Had 30 pounds of jerky made at the butcher from my 2007 WT deer. It was absolutely delicious and highly addictive to everyone who tried it.

When supplies dwindled I brought 10 pounds of beef from a steer we butchered to have more made.

Last Wednesday I saw the Bradley Original Smoker on sale at Canadian Tire for $279 (Normal retail is $379) I decided it was time to try making my own jerky. After trying some oven made jerky, I'm a firm believer that great jerky cannot be made without smoke.

After looking at various procedures on the net, here's what I tried:

-half cup Soy Sauce
-half cup Worcestershire Sauce
-4 tbsp Liquid smoke
-1 tsp onion powder
-1 tsp garlic powder
-1 tsp course ground pepper
-2 tsp salt

1. Ingredients were blended and used to marinate two pounds of 1 inch strips.
2. Jerky was marinated for 12 hours and set onto paper towel to absorb excess liquid.
3. Smoker was set to 165'F and jerky was smoked for 2.5 hours, then turned and smoked 2.5 more hours. Mesquite wood was used.

When the shoe leather was done it smelled of campfire. My toddler told me, "it tasted like fire".
The dog was a little reluctant at first, but with enough sniffing he was able to identify it as a meat product and ate it.
Wife was sick from the smell of the liquid smoke and wouldn't come near it.
I decided to take it to work and use it for a prank so I wouldn't be the only one to experience the taste of campfire.
I left it on the lunchroom table in a Ziploc bag as I've done before with butcher made jerky. And much to my amazement it was gone by coffee time and people thanked me for bringing it in. WTF! Could probably skin and smoke a cat and it would likely disappear too.

I believe where I went wrong was using liquid smoke because it was likely meant as an ingredient for oven made Jerky.

Secondly, I believe a curing salt should have used so I would have the option of cold smoking without the risk bacteria in the jerky. Instead I used too much heat 170'F and turned my fine meat into the sole of a boot.

If anyone has some pointers or great smoked jerky recipes, please share, I'd really like to get this jerky making nailed down well before huntin' season. Also what is the best curing salt?


Thanks,

GordM

betting it was salty as the sea too. I would cut the marinade time in half and remove the liquid smoke. Add crushed red pepper to taste.

not sure what rate you need of curing salt (potassium nitrate i assume). Probably 1 tbsp.

If you have real smoke, there is no need to add the liquid smoke.

My friend did that once, he asked for my jerky recipe and it is very similar to yours. I got a call a few days later complaining that I gave him a bunk recipe and turns out he tried it in his dad's smoker! To say it was strong tasting was a major understatement!

I use:
1/4 cup soya sauce
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
4 tbsp liquid smoke
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
pinch crushed chili pepper

Just mix everything together, add the ground beef/venison/whatever (black bear is great!) and let it soak up the flavor for a few hours. For smoker use, leave out the liquid smoke!

Thanks for the pointers guys.

The biggest questions in my mind now are:

1. How long should the meat be smoked?

2. Will any additional heat be required from the element within the smoker?

3. I've been reading some folks feel they need to let the jerky sit for a spell (several hours) after marinading is complete, prior to smoking.
I find it difficult to conceive why this would be necessary? Anyone ever heard of this and why it would be done?

Thanks,

GordM

It's best if it's cold smoked, that's why the cureing salt is important. Smoke it very lightly and once it's begun to "skin over" more smoke won't do it any favours.

Thanks for chiming in chef,

I'm sure it depends a whole lot on the type of smoker (the Bradley in my case) is being using but how long a time frame would a person guess it takes to smoke a couple pounds. 2 hours?????
4 hours????? 8 hours???????
Thanks again guys,

GordM

4 teaspoons of liquid smoke seems grossly overboard. My bottle of liquid smoke, purchased from lemproducts.com states:

"use 1\2 teaspoon to every 5 pounds of meat. Or 1 to 1 and 1\2 ounce to every 100 pounds of meat."

I don't use a smoker. I use a dehydrator set @145 degrees. My jerky is stuffed in slim jim type casings and usually dries in 6 hours...depending on relative humidity.

I use a salt rub which then sits on the meat for 24 hrs. The Sweet and Sassy brand works well or I get a batch of favoured salts from my butcher. It contains preservatives much like the Tender quick brand of salt. This is followed by a light smoking in a Bradely then finish in a dehaydrator.
I can not stand liquid smoke. Any of the artificial smokes such as that used by Hickory Farms or some bacon processors. They cause an immediate run to the crapper but a natural smoke from willow, maple or apple wood are favourites.

Gord go to CHR Refrigeration and buy the book best of wurst. it's a sausage making book, but the jerky recipe works well. I think the bradly has pretty dense smoke, doesn't it? maybe leave the door open or the vents open if it has any. I hang mine on a rack and cover it with a tarp and use a very "delicate" amount of smoke for a couple hours.

I use black pepper, salt and Red chili powder rub, and cook it in the oven for about 5 hours or so at about 180 to 200..Then I put it in my mesquite smoker for about 30 minutes to an hour or so at 180 degrees...Too much smoke makes it really strong..Keep it simple...

I also cut the meat with the grain as opposed to across the grain, then I can strip it off with my teeth... I cut the pieces of meat pretty thick or about as big around as a quarter and 8 inches to a foot long.

