First time jerky making

[poonreaper]

Hi,
So i am new to the smoker and a virgin to jerky.  I have read lots on this forum and am still unsure.  I am going to make jerky tomorrow.  I have the deer in strips and  this morning i put on the rub and cure.  
So now ill tell you how i think i am going to do it and you can correct me if im wrong.  I am going to get the smoker up to 150, put the smoke to the strips for about 1:30 with water in the bowl.  after that i am going to remove the water and keep smoker at 150 with top vent wide open for 3 or so hours.  Or until it seems done.  Then ill try it out.  How does that plan look to the pros.  Ill take any advice as like i said im very new to this.  :-[

Thanks in Advance
Doyle

[wally22]

Don't know how everyone else does it, but I set my smoker at 200 and when the pucks are gone I take out the bowel. I do move the trays around and turn them. Time is up to you I try to watch the jerky and when it starts to dry out, but it's still bendable I take it out. When I put 8 racks in it took about 6 hours and when I have 4 racks it took about 3 hours. Just finished some.
Good luck

[KevinG]

Your plan sounds good to me, I did about 3 hours of smoke and then continued, but it may be too smokey for you on your first attempt. I don't think I'd go 200, you're not trying to cook the meat but dry it.

[wally22]

Kevin what do you set your temp at? When your done is the jerky still soft?
Thanks wally22

[KevinG]

I only put mine to 150, it is chewy when I'm done but completely dry. The top looks wet, but it's not moisture. You can bend it and it wont break, but if you squeeze it, no juices come out.

[NePaSmoKer]

I set to 140 for an hour to dry it up, bump to 150 for 5 pucks of smoke, continue at 150 for another hour then bump to 165 for 4 hours. If needed i bump to 175-180 to finish. Always with the vent full open and no water in the pan.

[HawkeyeSmokes]

I do mine just like Nepas and it comes out great.

Kevin's plan should work to and I agree that 200 deg will cook the meat before it dries.

[wally22]

Thanks for the info. I've always done my at that 200 and when i take it to work I get attacked before I can set it on the counter they love it and say it don't taste like deer or goose. I think the next time I do some going to give this a try.
Thanks
wally

[poonreaper]

K thank you very much everyone.  iam heading out to start.  i willl keep you posted!!!!

[poonreaper]

Well for the first time i think it turned out pretty well!

Some questions i have though.  I had 6 racks in my four rack smoker and it seems to take forever to heat to even 150 degrees?  Is this normal?  It doesnt seem to heat up when i have food in it?  After about 2.5 hours its at like 190 maybe?  Any answers???

[KevinG]

If you keep the foil covered bricks in there it helps to recover the heat. Initially it takes mine a while to get to temp (you're only dealing with 110 volts), but once there it holds pretty good with the bricks.

[poonreaper]

where do you get the bricks from?  and what are they?

[KevinG]

You can pick them up at any home store like Home Depot. They are just regular red brick, you can use fire brick too. You just wrap them in aluminum foil and fit them in next to the water pan or on the V-tray or an open rack. I'd measure before hand though, I found out there are multiple size bricks and ended up buying a couple different ones. No biggie they're not that expensive.

[NePaSmoKer]

Well for the first time i think it turned out pretty well!

Some questions i have though.  I had 6 racks in my four rack smoker and it seems to take forever to heat to even 150 degrees?  Is this normal?  It doesnt seem to heat up when i have food in it?  After about 2.5 hours its at like 190 maybe?  Any answers???

Normal temps.

Try to keep your heat 180* If you go higher all your doing is cooking it.

Like other stated just plain old bricks washed and foil wrapped. I have 1 on the right side wall as not to interfere with the heating element.

Here you can see where i have the 1 brick. Some may use 2 or 3.