1st jerky

[icebob]

Should have everything needed when I get back home from this road trip on Thursday. Being at the hotel, I was doing some browsing for jerky, I watched about 15 youtubes videos and not a single was using cure in their recipe , for my first try I will just go with the Hi mountain Jerky cure and seasonning... still juggling with the idea of  all in the SI (I have jerky dryer) or a 2hrs smoke in the SI and finish in my Excalibur dehydrator... I guess it will depends on the weather...

 

[Grampy]

Bob, good idea with using the jerky cure and seasoning. You are taking a huge risk smoking/drying meat without some type of cure mixed in.

 

[NDKoze]

+1 - You absolutely should use a seasoning or brine with cure in it. Otherwise you are risking ruining your meat and possibly making someone sick.

I frequently use the High Mountain and High Country seasonings and prefer them to the brine methods that I have tried.

As far as all in the smoker verses moving to the dehydrator, I would say try some of each to confirm. But, for me that sounds like moving the jerky to the dehydrator is more work than I would want to do if it is not needed.

Run the smoke for 2-3 hours prior to putting the dryer on. Jerky is one smoke where I prefer the chips vs the chunks as they start smoking and stay smoking at the lower temps that we use for smoking jerky. I typically smoke my jerky at 140 degrees.

Good luck on your smoke!

 

[icebob]

Another question as far as cure is concerned, last year I was preparing something that required Morton Tender Quick, was not able to find it locally so Amazon I went :, and ordered what I thought was a 5 pack of shaker size of the stuff... end up with 5 2# bags, so 10# of the stuff...I still have about 9 and 3/4 #! can I use it as a substitute of cure #1 for stuff like jerky, snack stick ect.... Tx in advance

 

[NDKoze]

It cannot be used in the same proportion, but there are several recipes that cure with Tender Quick.

I use it in my fry sausage recipe, but that is pretty much all I have used it for.

There are some recipes on this site that call for it such as pork belly and Canadian Bacon.

 

[icebob]

I understand it cannot be used in the samr proportion but was hoping there was a rule of thumb somewhere so I can get rid of the stuff  ;D

 

[DivotMaker]

Bob, TQ makes one heckuva "faux" smoke ring on a brisket!  Rub it on, wrap for about 6-8 hours, and rinse well before applying rub & smoking...bam!

You probably don't want to use it in a brine, since it contains very small percentages of nitrites & nitrates.  It is intended to be applied to the surface, kept in a bag, and rotated daily over several days.  You can certainly do jerky this way; just mix your seasoning with it.  Instacure #1 (Amazon, one small bag will last forever) is 6.5% nitrite, so it is very powerful stuff.  It is intended to be used in a brine, where it is diluted.

 

[icebob]

I've read a couple heated debate about the faux ring! I have plenty of #1 (2# and 2# of #2) just trying to justify my after dinner couple glass of wine tender quick purchase!

 

[DivotMaker]

Ha..."been there, done that," Bob! ???  As for the faux smoke ring....it's for show, only!  Doesn't effect the taste, but dang, it looks pretty!  Most folks are used to seeing it on "real" BBQ (not that ours isn't), and I think presentation is a big part of food appeal.  When I brine pork butts, I use a little #1 in the brine.  The pulled pork has that rosy pink "ring" mixed in, and sure looks appetizing!