Beef Jerky


 
W

Wayne E.

TVWBB Member
Howdy,

I have a couple questions regarding making beef jerky on the WSM.

What type of meat should be used?

We have the following in our deep freeze, from an animal off our place that was processed three or so months ago.

We ask the butcher to keep the brisket out and any other cut they felt would be good for smoking. Most all of the chuck roasts are marked for smoking.

The remainder:

T-bone steak
Sirloin steak
Tenderloin steak
Rib steak
Cube steak
I think we had all the steaks save for the cube steak done at 1" thick.

Sirloin tip roast
Rump roast
Cross-rib roast
Pot roast
Arm roast

Reading a bit on jerky it seems one wants to use the leaner cuts, which would be the sirloin steak and sirloin tip roasts? What about the arm roast, would that be good for jerky making?

My plan is to cut the jerky strips using a cabelas slicer we just purchased (Pro 150), or manually with a knife. This is not their low end model but it's not a commercial model either. Cabelas says to not cut frozen or partially frozen meat on this machine, actual user comments indicate that some folks are using it to cut partial frozen meat with good success.

How do you cut your jerky meat? It seems that to successfully use a slicer to cut jerky one should have the meat at least partially frozen? But I've never used a slicer before so I may be way off base. It seams to me that trying to cut jerky strips/chunks out of a fully thawed steak would be quite a challenge on a slicer?

In reading the back-posts on jerky making I see that some folks just lay the strips directly on the grates of the wsm and others hang the strips from the bottom of the grate. What are the benefits of hanging the strips? Might be able to get more product done in one load that way?

Anyone have some suggestions for a simple marinade or two that a new guy could use to get started?

Thanks
 
I have made jerky using the WSM twice now. I find a 5 lb roast (I use a boneless round roast), fully thawed, and then sliced(sliced just fine on my slicer) With this size of roast, and a third grill from an 18" kettle it nicely fills all three racks. I made a whiskey pepper ( which got burnt, I left instructions for my wife to remove 1/2hr after I left, came home two hours later to see her running to the smoker and removing my jerky:mad:) and a teriyaki using a store bought marinade. Super easy to do. I just laid it flat on the grates instead of hanging it.
 
Thanks for the replies, I read through all the information at that link and went to the store to pick up a few things to get started using his recommended marinade.

Doesn't look like any of the cuts from our last animal are going to work for jerky. He only mentions Top Round or Eye of Round as being lean enough. When we had this last animal cut up we elected to make cube steak out of the round steaks because the round steaks from the last animal were so tough. Now I find out they maybe could be used for jerky, oh well live and learn.

Found an eye-of-round roast at Costco this afternoon for $3.99 per pound. We don't normally buy meat from the grocery store and some of the prices on the various cuts of meats were a real shocker.

The gentleman in the link says he keeps his wsm around 150-170 when making jerky, and that 180 is too hot as the meat begins to cook instead of just drying. Ambient temps have been a little warm around here lately, should be interesting to see if I can keep the wsm that low on a consistent basis. I do have a maverick thermometer. I guess I'll put it on the underside of the top grate. I'm going to start off with just filling the top grate and bottom grate to make a very small batch until we get the marinade and process figured out.
 
Wayne I have two whole eye of the round roasts I want to make into jerky. I have made jerky years ago with an electric smoker "Big Chief" so I am very interested in how you make out. I would like to do mine maybe next weekend. Please keep us posted. I have read some of the earlier posts as well
Thanks
 
I've used this slightly modified marinade from a discusscooking forum several times to make venison jerky. I substituted Hoover sauce for the A1 though... It turns out great every time. When it's finished I ziplock bag it and shake it up with some cracked/crushed black pepper while the pieces are still a bit sticky.

Kikoman Lite Soy Sauce - about 1/3 cup
brown sugar - about 1/4 cup
onion powder - about a tsp.
garlic powder - about 1/2 tsp.
A1 Steak Sauce - about two tbs.
Lee & Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce - about two tbs.
1/2 tsp. prepared mustard
1/8 tsp. Mesquite flavored liquid smoke
3/4 cup water
 
Flank steak is another option. I have done that twice now. Keeping the temp that low is hard, but I think I read an idea somewhere else on this site about putting 30 briquettes in a metal coffee can (open on the top and bottom), placing it in the smoker and adding 4 lit briquettes on the top to keep the temps low. It worked for me. I was targeting 170 and was able to keep it dead on without an issue.
 
