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drying smoking jerky

peter pepper

peter pepper

JayT's thread about sausage made me think about jerky. A coworker of mine makes his own jerky, but used a dehydrator. I know you can do it in your oven, but have to leave the door open to let moisture out - with 2 kids under the age of 4 this is not an option for me. I really don't want to (or have the extra for that matter) spend $$ on a dehydrator. I do however have a smoker. Has anyone ever smoked their own jerky before? How did it turn out? Tips?

Anything from you guys would be great.

Thanks

-PP:
 
I like to cold smoke my jerky and then usually finish it off in the dehydrator.
What kind of smoker do you have? The problem with most smokers is keeping a low enough temp where the meat isn't being cooked, its mostly just de-hydrating but there are alway tricks to accoplish this.
 
I have the Old Smokey Electric Smoker. It has and adjustable thermostat, so I should be able to set it low and get around the 150F or 160F for making the jerky. I don't know this for certain since I've never tried, but would assume it's possible.
 
I almost bought that thing, how do you like it?
 
RONCO FTW!!!

It's 20 years old and still makes perfect dried peppers, spices, and jerky! Used it about 2 thousand times w/o a single hiccup.

Well worth what I paid for it. (I think it was $65.00)
 
While lived in Texas, we use to smoke jerky in a BBQ/smoke and it was awesome. The grill/smoker was something like this, but instead of just having 2 drums, it had a third that stood upright and that was the farthest away from the heat. It worked great. Oh yeah, it was built Texas style, nice and big and stout, better than the one pictured.
a3d865e27f51554487193350a9856fc4.jpg
 
Good BBQ comes from the soul. The smoker helps if it's well built but it wasn't the smoker alone. I'm sure that pitmaster knew his stuff.
 
thehotpepper.com said:
I almost bought that thing, how do you like it?
Click to expand...

So far I like it. I had to modify it somewhat. I added a grill thermometer (of course) but also drilled some holes in the lid - other wise it was just completely sealed. I'm thinking about adding a couple (holes) to the bottom so I can get a draw of air from the bottom to the top. But as far as holding temp it's great - once you get it where you want it will hold that temp almost perfect. I've made ribs, chicken and pork loin in it and they all turn out very good. You have plenty of room too. For the money I think it was worth of. Of course I would like to buy a charcoal one someday - more of a challenge and more 'authentic' - just don't have the $$ to spend on something I don't really need (just want really bad.)
 
thehotpepper.com said:
It could have been a Horizon, those are the absolute best!

http://www.horizonbbqsmokersstore.com/servlet/the-378/20"-Ranger-Backyard-Smoker/Detail
Click to expand...

Wow now that is a great looking smoker. Only $1800 hummm time to save my pennies and try to convince the wife why we should spend that much on a smoker and not on fixing up the house. The paragraph about it made he laugh - you can add a counter weight for an extra $140 - yeah I can buy a brick and some cable for way cheaper than that.
 
I've made jerky in my charcol smoker before & thought it tasted better than dehydrator jerky cuz of the charcol & smoke.
I put less charcol in it, but you have a electric kind so you should be good temp wise.
the charcol smokers can somewhat be a PITA to make jerky depending on the weather outside.
 
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