After receiving the jerky gun that I had ordered last week, I figured I'd dive right in an make some jerky. It was either this or re-caulk the bathtub with this thing, so I chose the former...
I went over to Sam's Club and bought a 4.5 pound tray of 93/7 lean ground beef. From what I've read, the leaner the better because fat goes rancid. I pulled out the digital scale and weighed out two pounds, then put it into a big plastic tupperware tub that I use for mixing.
As per Nesco's directions, I put in two packs of cure and two packs of their Hot & Spicy Jerky Seasoning (one pack of each per pound of ground beef) and mixed it thoroughly with the ground beef. Once thoroughly mixed, I hand-made little sausages in a diameter smaller than the jerky gun's shaft and stomped them down tightly with the kit's stomper tool to remove any air pockets.
Since I wanted snack sticks for this particular project, I screwed on the single snack stick end onto the gun's shaft and proceeded to extrude rows of jerky snack sticks directly onto the MES's shelf.
UPDATE: By the way, I have also used the single flat jerky end on this gun and have successfully laid out flat jerky onto the MES's shelf, so for those of you who think that you need to get some special screen shelving or thin-holed shelving for jerky, I can tell you with much certainty that they are unnecessary. You can extrude right onto the MES's shelves and save your money for something else. For the MES 40's shelf width, you can extrude approximately one pound of ground beef flat jerky per shelf and approximately two pounds of round snack stick jerky per shelf. Of course, this is my experience, so your particular mileage may vary.
While all this was going on, I had already preheated the MES to 125 degrees with nothing in the water pan and had the AMNPS lit with one row of hickory pellets. Once the raw jerky shelf went into the MES, the jerky took four hours of hickory smoke at 125 degrees. When the single row of hickory pellets burned out, I increased the MES's temperature to 175 degrees until the internal temperature of the jerky snack sticks reached 155 degrees, which happened almost three hours later. The total time in the MES was just under seven hours.
After a brief cool down period on paper towels, I cut each length of snack stick into quarters and vacuum packed some for family and friends. The rest went into a zip-loc bag for our own consumption.
Here's the Q-View, as promised:
Two pounds of 93/7 lean ground beef mixed thoroughly with Nesco's Hot & Spicy Jerky Seasoning.
After packing the prepared ground beef into the Weston Original Jerky Gun, I evenly extruded the snack sticks directly onto the MES's shelf.
Here's a close-up of the raw jerky snack sticks.
After soaking up thin blue hickory smoke, courtesy of the AMNPS, and reaching an internal temperature of 155 degrees, this is what the jerky snack sticks looked like.
Here's what the jerky snack sticks look like after a brief cool-down period.
These are the jerky snack sticks cut into quarters and ready to be vacuum packed.
Like with most of my projects, I always make a few packs to give away to my family and friends.
I hope you enjoyed the Q-View and thank you for looking!!!
I went over to Sam's Club and bought a 4.5 pound tray of 93/7 lean ground beef. From what I've read, the leaner the better because fat goes rancid. I pulled out the digital scale and weighed out two pounds, then put it into a big plastic tupperware tub that I use for mixing.
As per Nesco's directions, I put in two packs of cure and two packs of their Hot & Spicy Jerky Seasoning (one pack of each per pound of ground beef) and mixed it thoroughly with the ground beef. Once thoroughly mixed, I hand-made little sausages in a diameter smaller than the jerky gun's shaft and stomped them down tightly with the kit's stomper tool to remove any air pockets.
Since I wanted snack sticks for this particular project, I screwed on the single snack stick end onto the gun's shaft and proceeded to extrude rows of jerky snack sticks directly onto the MES's shelf.
UPDATE: By the way, I have also used the single flat jerky end on this gun and have successfully laid out flat jerky onto the MES's shelf, so for those of you who think that you need to get some special screen shelving or thin-holed shelving for jerky, I can tell you with much certainty that they are unnecessary. You can extrude right onto the MES's shelves and save your money for something else. For the MES 40's shelf width, you can extrude approximately one pound of ground beef flat jerky per shelf and approximately two pounds of round snack stick jerky per shelf. Of course, this is my experience, so your particular mileage may vary.
While all this was going on, I had already preheated the MES to 125 degrees with nothing in the water pan and had the AMNPS lit with one row of hickory pellets. Once the raw jerky shelf went into the MES, the jerky took four hours of hickory smoke at 125 degrees. When the single row of hickory pellets burned out, I increased the MES's temperature to 175 degrees until the internal temperature of the jerky snack sticks reached 155 degrees, which happened almost three hours later. The total time in the MES was just under seven hours.
After a brief cool down period on paper towels, I cut each length of snack stick into quarters and vacuum packed some for family and friends. The rest went into a zip-loc bag for our own consumption.
Here's the Q-View, as promised:
Two pounds of 93/7 lean ground beef mixed thoroughly with Nesco's Hot & Spicy Jerky Seasoning.
After packing the prepared ground beef into the Weston Original Jerky Gun, I evenly extruded the snack sticks directly onto the MES's shelf.
Here's a close-up of the raw jerky snack sticks.
After soaking up thin blue hickory smoke, courtesy of the AMNPS, and reaching an internal temperature of 155 degrees, this is what the jerky snack sticks looked like.
Here's what the jerky snack sticks look like after a brief cool-down period.
These are the jerky snack sticks cut into quarters and ready to be vacuum packed.
Like with most of my projects, I always make a few packs to give away to my family and friends.
I hope you enjoyed the Q-View and thank you for looking!!!
