaces after just patting down due to the rough surface profile of the strips:




Now we're talkin'!:


I'll be back with total weights when it's all ready for munchin'!

Thanks!

Eric

 

[forluvofsmoke]

The smoke/drying took 5.5 hours for the first pair of racks to come off. The final rack came off @ 9 hours.

These are gallon size bags, regular seasoned on the left, pepper seasoned on the right:


The weights are as follows:

Pepper jerky was 6lb-10.25oz, and finished weight is 3lb-9oz for a finish of 53.64705%, and a finished ratio of 106.25 (oz) / 57 (oz) = 1.864035 to 1, in theory, 1.864 lbs will yield 1 lb finished.

The regular jerky was 5lb-15oz, and finished weight is 3lb-2-oz for a finish of 52.63157%, and a finsihed ratio of 95 (oz) / 50 (oz) = 1.90 to 1, in theory 1.90 lbs will yield 1 lb finished.

I was watching the texture pretty closely with this batch, knowing that there would be alot of lag time on the final racks. Texture has a nice chew with the slightly higher moisture content than my last batch, and the flavors of both are very good. The pepper jerky has just a slight bite to it that sneaks up after a few chews, much like the hot pepper seasoning I used. The apple/cherry blend of smoke wood gave a really nice finish to the flavors of both.

Time to divide the batches out and get my Bbq & Jerky-loving neighbor/friend her share of the bounty!

Thanks everyone!

Eric

 

[blue]

That looks awesome, Eric. Thanks for posting that q-view.

 

[txbigred]

Looks like you've got that smoker real estate maxed out. I would like to try the ground meat jerky, but I would either have to get a jerky gun, or an adapter for my stuffer. With the regular jerky, I have to carry "Plakers" with me!

 

[ronp]

Thanks for the qview Eric. Nice looking jerky. That's a lot of jerky man.

Points are in order but not allowed.

 

[beer-b-q]

Awesome looking Jerky...

Way to go...

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Thank-you, it was fun as always.

Thanks, I'm getting better every with every round.

Yeah, I'm getting close to hitting the physical limits here. The jerky gun is so easy once you use it few times.

I think shooting the jerky from a stuffer may be pretty tough to get a good strand of meat, unless a good method is developed...I'm not sure how to avoid it in that situation. Depending on clearances from the discharge point and size of grate, etc., something should work.

Let me pick my brain for a minute here...maybe if you can get the grate far enough under the stuffer body, and do one side of the grate, then switch to the other side? Hmm.........

OK, another thought here would be to shoot the jerky on parchment or wax paper, then roll the snack sticks off the paper onto your grates. For strips, shoot out lower volumes of meat strands and tip the paper upside-down onto the grate to release the meat from the paper and place it close to where you want it. To shoot onto the paper, just pass the paper underneathe the stuffer body and draw the paper out as you shoot the meat strand...would these ideas work?

I'm curious because I don't have a stuffer (just yet...heh-heh), and if this would be a workable method, man, just think how fast you could knock out 10lbs of jerky sticks or strips! Holy Smokers!!!!!!!

It took me over an hour from start to until I had the last rack into the Vault...with a stuffer, you better have an extra 2 sets of hands to keep up, buddy!

Thanks, and good luck!

Yeah, when my friend asked about doing it and then showed up with 12.81lbs of GB, I thought I took a bigger bite than I could chew! LOLOLOL!!!!!!!

Thanks Ron!


Thanks, it tastes as good as it looks. This pepper jerky recipe I posted a few days ago, man, suprisingly good for as simple as it is.

Thanks fellas!

Eric

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Hey guys, I just had another thought on a viable method for use of a stuffer to shoot strands of jerky meat. I thought of this from how I put my fatty pies onto the smoker grate.

Shoot a full rack's worth onto paper, with what ever size & number of sheets you need that will match close to the smoker rack, and also be able to fit under you stuffer tube/housing.

Then, place all the sheets for one rack's worth side-by-side on a cutting board or baking pan/cookie sheet (as a base/platform).

Gently lower an inverted rack onto the jerky, grab the edges of the platform and smoker grate and flip it over so as to have the grate on bottom.

This would require some careful attention so as to not squeeze the meat strands inbetween the grate and the platform.

Gently lift the base off of the meat so as to not cause a rolling/pinching motion as this could damage the strands of meat. Lift off the paper and send the grate to the thin blue.

Does that sound like a workable method?

Eric

 

[alx]

Sounds interesting to say the least.

Nice job on that post eric.....Looks yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[newb]

Great lookin jerky but good gosh man, you preparing for WWIII? Oh wait...if its anything like my house, My daughters will eat a 3# batch in a day...

GJ Eric!

 

[okie joe]

Oh Yea, very nice.

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Thanks...the methods are working well, so I'm rollin' with it!

LMAO!!! Thanks, we go through it pretty fast here too. The last batch we finished on the 1st this month is almost gone already, so if I stay with it we'll have a good supply built up hopefully by 2010, maybe sooner. Then, if the crap hits the fan, we'll be ready!

Thanks, it was fun, too!

Good smokes everyone!

Eric