I've done it twice, and did a minion method with vents essentially all the way closed, and was able to keep the temp low for about 5 hrs or so to smoke this.
 
Thanks for the replies. My wife cut up the meat yesterday and it's been drying in the fridge. We will put it in marinade bags this afternoon and back into the fridge for 24+ hours. Going to try two different marinades, the main one on Kevi's Jerky page, and one that has no sugar/honey.

While doing some yardwork in the backyard yesterday I decided to do a dry run with no meat in the wsm to see if I could keep the temp low enough, which I was unsuccessful in doing but it gave me some experience before doing the real thing.

WSM with foiled water pan (brinkman charcoal pan, not stock wsm water pan) and foiled terracotta saucer sitting halfway down in the pan. Maverick thermometer with prob mounted under the top rack using the supplied metal clip. WSM lid thermometer was checked not to long ago and was within a few degrees in the boiling test at that time. Regular Kingsford charcoal, no meat in the smoker.

Note: I should have had my notebook out there with me to better document the situation for future use, but got lazy and didn't do this, so everything is from memory, and my memory isn't so good these days. :)

Start time: 3pm. Ambient temp 75*
Laid out the charcoal like this, then put five 1/4 - 1/2 lit briquets from the chimney in that center spot. Lid vent all the way open, three bottom vents 50% open.

IMG2572-S.jpg


Temp started rising right away of course and at the 30 minute mark was about 130* and climbing pretty rapidly. Shut two of three bottom vents.

Temp continued to climb. At about the 45 minute mark the temp was 160* and rising but at a slower rate. And not being able to leave well enough alone I decide to crack the remaining vent open a hair more, thinking I could maybe settle in and stabilize at 170*... yeah, I know, I can see you guys shaking your head. :) Needless to say, that was likely a mistake as when I checked again at about the 50 minute mark the temp was 175* and still rising. I shut the remaining bottom vent completely but the temp continued to rise to 185 and I shut the top vent completely. Temp went to 203 and stabilized at 201-203 for the next 40 minutes, eventually ending up at 195 when I stopped the process at about the 2 hour mark and took the below picture.

Note: all temps cited are from the maverick under the top grate. The lid thermometer read a consistent 15* cooler than the maverick readings throughout the process.

IMG2577-S.jpg


So there you go, while I am pretty inexperienced with the wsm I should really know better than to try and rush the process of getting to target temp, especially with the low temp requirements for jerky. What little experience I do have indicates that once I go over target temp it can be difficult to rein it back in. Better to have patience and sneak up on the target temp, even if it takes awhile I suppose.

So that's what I've learned so far, tomorrow or the next day we try it for real. The ambient temp over the next two days is supposed to be 10* cooler than it was yesterday during the test run. What do you suggest I do differently? Choke it down earlier in the process? How about the charcoal amount and layout?

Thanks
 
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Staying with jerky theme (sort of), while looking up alternate methods I came up with using spiced-up hamburger and extruding it with a "jerky cannon" (like a big caulking gun). It's then dried in a dehydrator (they use liquid smoke). In case someone was looking for an alternate. Obviously this method has been around for a while (seeing as an extruder already exists in the marketplace).

If you're running low on fuel and absolutely have to get some for a "rainy day", I suppose this works quite well. Anyone tried this way?

I'll stick with the WSM method though.
 
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I did the jerky gun thing twice, and whole muscle twice. Dont waste your time with the cannon, go whole muscle
 
Ok now I'm confused on the temperature thing.

I found this information from the usda
Why is temperature important when making jerky? Illnesses due to Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 from homemade jerky raise questions about the safety of traditional drying methods for making beef and venison jerky. The USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline's current recommendation for making jerky safely is to heat meat to 160 °F and poultry to 165 °F before the dehydrating process. This step assures that any bacteria present will be destroyed by wet heat. But most dehydrator instructions do not include this step, and a dehydrator may not reach temperatures high enough to heat meat to 160 °F or 165 °F.

