Tender Jerky

[John Belvedere]

Like I mentioned in another thread I’ve been negligent in posting as we did some major renovations in the old homestead. With all the work finally done I can now get back to business. I made some tender jerky today using Walton’s pepper and garlic jerky seasoning as the base and eye round as the protein. 18% low sodium soy sauce and 18% brown sugar. It was Vac tumbled for 1 hr. and rested under vacuum for 24 hrs. in the fridge. After the rest I released the vacuum then hand tossed the meat. I then vac tumbled again for 1 hr. with another 24 rest in the fridge. This morning while my smoker was coming up to temp I vac tumbled again for 20 min. Total weight of the meat was 5lbs. 5ozs. After all the tumbling and rest the weight of the meat was 7lbs. 8ozs. After smoking and drying the jerky the total weight of the finished product was 3l s. 14ozs. That in my book is a win. The jerky is nice and tender with great flavor. Below are some pics of the process and a during and after shot of the kitchen, one of many rooms remodeled.

[gus4416]

That looks very nice and the jerky looks awesome

[Dave in AZ]

John Belvedere ok first, great job on the remodel! That kitchen looks great!
Jerky looks great too.
Is that a mailbox cold smoke generator?! AWESOME!

[Jonathon]

John Belvedere Man, amazing job on both fronts! You went all the way down to the studs and went deep on the jerky, awesome job, glad to have ya back!

[John Belvedere]

Dave in AZ said in Tender Jerky:

John Belvedere ok first, great job on the remodel! That kitchen looks great!
Jerky looks great too.
Is that a mailbox cold smoke generator?! AWESOME!
Yes, I did the mailbox mod on my 40” Masterbuilt smoker. I also added additional shelves and bought additional racks. I can do 12 racks of jerky now (about 10 lbs. of jerky). In addition to the mailbox mod I ripped out the Masterbuilt controller and added a PID controller. So when I start out 120 deg. Is a solid 120 (or any temp). With the PID the temps have no swing. I also added an internal variable speed fan to circulate the air so I have no hot spots when cooking or smoking. Thanks for looking.

[bocephus]

John Belvedere Nice job on the remodel and the jerky. That is about how thick I make mine, like it chewy.

[zbigjeff]

John Belvedere Definitely like the thickness of your Jerky. Too many cut it way too thin. Way to go. Also liked that you did the math to figure out yield for future batches.

[lkrfletcher]

John Belvedere Awesome!

[Ken1261]

Looks like two well done jobs.

[John Belvedere]

zbigjeff said in Tender Jerky:

John Belvedere Definitely like the thickness of your Jerry. Too many cut it way too thin. Way to go. Also liked that you did the math to figure out yield for future batches.

Thank you!

[kyle]

John Belvedere nice job. Bet your glad your done with both so now you can sit and enjoy

[Ed Paone]

The jerky looks great and the kitchen looks awesome. What did you use for a variable speed fan and where is it located in the smoker?

[Mcjagger]

sure wish I could find a Marinade Express Vacuum Tumbler somewhere

[cdavis]

John Belvedere good looking jerky and a beautiful kitchen . Congrats

[John Belvedere]

Mcjagger said in Tender Jerky:

sure wish I could find a Marinade Express Vacuum Tumbler somewhere

I was very lucky, I ordered mine on Sept. 2020 from Walton’s before everything became back ordered. I would keep checking the Marinade Express Pro website (https://marinadeexpress.com/product/marinade-express-pro/). Good luck in your quest to find one.

[John Belvedere]

Ed Paone said in Tender Jerky:

The jerky looks great and the kitchen looks awesome. What did you use for a variable speed fan and where is it located in the smoker?
Thank you for the compliment. The fan I use is from Auber Instruments (https://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14_29&products_id=850). I have it place on the lower left side, just over the water pan. It really helps with preventing hotspots. I use a wicking towel in my water pan (thanks Jonathan for the idea) since the fan is placed by the water pan and near the towel it helps with increasing humidity when doing smoked sausage.

[Ed Paone]

Thanks for the link this will work well with my setup.

[Jonathon]

Mcjagger Dont know if you were on the live stream or not but Austin was complaining about the same thing. It is the hardest thing to source apparently, our product development guy has done so much but can’t find a good way to get these! Those lucky few of us who have them guard them well!

[chippewa]

John Belvedere the remodel and the jerky both look awesome!!
I have the same smoker with the mailbox mod. I am working on getting a fan and a PID I saw the link for the fan and I will be ordering one. Do you have a link or a model # for a pid?

Also I am going to be doing a batch of sweet chipotle jerky and I would like to hear your smoke / temp schedule that you used for your jerky. Thanks

[John Belvedere]

chippewa said in Tender Jerky:

John Belvedere the remodel and the jerky both look awesome!!
I have the same smoker with the mailbox mod. I am working on getting a fan and a PID I saw the link for the fan and I will be ordering one. Do you have a link or a model # for a pid?

Also I am going to be doing a batch of sweet chipotle jerky and I would like to hear your smoke / temp schedule that you used for your jerky. Thanks

This is the PID controller I’m using
[https://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14_28&products_id=380)

Sorry for the delay