Finally got to try my hand at making some jerky. Picked up a couple of flatiron steaks at M&M, which was maybe not the most cost effective route, but my first batch turned out great! Tried a teriyaki and Worcestershire recipe. It was so good, in fact, that I immediately went to Costco and picked up about 2.25 lbs of inside round marinating steak - only $13. Today's recipes are teriyaki, Worcestershire, honey garlic, and hot. All using mesquite. I gathered a lot of tips from all of you already, but I'm curious to know what's your favourite smoke for jerky?
Yesterday's batch, a total of 12 oz, was 1hr40 of smoke, total of 4 hrs, all at 70C. I'm trying the same today, but expect to increase the total time with the extra meat. The extra meat is already affecting the time it takes to come up to temp.
And now for the food porn:
Teriyaki before:
(http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag216/BoxcarBetts/736A5C47-013C-4286-82AF-58BC47A7F8DD_zps1falpftx.jpg)
Teriyaki after:
(http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag216/BoxcarBetts/487328DB-28FD-4B1F-A62D-12DF9F4DEC32_zpsyzpl1dyq.jpg)
Worcestershire before:
(http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag216/BoxcarBetts/D469CAC3-EFF4-4B5F-A791-37C54B726BA6_zpscqjbvdhw.jpg)
Worcestershire after:
(http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag216/BoxcarBetts/C4E1A0E3-F228-4425-A4B8-CF80B4AA6D73_zpsmydshnda.jpg)
And today's multibatch, still smoking at the moment:
(http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag216/BoxcarBetts/0570DE6B-1EA3-4935-BDFF-80FA257C0C17_zps1tz937nq.jpg)
Looks good, you'll be making it all the time now.
That's the truth. I can't believe how good and how easy homemade jerky is.
Just pulled Batch #2 out of the smoker. Boy is it good. I'd show pictures, but I'm starting to realise that taking pictures of jerky is like taking pictures of mountains... Eventually they all just look the same! Since this was my first smoke using all 4 racks, I learned that I have to adjust my rotating method. I over did the hot and the Worcestershire a bit because they were rotating back and forth between the top and bottom racks, whereas the honey garlic and teriyaki lived in the middle 2 racks. Obviously that bottom rack was drying faster being so close to the element. Or, perhaps the thicker marinade had something to do with it. I'll just have to keep more of an eye on it next time and make sure I take them out "early" if the meat tells me it's done!
Oh, and I should mention to the other newbs like me that 2.25 lbs yielded 20 oz of jerky. I followed the same method as above: 4 hrs with 1hr40 of mesquite.
When I do 2 different types on the racks I tie a little piece of butchers twine on the racks with one type and leave the other two racks clean that way I can keep rotating racks top to bottom and front to rear without getting confused about which batch is which when their all done.
Good idea. They're pretty obvious going in, not so much coming out. It WAS fun trying to figure out which was which though! Haha