Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Think I'll be ok with the dehydrator?

 

I know it will work.

 

A dehydrator should work fine although I have never used one.

I forgot to add if you are making jerky at 225* you are cooking it, not dehydrating it.

From the electric smoker.





and the pellet smoker.





I prefer the pellet smoker. Since the one I have is double walled it is easier to keep the lower temperatures more stable.

 

My pellet smoker can hold 150-160°F - that looks awesome!

 

Just doing a couple of meatloafs in the smoker tonight. One has a bunch of rub the other one is spiced while mixing the meat together.

it will be finished off with a bbq glaze in about 2 hours.

 

Also since I have been busy with other things here’s some pics of my venison jerky I did on my pellet pooper.

I did four batches.
Batch 1 was salt and black pepper and it turned out pretty dry

batch two was the same flavor as batch 1 but it came out better

batch 3 was teriyaki and my uncle said it was pretty consistent and was good. So I’ll take that as a win

batch 4 was the first marinade I did and it turned out pretty good.

 

Has anyone smoked sardines? Ya, ya, I know, , but I like fish!

 

One of the few things I haven't tried . But I'd be interested in time/temp/recipe!

 

Chris is spot on you don't want to go over 160° or you are cooking it. I have an

$347 Excalibur 3926TB Electric Food Dehydrator Machine with 26-Hour Timer, Automatic Shut Off and Temperature Control, 600-Watt, 9 Trays, Black

Excalibur dehydrator and also make it on the WSM. I prefer the real smoked method over the dehydrator, personal preference.

You want the meat as lean as you can and trim any fat off it. I will pay to have it sliced when I buy it but not every place will do that. For that I use a jerky board.



Used to have a meat slicer but when it died didn't replace it. PITA to clean and would just as soon pay to have someone else do it and they can do the cleanup.

I have a jerky shooter and have done ground beef in the dehydrator before also but it is not my favorite, OK once in awhile though.



Normally you cure it with a mix and seasonings I also make my own. Hi Mountain makes several and I like them, you can pick them up at Fleet Farm around here.

On the WSM I use pizza screens and cut 1" thick red oak dowel for spacers.



It is a pain because no matter how you make it never seems to dry evenly and have to rotate it. One reason why even slices are important, it helps. I would think a vertical pellet smoker like Chris uses would be the perfect jerky making machine.

Not sure you save a lot of money making your own compared to bulk by the time it is all said and done, but you can make it the way you want. Without sugar and reduce the sodium. On the other hand those 2 things are what make commercial jerky so addicting....

Not sardines but smelt back in the early 80's. Was back "home" on recruiting duty and my mother did income taxes and someone paid her in buckets of smelt for doing their taxes. I smoked a 5 gal. bucket of them after cleaning them.

The next night my BIL and I got home from a night out on the town and were hungry and seen them in the fridge. And a jar of blue cheese dressing. We dipped them in blue cheese and ate a metric shit ton of them that night. Burped smoked smelt and blue cheese for around 3 days after IIRC. Was actually really good. From what I can remember.

 

Yeah I prefer it a little thinner so I use a slicer. The trick is to put the meat in the freezer for an hour or less so it stiffens it up a little and doesn't flop all over while you are trying to slice it.

Yes cleaning up afterward is a PITA.



Best Recipe every loves including me.

2 parts wine to 1 part worshy
Stella Rosa red wine (I tried others and it came out nasty)
Worcestershire sauce
1 red onion sliced
1 large garlic sliced
salt and pepper to taste
optional smoked paparika
cut it bag it and fridge it for 6-24 hours.

 

Sounds good I give this a try

 

Anyone try this lump?

 

Damn. I can cancel my order and get a smoker instead. Im just a noob. That jerky looks yummy

 

Hat temp are you running your pellet smoker at for the Jerky? (Sorry if you answered and I missed it)

 

Ok. So here’s the final product...

left side has seasoning in the meat and half of it was glazed

right side had seasoning in meat and rub put on top. Again half was glazed.

daughter asked if I could only glaze half because she didn’t want the glaze.

has red bell peppers, celery, garlic in them. Forgot to get an onion

Used bread crumbs, 2 eggs, half and half for the binder.

 

I put it at 150* the lowest setting. It takes about 5-6 hours depending on how moist you prefer it. I like it not quite to leather.

I have also tried laying it and hanging it. I much prefer to hang it on skewers to get an even smoke.

 

Any fellow pellet guys tried the new ones out by Kingsford?? And I saw some by Cuisinart, a cherry rum flavor that peaked my interest

 

I haven't seen any let alone try them.. what's the cost on these things?

 

Not to sound like an old grouch but that sounds like too complex of flavor for pellets that you won’t get half of it and seems like a waste. I could be wrong, but just doesn’t seem worth it to me.

 

I have not tried those, but the Jim Beam barrel pellets caught my eye. Supposedly made with the actual oak barrels..........1% 10% or XX%??? Dunno.

I have black cherry that has been around awhile, really good. Like a husky apple I guess I could say, but with hickory and oakish flavors. I just tried the new apple mash, and that is awesome.