Another beef jerky question.

[Bernie]

I'll be making my very first beef jerky on thanksgiving day.

MY question is, do I run the water pan dry or with water. I'll be using the minion method.

I search the forum and know one mention this. Kind of confused.

 

[Clay J]

I'd use water. For jerkey you need to keep the temps down in the 150 to 200 range (depending on what you're after and whether you're curing or not).

Keeping the temp down that low is very hard.

 

[Kevin Taylor]

Bernie.....

I never use water when making jerky...or anything else for that matter. I have gone to using sand on every cook, especially my jerky. That goes against what you are trying to accomplish..DRYING the meat.

I control all my fires by the amount of lit coals I add to the unlit ones. By adding just a few lit coals you can easily keep the WSM between 150? - 180? for many hours. Just make sure to line the water pan....makes for easier clean-up.

Not sure if you have seen my jerky page so here is a link....

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ktaylor11/kevi.htm

Good luck!