Salmon Jerky

[cmayna]

It’s been a couple years since I did some Salmon Jerky, so thought today would be THAT day to make up for lost time and help reduce some of last season's inventory to make room for this year's catch. Of course could not do it without the help of the Big Chief and dehydrator.

Sliced up some filets and tails. Brined for 3.5 hours in a dry 4/1 sugar/salt ratio.

Rinsed and room drying for a couple hours

Smoked in the Big Chief for 2 hours using large Alder chunks at 135 & 145 degrees and yes, being governed by a Auber PID controller. Also the Big Chief has an adjustable 1000w element, replacing the stock 500w element.

Two hours later, moved the pieces over to my dehydrator that finished the job running at 160f for 4 hours.

Wife loves this batch so much, she's considering renewing our marriage agreement? Huh? Actually most of this will go on our next fishing trip on Mother's Day. Already planning to do another batch in a couple weeks.

 

[thirdeye]

Whoa, nice job all the way around. I've never seen any kind of upgrade or controller on a Big Chief. Please share any info, as the BC and LC have been my go-to fish smokers since the '70's.

 

[GaryHibbert]

That sure does look good, Craig. I do like salmon jerky.
Gary

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Nice looking salmon jerky.
I use the same auber pid on my TSM smoker, works great.

My first smoker way way way back (when dinosaurs still roamed) was a little chief. I kept it all these years and gave it to my son. Got it back in 1973

 

[cmayna]

Thanks everyone. If you do a search, using my name and "big chief" you will find previous posts. Here's one with a couple pics. Yes, it also has a AMNTS mod, but yesterday it was not used. Back to old school I went.

Mr Big Chief back in action w/Salmon

Yeah, The masterbuilt MES40 is a nice smoker in all but ever since I got it, I've really missed using my two Big Chiefs until yesterday. Our fishing buddy ran out of Salmon snacks and gave me one of his fish to turn into more "oh my goodness" Slicing up some future jerky and chunks which...

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Will vacuum seal the jerky up today plus go and pick which pieces from the freezers will be next jerky batch.