Ok...
The jerky was not what I expected. I think that having it sliced accross the grain was not good. I think jerky is supposed to be a little chewy.
As far as the marinade, I mixed a couple of recipes, neither of which called for salt or Tender Quick. The meat marinated for 2 days but was not salty enough. I thought I added enough cayenne to make the jerky hot. Not at all, I had to moisten it after and add pepper, cayenne, and chilly peppers and it still was weak.
It was over cooked too !!!
The biggest problem was that I could not keep the temperature below 200 on my WSM. It stayed at 250-275 no matter what I did. I added an ice tray to the top grid and that did not help. First, I had the water pan out then when temperatures reached 325, I put it back. I guess I just need some practice and for that golden guck to build up on the insides. I thought I had done a lot of research on the jerky, but you have to learn certain things from experience.
I'm going to wait a while for the next batch, but I can promise better results. Lots more salt and less coals and sliced with the grain with a tougher piece of meat next time <I used Top Round>, next time skirt.
Jerky project sucked... But, in the immortal words of Arnie: "I'll be back"...
On a more succesful note, this last weekend, I did a pulled pork that was awesome. I used the Renowned Mr. Brown recipe combined with a recipe from Ronnie Hale. Outstanding !!! Then while it was cooking, I realized that I had enough room on the grill and ran to the store to get 2 racks of baby backs. I used my left over BRITU and they were also great. I've got a picture, butI'll have to ask permission before I can post it /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif .
I'm not discouraged !!! Gonna smoke on ...