I got a "gentle" reminder from the crew at work that it had been a long time since I brought in some jerky ("HEY, you haven't brought in some homemade jerky in a long time!"). So, made some today using a modified version of one of Stogie's recipes. MM using only about 1/4 ring of lump and 6 lit K coals. Had to add 6 lit coals twice to maintain ~160-175 vent over 6.5 hours, hickory wood for smoke flavor. Rather than the toothpick method which works great but is a real PITA, I got some cheap grates as suggested by Stogie and stacked them using 2 inch blocks of 1x4. Worked great, started with just short of 3 lbs of round (marinated for 2+ days) and ended up with 1 lb, 5 oz of pretty tasty jerky.
Beef Jerky
- Thread starter Don Irish
- Start date
Brad Allen
New member
Is ground meat vs muscle meat that different? I have some deer meat in the freezer that I need to get rid of and thinking about buying one of those jerky guns and making some.
dsitterson
TVWBB Super Fan
I prefer muscle meat but you can use ground they have some presses or molds you can use to shape the ground.
Not so much if you trim & grind the stuff yourself. Upwards of 97% of the fat & gristle needs to be removed for decent shelf life. Gristle will just make the jerky tough. Ground up or otherwise. Fat content is another matter. It tends to go rancid because the stuff never really dries out. So you are well advised to eliminate as much as possible from meat that is being dried.
Hi Joey,
I got them at Ace Hardware, $3.99 each if I remember correctly, cleaned up well in the dishwasher. I ended up putting one on the bottom grate since I would have had to bend up the corners to get the lid on...I did not think to measure prior to loading them up
. But they really did make doing the jerky much, much easier than hanging from toothpicks....could likely stack several on the bottom grate since it was the curvature of the lid that caused the problem. On Stogie's web site he showed round ones.
I got them at Ace Hardware, $3.99 each if I remember correctly, cleaned up well in the dishwasher. I ended up putting one on the bottom grate since I would have had to bend up the corners to get the lid on...I did not think to measure prior to loading them up
Tony C.
TVWBB Wizard
i bought 3 top round london broils today totaling aroung 9.5 pounds for right around 26 dollars. now i need to go see if anyone has those grill toppers still in stock
i have a 4 tray dehydrator and have used the trays by themselves in the WSM, but i think with 3 roasts i'll have to use both racks of the WSM.
Welp, I made up a small batch of this jerky this weekend. I started with a 3.5 lb roast sliced up and marinated with a 1/2 batch of his marinade. I used a #10 can and cut the bottom and top out of it and placed it in the center of the WSM filled with K. Placed 6 lit on top of that and 2 chunks of cherry wood on top of the lit coals.
I never ended up finding any of the trays so I just laid the meat out on the grates. I had so much meat though that I had to borrow one of my neighbors grates and stack it up on top. WSM got up to about 150 - 160 in 25 minutes and I closed the vents down most of the way. Held 160 untill about 8:30 when I checked the meat to find it done.
The only problem I found is that its really salty and I know that jerky is supposed to be salty but this stuff is out there a ways past what jerky is supposed to be. Like I said before I halved the recipe and then I only have table salt so I halved the salt again. Aside from that its really great jerky and I've even had to stash some in my secret drawer becase the wife likes it so much I'm afraid it'll be gone before I get done cleaning up
I never ended up finding any of the trays so I just laid the meat out on the grates. I had so much meat though that I had to borrow one of my neighbors grates and stack it up on top. WSM got up to about 150 - 160 in 25 minutes and I closed the vents down most of the way. Held 160 untill about 8:30 when I checked the meat to find it done.
The only problem I found is that its really salty and I know that jerky is supposed to be salty but this stuff is out there a ways past what jerky is supposed to be. Like I said before I halved the recipe and then I only have table salt so I halved the salt again. Aside from that its really great jerky and I've even had to stash some in my secret drawer becase the wife likes it so much I'm afraid it'll be gone before I get done cleaning up