Newbie Jerky Making??

[bluearc74]

Hey all. I just recently purchased a four rack digital smoker and want to make an attempt at my first recipe at doing some jerky. I was going to try the Wild West Jerky off of the Bradley cookbook, but cant get any of the Honey cure locally. Is there anything i can use in its place or possibly another recipe that someone could share with me that they have tried out to be tested and true?


Cheers

[bluearc74]

Actually found the Honey Cure. So now all I need to know is if anyone has actually tried this recipe? I am going to start it tonight, marinade it till friday afternoon since I wont have time to start it till friday evening anyway. Any helpful hints would help. Thanks in advance..

Cheers

[KyNola]

Periodically rotate the racks front to back and top to bottom.  Depending on what temp you intend to dry your jerky it can take several hours so patience is important.

[bluearc74]

Yeah I have read that in a few places, or install a fan to circulate the heat evenly hey? So even if it is laying on the wire mesh racks I still need to rotate front to back? In the bradley wild west recipe it just mentioned to flip the meat. I will rotate anyways as to even it out. Thanks again. Made up the Wild West recipe for the jerkey last night and had a taste of the sauce and it was very yummy. Tonight I plan to smoke it. I have about 3lbs of meat sliced so will end up with probably 1.5lbs of jerky once I am done. Cant wait.

[Mxpunk64]

Yeah I have read that in a few places, or install a fan to circulate the heat evenly hey? So even if it is laying on the wire mesh racks I still need to rotate front to back? In the bradley wild west recipe it just mentioned to flip the meat. I will rotate anyways as to even it out. Thanks again. Made up the Wild West recipe for the jerkey last night and had a taste of the sauce and it was very yummy. Tonight I plan to smoke it. I have about 3lbs of meat sliced so will end up with probably 1.5lbs of jerky once I am done. Cant wait.

I've been successful with a couple of batches of beef jerky. I have an OBS with the added digital PID but no fan. I did have to rotate and turn my racks. The Bradley (as far as I know all models) runs hot on the bottom near the heat element. The first batch I did was not rotated and the bottom rack was done almost to the point of burning.

I cut my strips 1/4 inch thick and set the OBS to 150 smoke over hickory for 1 hour and 3 additional hours of heat usually does the trick.