After heating to 160 °F or 165 °F, maintaining a constant dehydrator temperature of 130 to 140 °F during the drying process is important because:

the process must be fast enough to dry food before it spoils; and
it must remove enough water that microorganisms are unable to grow.

What are the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline's recommendations for making homemade jerky?
Research findings support what the Hotline has been recommending to callers. Additionally, safe handling and preparation methods must always be used, including:...

Steam or roast meat to 160 °F and poultry to 165 °F as measured with a food thermometer before dehydrating it.

Dry meats in a food dehydrator that has an adjustable temperature dial and will maintain a temperature of at least 130 to 140 °F throughout the drying process.
Click to expand...

And this is what it says on Kevin's site as link above.
DRYING

OK, you are now ready for the drying process. Notice the title? It says DRYING, not cooking. So, temperature is very important in this step. Meat cooks at around 180-200º. You want to avoid this! Jerky is dried meat, not cooked meat! I keep my temps around 150-170º when using my smoker. Most commercial dehydrators operate at 150-155º. This can make it rather difficult to make in the oven. However, if your oven has a "Warm" setting check the temp out using an oven thermometer and most likely it will work. Fortunately, the newer ovens have settings as low as 170º.

Drying can take the better part of the day (8 - 12 hours) so be prepared to spend some time on this step. The time will depend on both the temps of your cooker and the thickness of your jerky slices. The thicker your slices and the lower your temps, the longer it will take. It is impossible to give a time estimate because of all the variables. The only way you can tell when it is done is to taste it! Dry it to your personal liking and note how long it took.
Click to expand...

So what is the deal here, does the meat have to be heated at a temp of 160 for X amount of time before you can drop down to the lower temps? Or is the assumption that sometime during the 8-12 hour processing time the temperature will be at 160 or above for 'long enough' to take care of killing any bad things in the meat?

Do you pre or post heat your jerky to a measurable 160 mark?

Does this mean I have to hit the 160 mark in the wsm as measured somehow in the meat (1/4" strips) and then try and crank it back down to the 145 range?

We just ordered an Excalibur 3900 dehydrator and the specs say it only goes 85 - 145*. If that's the case it will not even hit the magical 160* mark?

Thanks
 
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Ok, started at 3pm, worked my way up to minimum temp by 4pm. It's now 8pmish and I've spent the last four hours chasing the temp to keep it in the range. Open the vents, close the vents, add fuel, play with the vents some more, and on and on. Supposed to take 8-10 hours which means this thing is done at midnight or 2am.

I think I'll check the meat at 9 or 10pm to see how things are progressing.
 
I make jerky quite often in the winter months! Sorry I am not at the house but I have a real simple jerky recipe that is full proof!

I would use the roast as you want no fat or marbling (fat goes rancid). I smoke mine 5 to 6 hours over hickory. I use wood skewers and thread the strips thru the grates and let them hang.I cut the strips when the meat is partially frozen so I can cut it real thin!

I will try and post the recipe when I get home nex week!
 
The morning after, finally ended this thing at 8.5 hour mark 12:30am.

- The slicer worked pretty good, though I think using partially frozen meat would have been easier.
- Can do a better job at trimming fat next time.
- Not going to worry about the fda recommended temp thing. Plenty of conflicting info on this subject. Fda says 160, users say anywhere from 145-170, consumer dehydrators go to 145 and even have a setting specifically for jerky which is 145. Choose your temp and be done with it.

Marinade:
- Wife used the mild mexican recipe on Kevins website which contained no sugar and no salt, but she added some liquid hickory smoke. However, I also used a couple pieces of small hickory wood in the smoker so her jerky ended up over hicoryed. Beyond that she really didn't like the results of using this particular marinade.

- I used the main marinade recipe on Kevin's website and it turned out ok, though I wouldn't use it again.

- Marinading and seasoning is such a personal issue and my wife and I definitely have differing tastes. I think the way to go for the future is to do small batches and use the dehydrator until we hit on marinades/seasoning that we like, and then do a mega load of jerky on the wsm using the pizza grates like Kevin uses.