Another option is to air dry these larger treated cuts with a fan running for several days (in the summer )...and smoke them either before or after for an hour or so...use the taste test as you go on this stuff and don't let it get to hard or crisp, be sure its pliable about like innertube...

i use a bottle of worchestshire sauce, juice from several lemons, celery salt, garlic powder, soy sauce, ketchup, coarse ground black pepper (lots of pepper) and steak seasoning... enough to make about 1 quart of liquid... i cut up enough axis deer hindquarters to make a 5 quart plastic bowl full... takes about 2-3 hindquarters... cut the meat thin, like 1/4"... lenght or width doesn't matter to me...let it set overnight, then use a food dehydrator set on hi for about 8 hrs....if a few pieces need more time, they get moved to the top for the next batch....sometimes i add just a dash of liquid smoke, but not much....

I like a lot less heat than some here seem to.....I like to air dry my Jerky for several hours with a fan before I smoke it or put it into the oven at 150-170 degrees. I have always used "Tender Quick" or the like instead of staight table salt when using little heat just be on the safe side. My little chief smoker is outside in a very small shed(looks like a plywood outhouse!). When making jerky I take the lid off the smoker to keep the temp down.

The worst jerky I ever made was some ground stuff I made in my oven. It was the third or fourth batch I had made in a few days and I messed up the marinade....when the jerky was fully cured I had salt precipitating out of the meat on the outside of the jerky! It was definitely "well preserved". I gave a piece to the dog and she drank about a quart of water after a piece of jerky.

I used some tender quick and yoshia's teriaki sauce one time and really liked the results.... a liberal coating on black pepper was the only other spice that time.

YMMV,

phil

Anything over 140 degrees will cook the jerky and squeeze the water out of it (as the proteins coagulate).

Once it's dried out to just about the point you want it you can raise the temp to kill "undesireables" but it's not really necesary. Especially if you use curing salt. The natives did it with nothing at all and they didn't die out so it can't be that dangerous.

Meat also absorbs very little smoke after it's skinned over and even less once it's cooked. I think it's because the smoke is carried into the meat by the moisture. A soulution moves from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. Once it's been smoked a bit but it's still wet the flavours will continue migrating in the meat, so relax and let it do its thing.

Every time I've over smoked something it's been by continuing to smoke it after "a certain point" with the idea that there wasn't enough smoke flavour. It doesn't take much to give a nice smoky flavour and it's definately better with not enough than too much.

keep trying!!

Thanks for the tips and ideas,

Since my last post, I've made a half dozen batches, every time something is learned and the end product is better and better.

The biggest improvements were: shorter smoking duration, correct temperatures, longer marinading times and most importantly Prague Powder #1 otherwise known as cure. The Prague Powder not only keeps the Jerky red and translucent through the entire drying phase but will prevent botulism. Prague Powder is somewhat generic and has many other names. One for example is Insta-Cure. It's usually 94-95% salt with the balance being 5-6% sodium nitrate.

By modifying an internet recipe for Teriyaki jerky, here's the best I've come up with so far.

-1 TBSP brown sugar
-1/4 TSP course ground pepper
-1 TSP onion powder
-1/2 TSP garlic powder
-1 TBSP corn syrop
-1 cup Orange juice (good stuff, not Tang)
-1 TSP soy sauce
-1 cup Teriyaki sauce
-1/2 TSP Prague Powder (per kilo of meat or 2.2lbs)

I usually marinade for 12 hours, but circumstances didn't allow me to continue smoke for about 36 hrs. After sitting in the marinade for 36 hrs there is a considerable and appreciable difference in taste!

As usual meat was sliced into 1/4" strips and fat trimmed off.

I make the marinade in the blender to optimize dissolving and mixing of ingredients.

Once the 36+ hr marinade is complete (remember to overhaul jerky every 8-12 hrs during marinading) the strips are laid on paper towel to remove excess marinade.

Next the jerky is hung vertically with the aid of wooden skewers from the horizontal racks. This will allow much better convection and nearly double the capacity of a Bradley 4 rack smoker. In order for this to work the strips cannot be any longer than 7" and should be only 2" wide so they don't fold when drying. Remove the bottom rack and the rack second from the top to allow hanging distance for the strips on the remaining 2 racks. Additionally the rack should alternate position every hour or so to ensure all the jerky is ready at the same time.

Set the smoker to 140'F with no smoke and allow at least an hour until the meat skins over.

Raise temp to 150'F and start smokin', remember to reduce the element temp as the smoke generator produces a lot of additional heat. Smoke for 1.25 hrs.

Now that smoking is complete raise the temp to 160'F. This is where most of the shrinkage occurs and will take 2-3 hours. When the strips can be bent and fray slightly the jerky is done. If the the strips snap when bent your jerky is overdone. If some crispy edges are noticed on the strips, leaving them in a sealed container overnight and they will soften up.

GordM

I've never done it myself but those Bradley smokers are wicked. A couple years ago I was camping at Lesser Slave L. and one of the guys that was camping with us had brought jerky and fish that he had prepared in one of those things.
That fish (I think it was salmon) and the jerky is the best I have ever had. He told me he had arrived at his recipe by trial and error and I remember he said the instructions that come with the smoker are way off.
If I ever bought one I would be trying to get a hold of that guy and get his recipe; time, temperature and ingredients.

What I know for certain is those Bradley smokers make amazing jerky and smoked fish if you are willing to mess around and experiment with them.