Venison jerky temps and wood

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Steve C M

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Just did my first smoke with my WSM 22.5 this past weekend. Smoked 5 lbs of brined, boneless, skinless chicken breasts and it turned out awesome!! It's gone already!! Friends, family, co-workers chowed it down.

Getting ready to smoke some venison jerky this weekend. I'm planning on using 5 lbs of whitetail hind quarter chunk meat. Cut/slice meat into 1/8" - 3/16" slices and soak in brine/jerky seasoning mixture for a day or 2..
I have some questions for all you experienced venison smokers out there.

1. When smoking jerky, how do you keep the temps down (if you do) and kinda cold smoke jerky for hours?
2. How do you make sure you don't overcook the jerky into shoe leather? I know jerky should be somewhat tough but I'm not looking for stiff and teeth-breaking..
3. What's the best smoking woods and how many chunks for venison jerky?
4. Water pan or no?
5. how much charcoal?
6. Do you let smoker fully cook meat or just add smoky flavor and take out and finish(cook) in dehydrator or oven? I will be adding a tsp of curing salt to brine.
7. Anyone have any proven tasty recipes with good results?

Thanks in advance for any information.
Steve
 
1. I will turn my chimney upside down and put it in a SJS. Then I'll start 3 or 4 pieces of charcoal in it. From that pile, I'll add a few to the WSM to get temps up to ~140-150. It usually only takes 3 or 4 pieces in the WSM. As those start to burn out, I'll add one or two more from my upside-down chimney pile. This way I can really keep control of the WSM temps.

2. Watch the meat itself. As it dries out it will change color slightly. It will get to the point where you'll be able to see the 'wet spots'. Once those are gone then the meat is done. Of course taste/tenderness testing is highly encouraged.

3. I will usually alternate between a chunk of apple and hickory. Apple is a very lite tasting smoke, whereas hickory is quite bold (in my opinion). Too much hickory can make the meat bitter tasting. I will only put one chunk on at a time since the fire is so small.

4. Dry pan covered with foil. Water isn't needed since the temps are so low.

5. It normally runs 3 or 4 pieces in the WSM if the wind is down. Maybe 5 if the wind picks up. Remember, you're not trying to cook the meat, you're dehydrating it. The temsp are supposed to stay low.

6. The curing salt should kill any bacteria so cooking the meat is not the goal here. Dehydrating is what we're doing. Low heat, lots of air flow. If you run out of daylight, you can certainly finish in the oven. Just be sure to set the oven at it's lowest setting and crack the door for air flow.

7. Here's one that I've been goofing around with. A friend gave me the basic idea and I've been tweaking at it.


For about 7 or 8# of meat:
3 cups soy sauce (not the low sodium kind)
2 oz liquid smoke
1/2 bottle of Chipotilie Tabasco
12-15 good shakes of crushed red pepper
1 Tbsp sea salt
1 Tbsp black pepper (I've been playing with the 5 peppercorn mix))
12-15 shakes of Worsti
12-15 shakes of Emeril's Essence

Be absolutely sure to get ALL the fat and silver skin off the meat! Put sliced up meat into a 1 or 2 gallon zip-lock along with above marinade. Put in fridge and let marinade for at least 12 hours, better at 24 hours. The meat will soak up an amazing amount of liquid.

Russ
 
Can't add anything to the excellent advice from Russ.
I do have a second top cooking grate for my 18.5. I fill one grate, then invert the second grate, rest it on the first grate and fill it. That way, both levels are approximately the same level and I get a much more even drying process.
 
Steve I have not tired the method Russ describes but I'm sure it would work. When I did jerky I used the snake method as shown in this picture. I lit the three pieces of charcoal and then put them on the end closest to the wood. Good luck, have fun and keep us posted. Welcome to the site.

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"I will turn my chimney upside down and put it in a SJS. " What is SJS?

So you are adding charcoal through the access door as the meat is smoking to regulate temps and keep fire/temps level?

Thanks for advice! Any others?
 
Steve, using the snake method, you will not have to add any more fuel, in fact, your smoke will be done before your fuel.
 
I'm new to charcoal grilling/smoking. So, you're saying get the 2 or 3 charcoal started, burning, and gray ashed and move them up against the snake and it should light them and slowly work around the snake ring lighting the smoke wood as it burns? How do you have your vents set? With this set you can achieve low temps 140 - 180ish??

About how long do you guys think 5 lbs of jerky will take with this method? I purchased extra grates and plan to use however many it takes to fill the grates with good air flow in between.
 
Setting the vents would depend on the temperature outside and the wind. I think you will be surprised how well your WSM holds a steady temp once you get it set. The temp will spike as the wood burns but not significantly.
 
I have an old cheapo chimney that the handle broke off with charcoal and hickory
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I use Bamboo skewers to hang through the top grate. then lay pieces flat on the bottom grate and a 2nd top grate
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here is the temp after about an hour
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in the 2nd picture that is a water pan I have from a MasterBuilt Smoker that is very shallow.
 
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