Fuel management:
- Hopefully I can get better at fuel management at these low temps. I elected to start with a small amount of charcoal assuming this would be required to keep the heat down to the low temps needed, but in retrospect I think this may have done more harm then good. I ended up needing to add fuel at least three times during the 8+ hours and each time resulted in the same thing happening. Adding a few new briquets resulted in the temp plummeting while waiting for the the new coals to catch, then when they did catch the temp increased rapidly. All the while I'm fooling with the vents trying to keep the lows and highs from getting out of the target range. Then it would sort of stabilize only to have a couple more of the coals catch and send the temps high again.

I notice on Kevin's page he starts with a large load of unlit coals and adds three or four partially lit coals. I didn't do this because I was concerned with runaway temps at some point given the large load of available fuel. I wonder though if I'd been better off going this route and just trying to keep it choked down enough that it didn't runaway at some point during the process.

As it was, the whole process of managing the temps was aggravating and very time consuming. It basically required full-time monitoring and action during the entire 8 hours, which gets old real quick. The only thing that saved part of my sanity is the mavericks remote readout so I could at least get away from the smoker for a few minutes.

I realize and understand that barbequing/smoking is an interactive and hands-on process, but quite frankly, yesterdays event was unacceptable. I don't seem to have this much trouble managing temps with the higher temp smokes or bbq'ing but this jerky thing sure kicked my butt this time around.

Having said that, and my frustration with the process aside, this jerky will likely be gone within a couple of weeks.
IMG2597-M.jpg


This is what I started with, then adding four partially lit coals.
IMG2591-M.jpg


In between playing with the vents and adding/subtracting fuel, I was playing with the thermometers. The Thermapen was right on the money both in checking ambient and in the boil test, and the maverick was consistently 3-4* high.
IMG2595-M.jpg
 
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Thanks Wayne for taking the time to prepare this post. I've already learned a lot from your experience. It will be interesting to read any suggestions regarding temp control.
 
Well I finally got around to doing my jerky over the weekend and it turned out pretty good. I thawed two eyes of the round each about 5lb., cut them in half across their length and then sliced them with the grain about 1/4" thick. I then cut those slices in half again with the grain. I made two batches of marinade. The recipe was simple; 2/3 cup soya sauce, 1/3 cup of worchestershire, 3 tbsp of brown sugar, 2 tsp of blk pepper, 2 tsp. onion flakes and 5 cloves of garlic. This was for each 5 lbs. I put the ingredients into the magic bullet and emuslified the mixture. From there it went into a food saver bag along with the meat, some air removed and it stayed for about 18 hours. I manipulated the bags several times.

I used less than a 1/4 of a full ring of Maple Leaf briquettes lighting only two briqs in the bowl with a Map gas torch (30seconds). Beforehand I placed my upper grate over half of our kitchen doublesink for support and loaded the grate. I was able to hang the jerky but start in the middle of the grill, spacing the meat on every other grill rail. (see the photos) labour intensive but no grill marks. Two pieces of meat for each toothpick. I used the Maverick 732 to monitor grill temp as I knew I should not exceed 170 and in fact I was able to stay in the 150-160 range for almost the entire smoke. I did not use a heat sink and it was interesting to see the difference in grill temp (Maverick) as opposed to dome temp(Weber)when no heat sink is used. This smoke ran 14 hours mainly because the meat was thick. There was enough fuel to last at least 6 more hours were it necessary. I used only one bowl vent, the others closed and I ran with the bowl vent almost closed for most of the cook once I reached 140F. I used a 1/8 drill bit to open and sometimes the vent was completely closed. The top vent always full open.
I used small pieces of Hickory and loaded them through door as I felt necessary. It was l o w a n d s l o w but I was very happy with the result. For those who like a little bite I would suggest some cayenne or even another tsp of blk. pepper. I used the salt in the soya and onion flakes, no other salt was added.

I would do it again with thinner slices which would reduce my drying time. I should mention I have Nomex gasket material around the bowl, at the base of the door attached to the mid section and at the top around the rim of the mid section. I was worried about keeping the smoker low enough but the 18.5 worked like a charm. The jerky has plenty of flavor, is full bodied, not sweet or too salty for my taste

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http://i1098
[IMG]http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g371/Hydro312/IMG_0962.jpg

What you see on the plater is only a portion of what was made. Outlaws and grandbrats got the rest!
IMG_0968.jpg
 
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