Jerky On Bandit With Pine Wood Blocks


 
T

Tony Catencamp

TVWBB Member
I will be doing 15 pounds of venison jerky on my Bandit, using the 12x16 expanded aluminum racks. I will be spacing each rack with a 2"x2"x3/4" pine blocks. My worry is that the blocks are quite fragrant and I don't want them to affect the flavor of the meat. Might boiling the blocks in salted water to draw out some resins and then a soak in some worchestershire sauce help? I tried to find other spacing devices, but most of the metal stuff I found was cost prohibitive.

I can't wait for the weekend. Pork butts tomorrow night, jerky and Canadian bacon smoke on Saturday.

Thanks for any direction.
 
I've used pine lumber for spacing blocks, didn't have any trouble with pine smell or taste

that lumber certainly wasn't 'fresh' though .... I probably wouldn't worry about it but if I was to I'd probably cook them a bit in the grill or smoker before using them
 
Just a thought. If your worried about the pine then take a run down to the local home depot or lowes or any lumber yard for that matter. Pick up some oak or maple from the scrap piles or in the moulding section. They are usually very cheap especially the scrap.
 
I think it would be more cost prohibitive to waste all that good meat. I would be leary of the pine ( I have no experience with smoking it but in the stove it gives off alot of "pine smell") try to find a couple of bricks or some hickory or oak blocks for spacers
 
How about a threaded rods with nuts and washers at 2" intervals. Of course, the price might be prohibitive.
 
If it were me, I would keep the pine out of the smoker. Heck... even you bought a piece of oak or cherry molding it would be well worth the price cause you could use them over and over. The idea of pine in the smoker scare's me imho.
 
Yeah, I thought about picking up oak or some other hard wood, but you almost need a 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" dimension. I've not seen any hardwood in that size in the big box stores. The stability of the racks stacked on top of each other, 18 racks high, wouldn't work well with much less of as footprint.

Matt, I thought about the threaded rod, but it would be a very tedious process loading jerky, having to put a nut and a washer on four rods at each level.

I'm going try the boil and season method with the blocks. If that doesn't work, I will go back to the crappy dehydrator until I can get some hardwood.
 
I may not fully understand your intended set-up for this, but would small wads of aluminum foil make the spaces without worry of off-odors, etc?
The racks can be gently mashed down to level.

I agree with others, resin wood near a smoker scares me.
Even the thought of cedar planked fish turns my stomach
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Hey Tony.

If I'm reading your post correctly you want to take a 2X2 and cut it to 3/4" pieces.
If that's the case you could just buy a 1X2 and cross cut to 1 1/2" lengths.
Same size just different grain.
Tim
 
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