NEED SOME JERKY HELP, WITH BDS 6 RACK

[whitetailaddict]

I have done turkey and fish a few times. My smoker is new this year. I am grinding venison now. I can not seem to find any suggestions on how long to cook the jerky, at what temps, and what amount of smoke. Any suggestions would be appreciated, and also any tips. Thanks, WTA

[Wildcat]

Here is a good read to get you started.  http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=5824.0

You can also search by forum members and Jerky.  NePa Smoker does a lot of Jerky.

[NePaSmoKer]

I have done turkey and fish a few times. My smoker is new this year. I am grinding venison now. I can not seem to find any suggestions on how long to cook the jerky, at what temps, and what amount of smoke. Any suggestions would be appreciated, and also any tips. Thanks, WTA

WTA

Start your jerky @160 with 4 to 5 pucks of hickory, its a good all around wood to use. Have your water pan in to catch the spent pucks but dont have any WATER in it. Open your vent full open. When all the wood is done check for doneness by bending a piece in half. It prob wont be done so bump the heat up to 170* for another 1 hr. Check again the same way. If still not done bump up again to 175* for 45 mins. This time take a piece and chew on it, If its still raw bum up to 180* for another  1 hr. Check again the same way. If its done to your liking then its done. If not another 45 mins.

REMEMBER you need to be roatating your racks all this time cuz the bottom racks will cook faster  ;D

Hope this helps some

nepas

[Mr Walleye]

NePas has some good advice and he has lots of experience at it. I do mine very similar to him. The only differences for me are; my entire cook is at 170 degrees, I also use 4 pucks of Hickory but I do have water in the bowl until the pucks are spent at which time I empty the water bowl and put it back in empty. You will probably want to do a rack rotation after your smoke is complete, top to bottom and front to back. The main reason for the rotation is because you have so much meat surface area in the smoker the heating element is pretty much on the whole time during the smoke process, this causes the lowest racks to have more heat applied to them early in the smoke. Once I have done the rack rotation after the smoke I find the heat situation stabilizes in the cabinet better so I don't usually do any further rotations, although some people still do. I run my vent a little different because I have my smoker installed in my garage with a power vent on it so I can easily over vent it too.

The only other point I would make is when you are testing for doneness take into consideration the jerky will seem to become dryer once it's cooled and aged a few hours. I had a tendency to make mine too dry at first. It turns out very good and it will become something you will do regular for sure. You will find some pieces will finish quicker than others. I usually pull a couple of pieces I think are done and let them cool first then check/taste them.

Mike

[NePaSmoKer]

WTA

Mike and I are just about the same on jerky  ;D                Good stuff huh Mike  ;D

nepas

[Mr Walleye]

You know it NePas!

I don't go Fishin' without it!  :P

2 Thumbs Up!  ;)

Mike

[adboom]

How do you prep the meats that you are going to make into jerky?  I prefer beef, so do you use skirt steak?  How thin do you cut the slices?  As most of you know from my previous posts... I do ribs, briskets and pulled pork great, but have not done jerky yet.  Any advice would be great.

[Tiny Tim]

I use Bottom Round Roasts and slice it into about 6"X1"X1/4" slices.  So far for seasoning, I've only used the Hi Mountain Original, but am doing a batch this weekend with their Bourbon BBQ too.  Really easy to use...just mix up what you need for the amount of meat you have, season, and cure in the fridge for 24 hours or so, then smoke until it's done to your taste (2 hours of smoke, 3 hours total cook time is about right for me).

[adboom]

Is High Mountain liquid or powder?  Can I marinade in Worcestershire or Soy, etc?  Does the marinade matter?  Is there a better cut of meat then bottom round?  Does this matter?  Example; will Fillets make a better jerky because of the better cut of meat (less fat, etc)?

[Mr Walleye]

Adboom

High Mountain is a powder. You can use worcestshire or soya sauce in your marinade if you want. I use both dry and wet marinade, it just depends on what I feel like doing. I use a dry jerky product very similar to High Mountain products but it's available locally. I will sometimes add ground jalapeno powder to it to step it up a bit at time. When I'm doing whole muscle meat I will usually use a dry mix on the strips. when I do ground jerky I usually use a wet mix. My favourite cut of meat for whole muscle jerky is eye of round sliced 1/4 inch thick.

Mike