Originally posted by Gerd H:
Paul, I am not going to give you a very helpful response, but will offer an aneccdote.
My WSM sitting in full afternoon sun during the dry, still heat of June will approach 150 all on it's own. If I set my stoker to 150 .... it would never come on. I mention this because just this weekend I looked at the therm in the WSM sitting out back and said to myself "It is literally too hot to make jerky here".
I suppose I could try running it with "a" lit briquette,.
Do you have a safe shady place to run it? It will help. Or wait till January. <shrug>
{I want to edit to add that yes, in cold weather conditions with a really small fire I think my stoker could maintain 170 without issue. It would require a slow ramp and almost no lit fuel...}
Originally posted by Paul K:
When I make jerky, my biggest challenge is holding the temp down. How low can you hold your temp with an ATC? Will it hold in the 150-170 range? Any higher and jerky starts to cook as opposed to dehydrating. I don't own an ATC but am considering getting one.
Thanks,
Paul