my first batch of smoked beef jerky. Taste burnt ? Help?

[mikes30911]

Today I made my first batch of smoked beef jerky in my new Bradley digital smoker. The process was painless. The recipe I used was pretty basic. 

3LB strip loin cut into 1/4 inch think slices

1/2 bottle of low sodium soya sauce

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

salt, pepper , garlic powder , bay leaf , chillies pepper flakes, brown sugar

5 squats of warchesister sauce

water

i put the beef in a big zip lock bag, marinated it in the fridge overnight. At 9AM this morning i fired up my smoker, used 1/2 hickory pucks and 1/2 maple. Smoked it at 160 for 3-4 hours , then turned off the smoke and let it cook/dry at 180 for another 3-4 hours. 

My fist reaction was  that the taste was way to smoky , or maybe even like chard tasting. its not overcooked since it bends but dose not break when i bend the pieces.  The only thing i can think of is perhaps I smoked it to long? I also have to mention that the Bradley smoker has an automatic feeder which feeds the pucks down to where they are heated up and create smoke. Once they burn out they are pushed into this bowl to be collected and discarded . I did add water to this bowl perhaps causing to much smoke or the burnt flavor I'm tasting . Maybe it was the wrong selection of wood chips? ingredients? I have no idea but I'm kinda disappointed. its not that its not edible but it defiantly was not the greatest. Please help if you can since I plan on trying again in a few days .. 

I also plan on making a nice smoked turkey or 2 for Easter if any of you could point me to a proven recipe for that I would love to try it out.

Thanks

 

[flipajig]

HI I have been making jerkey for a short time one thing I have learnd is that small pices of meat do not take alot of smoke to get the flavor.

I use Misquite sawdust of a chain saw and some small wedges I dont marinade I season it with a general spice that I use on alot of different meat. I only smoke it for 30 to 45 min and then take it out of the smoke. cook for a total cook time of about 4.5 hrs at 160 to 165

so far every batch of Jerkey I have made has turned out great.

 

[adiochiro3]

flipajig is right -- too much smoke.  I never smoke my jerky more than lightly for 1 hour, then SLOWLY dehydrate for up to 20 more hours.

 

[meateater]

Creosote = too much smoke. What you want is Thin Blue Smoke. This is where you basically almost don't see the smoke, "less is more" in the smoking game. 

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Yup to much smoke.

In my Bradley i use 3-4 pucks

 

[graniteman]

yes to much smoke time, need only 1/2 hour, then heat only to dry out.  160 degrees, need to keep eye on it, each unit is different.  your not doing large chunks of meat

 

[mikes30911]

Anybody have any turkey jerky recipes? I got some high mountan cure/rub that I would like to try on a poultry jerky rather than always beef, i plan to smoke it less this time to avoid that to smoky taste. 

 

[killnsmoke]

too hot to dry it out in my opinion.....i only set my smoker at 90-110 and slowly dry it out

 

[mikes30911]

how many hours dose it take at that temp?

 

[roller]

As stated above to much smoke for to long. I smoke mine for 1 hr at 150 then no smoke for 7 more hours at 150.