Beef Jerky

Doug

I am planning on making some beef jerky this weekend, and I wanted to get people's thoughts on how to do it well. I have never made homemade beef jerky before. I plan on getting about 7 lbs of top round sliced and then marinading it from Thursday night till Sat. morning. I was going to put it on the egg in a pile for approximately 12 hours at 200 degrees with a little bit of hickory and mesquite chips. Does that sound about right?

BurntRaw

Doug,
Here are some good tips on Jerky from the Guru folks...
[ul][li]Jerky[/ul]

Unknown

Doug,
Take a look at this link. Hope this helps!
[ul][li]http://www.wessb.com/Cooks/jerky/beef_jerky.htm[/ul]

fishlessman

<p />Doug,
if you can hold it just below 200 the pile method works ok, if you can keep it 145 to 160, hanging it works better. i take some out every hour when it looks to be getting close and let it cool, then bend it to see how close it is to done. it needs to be cooled down to check doneness. i cook it hanging direct, pic shows some beef and salmon jerkey
[ul][li]river city[/ul]

Unknown

<p />Doug,
You can't PILE it if that's what you actually meant. The pieces can't be touching each other. They need to be hanging like HR3's link shows or like my picture above. That was done on a Weber Smokey Mt., But it may be possible on an Egg with an extended grill indirect. I think you'll have a problem getting 7# on at once though. My picture is about 5#.

AZRP

<p />Doug,
12hours at 200 will probably give you toast instead of jerky. I did these at 180 and it took 4-5 hours, good luck with it. -RP

Herm

fishlessman,
is a guru totally necessary to keep the temp that low? I'd love to try it, but I've never attempted to keep the temp that low.

fishlessman

Herm,
i dont own a guru. 3-4 inches of spent lump mostly small pieces in the bottom lit evenly with a weed burner and bring temps up very slowly. my top vent is pretty gunked up now and helps a lot, when it was newer i just used a piece of sheet metal on top with a brick on it and the bottom is faintly cracked. adjustments must be made several times during the cook and opening the egg increases temps so dont do it often. scotts inferno uses a coffee can with holes punched in it. after a few tries it gets easier, doing it direct you cant have temps spike over 175, inderect doesnt seem to dry things out the same for me, and if you go the pile method the temps can be higher, but still not the same as direct. was looking for wise ones origional cookbook as i believe the pile method was in there for gfw's river city jerkey, its the easiest method for a first attempt.

Unknown

Doug,[p]GFW's "Stack and Pile" method is a great way to do jerky. It is not as simple as it sounds and the meat must be turned and restacked about every hour after the first 2-3 hours. It does work with up to about 7-1/2 lbs per grid and I often do two or three grids at a time. I use my Contraption for this cook and it usually takes about 8-9 hours to complete a large cook. I run my large Egg at 170 degrees and very quickly take the whole setup out of the cooker and take it to the kitchen for the restacking process. Takes about 6 minutes and I am on my way again. It is very difficult to run these lower temps with the dome lid open for very long. [p]If I have time, I will repost some information on this method as it looks like much of it is gone from some of the websites. I did this in 1999 with the multiple grids.[p]Dave[p]

Herm

fishlessman,
Thanks! I think I might as well give it a try.

tjv

Old Dave, how you fixed for grids. The folks making grids for me use to make the Weber grids and have some excess, cheap.... Just email me. T

Unknown

Old Dave,
I stand corrected! I've never heard of the "Stack & Pile Method".
MM

tjv

MesaManiac, why can't you lay the jerky flat? I've never done jerky but it intrigues me. thanks t

Unknown

tjv,[p]That is great to know and I may send you a note when I need some more grids. [p]Thanks,[p]Dave

Unknown

tjv,
You can, but you can't get as much on that way.
MM

Unknown

tjv,
--without stacking it that is. MM