Wondering the reason for starting at 140 & increasing over time to 170 for jerky? That seemed to be the advice when I started doing jerky. Problem is that it just takes too long!!!! Yesterday's batch took 9 hrs for the last pieces to be done (8 racks in a 4 rack'r). If the temp is going to end up at 160 or 170 why not just start at 160 and speed up the process? Today's batch is ready to go in...
That advice is for thicker cuts like nuggets and thick strips/sticks. If you start at 170F with thicker meats the outside will dry out more quickly than the inside causing uneven drying. You then have to over-dry it to finish. This is the same rule for drying fish.
If you are doing thin strips of jerky than go ahead and start at 170F. Just be advised that any temp above 160F is more of a cooking temp than a drying temp.
Cause you will end up with 8lbs of charcoal like I did yesterday. Oh and thanks for reminding me of this as I just set my temp to 220 and left it there. Hence the loss of 75% of the 8lbs.
Thanks muebe, makes perfect sense :o , no, it actually does, especially with nuggets :)
And speaking of nuggets....keep coming across snippets of muebe's nuggets here and there- I assume this is you? Haven't been able to piece together what they are? Is it just a spice recipe or what? Do you have a specific thread on them?
And Q.....220'll cooking'em good!
Thanks
Here is the link that started it all. NEPAS give them the name and it stuck. http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=22854.0
I have made these twice now and they are good. Some will get done before others I just pluck out the ones that are getting done 1st and put the rest back in.
I never made jerky in the Bradley so I am not much help on that.
Jacklinks has been selling these for the last year or so also.
Quote from: Sailor on November 13, 2011, 11:16:30 AM
Here is the link that started it all. NEPAS give them the name and it stuck. http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=22854.0
Thanks sailor...never tried nuggets yet, only whacks of jerky. :)