Mornin fellas

[boodro]

I am doing my first big batch of jerky in my new smokehouse today!! All is looking good and smelling delicious! I do have an idea that I want to run past u guys for some feed back.

The one small batch that I have made so far smoked for 4 hours and went to my dehydrator until complete. I do not have enough room in my dehydrator for all of this batch, and I'm considering putting a box fan laying down on racks under my meat and blowing air up on to it after I smoke. U guys think this will work? Or should I just do batches in my dehydrator?

Thanks
Chris

image.jpg

• boodro
• Dec 19, 2013

 

[boodro]

Couple hours into it, Rollin around 160'

image.jpg

• boodro
• Dec 19, 2013

 

[rich-]

Boodro, I leave my jerky right in the smoker with chamber temps below 160 degrees until the disired dryness is complete, I see no reason to move it to a dehydrator.

Rich-

 

[boodro]

Thanks for the reply rich. Do u think its a problem if it is 73 degrees with 51% humidity right now? If not, I think I'll just do like you do and leave it in the smokehouse

 

[rich-]

Hi Boodro, I have no idea about humidity at all. I live exactly 1 mile from the waters edge of the pacific Ocean, we do have a lot of dampness here.

When I do Jerky I take it out of the marinade, lay it on my racks, give it a sprinkle of pepper and into my preheated smoker. I keep the smoker temps as close to 140 Degrees as possible and always under 160. After several hours i begin to give a piece of the meat a pinch / bend test and eventually a bite / taste test. Once it reaches my desired doneness, i cut the heat and let it set until it cools pretty good, then pull the racks, dump it out on a tray and let it cool / rest until completely chilled.

Keep in mind, the flavor of your jerky will be considerably better after a couple days, so don't judge it from the tastes right after you pull it from the smoker. OH and yes, I do keep smoke going the whole time the jerky is in the smoker.

Hope this helps.

Rich-

 

[boodro]

Thanks again Rich

Just starting out, so I have a lot to learn, thanks for the input man.

 

[boodro]

image.jpg

• boodro
• Dec 20, 2013

image.jpg

• boodro
• Dec 20, 2013

couple pics of the finished product. Anyone have a trick to help keep black pepper stuck to the jerky? Mine mostly fell off

 

[rich-]

I sprinkle the pepper onto my jerky as soon as I have it out of the marinade, the pepper seems to stick to the wet surface. and I lay mine on my smoker racks, I do not hang my jerky, But my smoker is capable to handle a lot of racks and jerky at one time,

 

[boodro]

Thanks rich, I need to build some racks, the string hanging takes too much time

 

[rich-]

Hi Boodro, looking back at your earlier pictures, you have a way larger smoker than mine. You could put some cleats on each side and put a whole passell of racks in there.

My smoker is a discarded food warmer, it is 18 inches wide and 26 inches deep by about 5 feet tall. My desire is to build me a smoke house similear to what I see in your pictures, I have no idea why, I certainly don't need one any bigger, I just like building stuff I guess.

I do feel you would enjoy making your jerky more if you could just lay it out on racks and slide the racks in the smoker. That said, it shows the lazyness coming out in me.

Rich-

 

[boodro]

image.jpg

• boodro
• Dec 20, 2013

Lazy or smart, whatever u wanna call it! Lol

My smokehouse is 48"x48" and 80" tall, I just built it, so I still have improvements to make on the inside. A rack system is definately in the plans

image.jpg

• boodro
• Dec 20, 2013

I think I could lay some across the same boards that hold my sausage dowels

 

[rich-]

Your smoker looks a lot like what I envision, I thought about having stilts on mine so the bottom is like 18 inches off the ground, so I could do natural fire builds and pipe the smoke to the smoker.

Just some thoughts,

 

[boodro]

That would be real cool.

This is my first smoker build and I already built 10 more in my head since I've found this site