Awesome beef jerky

bdsdnfam

Getting ready for a Houseboat vacation in a couple weeks so I made two batches of beef jerky on my XL.  Bought 8lbs. of bottom round from our local Sam's club and trimmed the fat cap off.  Then sliced it about 1/8".  Marinated two batches overnight.  One in Backwoods Cajun and one in Traditional Jerky. Set up a medium size pile of lump in the center of the XL (to help keep control the heat) and set the BBQ Guru for 170.  Five hours later (each 4lb. batch) I had 2lbs of awesome jerky!  Here's a pic of my setup.

SkinnyV

Nice, been a while since I've done jerky as I can't pay $4.99 lb for round to have reduced down to 1/2 for jerky. Holding out for a deal.

bdsdnfam

Yea it's a little pricey to say the least.  I might try pork next round.

DMW

That's it, my next batch of jerky is going to be smoked on the egg instead of dried in the dehydrator. Speaking of which, I'll bet I have a candidate cut in the freezer right now. Will go looking later.

ChokeOnSmoke

Looks good.  How was hanging all that meat?  I did the toothpick thing the very first time I did jerky and found it to be a huge pain.  Went with this setup as an alternative and been doing it like this ever since.

Canugghead

DMW said:

That's it, my next batch of jerky is going to be smoked on the egg instead of dried in the dehydrator. Speaking of which, I'll bet I have a candidate cut in the freezer right now. Will go looking later.

I use both ... start first couple of hours in the egg, filling up every level of the AR ... after dripping off the mess and picking up smoke I transfer them to the dehydrator and finish in indoor comfort.

bdsdnfam

ChokeOnSmoke said:

Looks good.  How was hanging all that meat?  I did the toothpick thing the very first time I did jerky and found it to be a huge pain.  Went with this setup as an alternative and been doing it like this ever since.

It's not too bad to hang it with the toothpicks.  You have to get a system put together.  Fire up the egg and while it's getting up to temp take the meat out of the marinade, press it dry between sheets of paper towels, hang it up on the rack, put it on the egg.  I can see why jerky is expensive.  Companies know what kind of PITA it is to make LOL!

Canugghead

@bdsdnfam if I may say so, I wouldn't press or blot it dry, let the marinade carmelise for extra flavour and weight )

SGH

@bdsdnfam‌
Man that's some fine looking jerky you got there. Nice job. Way to use the egg to its fullest potential. =D> =D> =D> =D>

DMW

I just got a bottom round roast out of the freezer.

I hate to highjack this thread, but I figured jerky experts might peek. 

I don't have any commercial jerky cures/seasoning mixes on hand, does anyone have a killer recipe? I have pink curing salt, and anything else I might not have on hand can be obtained easily.

SGH

@DMW‌
I'm watching and hoping myself. I'll hijack with you.

bettysnephew

I've used Alton Brown's recipe several times and the wife likes it.  He dries on a box fan and uses liquid smoke.  I leave the smoke out of the recipe and use the amazing smoker and a couple of briquets in an old Weber.  I like the way the steel shell dissipates the heat and stays cooler than the Egg would.  I did it once in the XL and it got too warm by my notion, but I didn't have a controller back then.

Canugghead

@DMW google on 'river city jerky recipe', it's quite good IMO, you don't need special ingredients, no even pink salt.

I'm long overdue for another run ...

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/777895/loaded-adj-rig-for-beef-jerky

Canugghead

@bettysnephew I use a large coffee can of leftover lumps for minimum voc and heat.  No problem with running out of lump since I transfer to dehydrator to finish.

SkinnyV

Egg and dehydrator method here also . works perfect.

Mawger

At what point do you remove from the Egg and put it in the dehydrator? 

Ready to attempt our first batch!