The BIG Jerky Cook

Pakak

I posted some pics of the cook eggor did when showing me the rack he made to make jerky. Then, I showed the first test cook I did yesterday to try *my* rack out. Finally, I thought I’d show all the meat prepped and loaded on my rack. My good scale is packed away so I’m just guessing at the weight. I KNOW I started with 10 ½ pounds of buffalo. I estimate my trial cook was about 1½ to 2 pounds, so the total amount of meat on the BIG cook was 8½ to 9 pounds. Wish I could weigh the end product but it would be a pain in the rear.[p][p]Here’s the cured, skewered buffalo ready for the rack.

[p][p]Here’s the final product.

[p][p]If you want to build the rack, here’s the link to the PDF file:[p][p]Jerky Rack Drawings[/p][p][p]All the dimensions worked well. I was able to buy a 12’ length of ¼” SS rod for just over $8. Good thing it was 12’. I was a bit spatially challenged on my first go-around. I bent one corner the wrong direction. It’s NOT easy to straighten a piece out. No problemo. There was plenty of rod to do the rack over again. I’d suggest numbering and labeling the bends on your drawing. Doing so helped me avoid bending the wrong direction the second time around.[p][p]I said that if *I* could build the rack, anyone could and I mean it! I did NOT do the welding. I had that done in a shop which charged me $21.25 for the four welds. Personally, I thought that was a bit much but another shop quoted me $30. If I would have had access to a welding machine, I would have made a stab at doing it myself, though it’s been years since I certified. [p][p]As you can see, to load the WHOLE rack up, top and bottom, takes one whale of a lot of meat. I’m fairly certain it held about 8½ to 9 pounds. It’s not that big of deal to make the jerky in batches. What I’m saying is – you can probably do without the top rack, which would eliminate the need the welds. Eggor tried to tell me this, but I was bound and determined to make it the way he had.

eggor

Pakak,
I'm sooo happy that the instructions worked becuase it was reverse engineered. tried to remember how i built it then tried to figure how to build from scratch with out ever building it from my plans I was skeered that I might have misled some folks, but like you said seems to work. by the way, seems like you kinda followed my recipe did you adjust anything ??? times, temps, indirect,thickness, spices,smoke[p]thanks for the credits
beers
Scott

clausenk

Pakak,[p]That's beautiful!

Pakak

Yes, I did follow pretty much all you did, as I understood it anyway. My test cook was done at about 250° and I'd guess was about 2 hours or slightly more. It went a little quicker because the temp crept up on me a bit. The jerky was a little too salty for my taste, though I followed the directions explicitly.[p]For the BIG cook I lowered the temp down to about 200°. Actually, the temp *dropped* lower than 150° for about a half hour to forty-five minutes. I should loaded more lump but was getting a little cute. Oddly enough, the BIG batch doesn't taste nearly as salty. I don't understand why.[p]The only difference, besides the temps, in the two cooks is - the length of time the meat cured The small cook cured about 24 hours less than the BIG cook. Honestly, the small, test cook was NOT cured quite as long as the minimum "advisable" length of time. I didn't think it would hurt because it would be consumed quickly. The meat basically is cooked and, for me, the only concern would have been storing the jerky without being fully cured.[p]Any ideas of why the meat which had cured longer (and cooked at a lower temp, but not sure why that would matter) would taste significantly LESS salty? ALL meat had curing compound and spices applied at the same time and was removed from the same ziplock bag - just at different times.

Pakak

Thanks! Not only that - it tastes delicious! I happened to have several people visiting today and they were eating it like candy. One little boy, only 2 1/2 years old, even loved it and was going back for more.