Was surprised with my smoker averaging 180, it didn't want to seem to reach an internal temp of 165? I have a MES 40 in with 1 probe and added two more, one above the bottom shelf left side and one on top left side. The bottom did run a bit hotter where the top one and the original were pretty close most of the time.
With the temp difference, I decided to rotate trays every 1/2 hour, right before I rotated each time I took a handheld probe and checked a piece for I.T. With the temp averaging 180 or so, at 3 different times at half hour intervals I could not get a I,T. of 165.
So not knowing exactly what to do and wanting to reach an I.T. of 160-165, while it's still wet, I actually threaded a probe in the jerky on the top and bottom shelf. And kept bumping up the temp, where I had to go to around 210 for 10 mins or so, to get 163. Then I quickly opened door and dropped temp to finish smoking around 140-150.
Not sure if I went about it the right way, but if I would have relied just on the MES probe and smoked at 180, not sure the I.T. would of got to 160-165? since I kept reading 153 after an hour and half at 180?
My total smoke times was about 5hrs, but actually only added wood for smoke during 1 1/2 hours of cooking, where the smoke taste came out well, as I didn't want it to strong.
This was ground venison with cure, as I have a lot of venison, and figured I'd practice on ground, then use the good muscle cuts as I get better, as I don't care for the ground as much as regular cut jerky. Here's a pic, hopefully cooked enough, as I did bend it where it would crack pretty good at a 90, so stopped there, as I didn't want it brittle. Does have a pinkish inside color, but guessing that's from cure?
With the temp difference, I decided to rotate trays every 1/2 hour, right before I rotated each time I took a handheld probe and checked a piece for I.T. With the temp averaging 180 or so, at 3 different times at half hour intervals I could not get a I,T. of 165.
So not knowing exactly what to do and wanting to reach an I.T. of 160-165, while it's still wet, I actually threaded a probe in the jerky on the top and bottom shelf. And kept bumping up the temp, where I had to go to around 210 for 10 mins or so, to get 163. Then I quickly opened door and dropped temp to finish smoking around 140-150.
Not sure if I went about it the right way, but if I would have relied just on the MES probe and smoked at 180, not sure the I.T. would of got to 160-165? since I kept reading 153 after an hour and half at 180?
My total smoke times was about 5hrs, but actually only added wood for smoke during 1 1/2 hours of cooking, where the smoke taste came out well, as I didn't want it to strong.
This was ground venison with cure, as I have a lot of venison, and figured I'd practice on ground, then use the good muscle cuts as I get better, as I don't care for the ground as much as regular cut jerky. Here's a pic, hopefully cooked enough, as I did bend it where it would crack pretty good at a 90, so stopped there, as I didn't want it brittle. Does have a pinkish inside color, but guessing that's from cure?