My first jerky

Thanks to Kevin, my first attempt today at jerky was a success. I made the pictures and descriptions to send to some out of town friends and relatives, and I'm including them here for any of y'all who might be interested in making jerky.

The weather was great, and it was my first time using apple wood. The project took some advance planning, but it was a whole lot of fun.

The jerky looks great! Home made jerky beats that store bought stuff hands down. I have made jerky for several years in a dehydrator, but I am looking forward to using the WSM for jerky. The real smoke flavor is bound to be better than using liquid smoke in the marinade (duh). My usual marinade is quite spicy, lots of black pepper and crushed red pepper, but the smoke flavor has never been just right. I think that will change with the first batch on the WSM. Thanks for sharing the pics of your efforts, makes me want to get going on a batch myself.

Fred S,

The jerky looks great and I think I will give it a shot. My question has to deal with fire and temp control. How much charcoal did you use and did you use the Minion method? Was it difficult to keep the temps at that low level? Any info would be appreciated.

I did use the Minion method. I filled the charcoal ring a tad over one layer deep, and added about 10 lit briquettes in the center. I laid my foiled apple wood pouch on top of the 10, to get the smoke going early. There were about 2 heaping cups of wood chips in it, and I didn't add any more.

The high was about 85 yesterday, and the smoker was in the sun for most of the smoke. Temperature control was much easier then I expected.

I was shooting for 160, and the highest it hit briefly, was 167. When it neared 100, I closed two vents, and then started closing the 3rd. I had all 3 vents completely closed for a lot of the smoke. Enough air must get in thru the door to keep it going at such a low temperature. With one vent barely cracked most of the time, it seemed to want to run at 161 for hours.

Twice, when the temperature dropped to 155, I moved 3 or 4 unlit coals on top of lit ones, to help it along.

I just looked at the leftover charcoal. There is one complete ring around the outer edge that never did light, and most of the ring inside that, only partially burned. So it doesn't take much charcoal for a long, low temperature smoke, on a sunny day.

I had to drive about 25 miles round trip, the night before to find apple wood, and I'm glad I did. Kevin recommended a milder wood for jerky, and it was my first time using it. I usually use hickory on other things. I'm looking forward to using some apple on a first ever smoked turkey.

The jerky looked awesome. I am still learning to use my new WSM and I am not ready to do jerky yet. I suppose I will have to wait till spring, as I would think that the cold weather would have a significant effect on heat drying, or not?
Lane

That question could be better answered by Kevin, since he lives in the snow country of Ft. Wayne.

However, I think it actually would be easier in colder weather. I was striving for 160 degrees, and at one point briefly hit 167 with all 3 vents closed.

In colder weather, it may take a little more fire to compensate, and you can always open the vents a little more to heat it up.

On the other hand, once all the vents are closed, to bring the heat down, there is no where else to go.

Lane...

Fred is correct.....winter time drying is much easier. It is easier to keep your temps low, PLUS, winter weather is always "drier" than summer weather. This makes it much easier to dehydrate things.

I'm going to do jerky this weekend so I'm reviving this thread with one more question. Did you have anything in the water pan? Water? Sand?

Thanks.

That looks great! I've been making jerky in the dehydrator with ground deer, but I've gotta try this. How thick did you slice the meat?

Thanks, Ed

Bob, I used an empty, dry water pan. I only covered it with foil, to catch drips, and there was a good size puddle when it finished.

Ed, I tried to cut the London Broil a 'heavy' 1/4 inch thick. Most of the strips were about an inch wide, and about 5 to 6 inches long, although I also ended up with an assortment of shapes and sizes.

I read it was very important to remove as much fat as possible, so I did, but with this cut of meat, there wasn't much waste.