Extruded Beef Jerky

[NDKoze]

This is my first attempt at extruded jerky in the Smokin-It. I have done this many, many, many times in my dehydrator and Big Chief smoker, but this is the first attempt in the #3.

Last night, I (technically my son) mixed up 10lbs of hamburger with some Hi-Country Sweet Teriyaki (No Added MSG) Jerky seasoning. We let it sit overnight and extruded some flat strips and some rounds on my Seafood racks. I ran out of space, so had to use two of my Bradley racks that I had previous used in my Big Chief. I had to snip the ends off of the racks to fit them in the smoker sideways and I did have to rest one end on top of the other to get the door closed, but it worked.

I am soooo glad that I ordered the new side rails with the extra rack positioning guides. This allowed me to get the racks higher into the smoker where the heat should be more even.

I placed them in the smoker around 1:30 with a 1.3 ounce halved Smokin-It Hickory dowel, and 3 ounces of Oak Whiskey barrel chips. I am running the smoker at 100 degrees and got some nice steady smoke within 15 minutes or so and almost two hours in, it is still smoking nicely.

I'll probably wait until after the third hour and put the jerky dryer on.

My goal is to cool smoke (100 degrees is not really cold smoking) at 100 until they are done. I am anticipating 8-12 hours, but we'll see since this is my first try in the #3.

Finish pics to follow later tonight.

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[Pork Belly]

Looks good, a tip for using the Jerky guns is to make shorter uniform length strips. By increasing the amount of ends the shorter pieces dry quicker. However I do enjoy the big jerky ropes you get making it like you did.

I prefer the 100 temp for Jerky and technically that is "cold" smoke, however without the PID you will have a few spikes above 100 though.

[NDKoze]

I prefer the longer pieces because the ends tend to have jagged edges when they are dried that puncture my vacuum sealer bags. I usually cut the ends off with a scissors and cut the long strips to uniform lengths with the scissors too.

I find it hard to believe that that tiny bit of extra exposed ends will affect the drying time at all. But I could be wrong.

I had to bump the heat a bit (125) because my smoke died after about an hour. I opened it up and the wood was still almost all uncharred. At 125, even with the spikes I shouldn't get up into the cooking verses drying range.

[Smokster]

Those jerky strips looks great. I usually use the longer strips and cut them down to uniformed sizes once the smoke is complete. I have also increase my temp to 130 and had no issues what-so-ever. You really will enjoy them, however with 10 lbs, you will yield 5-6 lbs once complete, and in my house that amount doesn't last long.

Post some pics when complete, I am looking forward to it.

Btw, I didn't realize that side racks were available to accommodate more shelves. Those will have to be added to my wish list. I ordered the new auber a few months ago, however I haven't had the time to mount the internal probe yet.

[McKay]

You guys get smoke at 100F? I dont get any until at least 180 in my #3

[NDKoze]

I got smoke right away at 100, but it fell off and I had to jump it up to 125 and later 150.

My smoke went all night and I finally shut it off this morning when I left for work.

It is in the 30's here in ND, so I just left them in the smoker. I need to look at them closer tonight when I get home to see if they need anymore drying time.

So, this is how it ended up going:

• Added jerky and started at 100 degrees around 1:30pm yesterday
• After about 1.5 hours the smoke stopped, so I cranked it up to 125.
• After another hour, I still wasn't getting a lot of smoke, so I cranked it up to 150.
• I put the James Jerky Dryer on at about 4:30 (three hours into the smoke).
• I did get my smoke at 150, and left it at that temperature for the duration of the smoke.
• It got to about 2:00am and the jerky was still pretty moist, so I decided I would hit the hay and check it right away in the morning.
• I checked it at about 7:30 this morning and it seemed dryer, but still relatively soft.
• It is in the 30's today here in ND, so I just left the meat in the smoker to cool down.
• I will reevaluate them when I get home to see if they need more time or not.
• I'll get some pictures up later this evening.

I didn't have a temp probe in this time as I was smoking more on look and feel. But, I have long felt that my smoker runs a little cool based on my previous smokes. So, my guess is that I was running at closer to 135-140 even though my dial was at 150 for most of the smoke.

[DivotMaker]

Looking good, Gregg!  You had me excited about the Hi Country seasoning, but the ingredients pic (thanks, btw) clearly shows monosodium glutamate (MSG).  Bummer.

[NDKoze]

They must have MSG and non MSG versions, because the picture is from my box and the ingredients pic is from their website. I didn't notice that the ingredients pic showed MSG.

Here is a pic of the actual no MSG box that I used.

[DivotMaker]

Well, I guess there's hope, Gregg!  Thanks!

[NDKoze]

Here are the final pics.

10lbs of ground beef dried down to 5.04lbs of jerky.

All in all it turned out really well. Although, I did have some trouble with the smoke generation at the lower temps. I may try to implement the A-MAZE-N Cold Smoke Generator the next time that I do this.

I really enjoy the Hi-Country Teriyaki Jerky Seasoning. I will use this again.

[DivotMaker]

That looks like some good jerky, Gregg!  Curious to know what the fat content of the hamburger you used was - it'd be good to know for timing/yield questions.  Cool that you got exactly 50% yield on your raw meat.

[NDKoze]

I am guessing that it was in the 90% range, but I am not 100% sure, because this was from one of my Dad's cows that he had butchered and it wasn't labeled.

After I took the jerky out, I did blot the wet fat off of the jerky as best I could with some paper towel. After it dried their was very little visible fat on the sticks. This is an important step, because if you don't get rid off the fat it can turn rancid no matter what type of packaging method that you use.

[DivotMaker]

That answers it, Gregg - I bet it was pretty-darn good if it was from a cow your Dad raised.  So much better than what the rest of us are forced to get from the "gross"ery store!