Dan’s Smokehouse Jerky – The Best Pt 2

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

solution left in the pan. The meat will have soaked up the brine and
be somewhat swelled up, as compared to the first turning.  Smokehousing
the meat: The smoking process will require a smokehouse  or smoking
unit that is capable of maintaining 80-90F. If there is a  small
volume, piping the smoke from an external source will provide a  cooler
smoke, and a hot plate or a few briquettes/lump charcoal could  provide
the heat source. In a medium size unit (refrigerator size), a  cast
iron frying pan with chips set on a hot plate will work -  although it
may be difficult to maintain a constant temperature. The  more volume,
the easier it is to control the temperature. I would  recommend that a
fire be built and maintained throughout the smoking  process, which
will take from 48 to 70 hours - depending upon the  thickness of the
meat. The smokehouse that I use is medium - large  (350) cu.ft., it
will maintain a good smoky 80-100F with 2-3 half  gallon milk jug sized
pieces of wood burning. Use seasoned, barkless  wood - your choice, I
use red alder, apple, plum, cherry, oak, pear  and some of the best
I've ever done was with some 75 year old grape  stumps. Citrus works
good too. Get the smokehouse going and rack or  hang the meat while the
temp becomes stabilized. If you rack the  meat, place it without the
pieces touching each other - just enough  room to run a finger between
the strips. Stainless 3/16" rod  sharpened on both ends works good for
hanging - again, leave some  space between the strips. As you place the
strips, run them through  your thumb and index finger to squeegee off
any excess brine. Before  placing the racks or skewers into the
smokehouse, coarse black pepper  or additional red pepper flakes may be
added - for those who like  lotsa zip. Load the smokehouse and leave
the door cracked open for  the first couple hours, or until the surface
of the meat has dried to  the touch. Close the doors, poke the fire and
keep an eye on the  temps for a couple of days. Don't worry about the
meat spoiling if  the fire goes out. The meat is cured. It's said that
the old timers  used to make their jerky while they traveled. When they
made camp at  night they would hang the jerky over the campfire until
dawn, when  they broke camp they simply packed up the jerky and
continued smoking  the next night. This process takes about 4-5 days
and is worth every  minute. Probably the two most important items would
be too much salt  and too much heat. If you decide to try this method,
I garr-own-tee  you'll never find another piece of store bought jerky
that even comes  close.  NOTES : I would like to share a jerky making
process that  goes back  a long way, before refrigerators, before
electricity.  To the best of  my knowledge it has never been written
down, just passed along from  one old timer to the next - until
now....Showing a person how to do  something is one thing, but putting
it into words  is,......an  incommodiously arduous task? Recipe by: Dan
Sawyer <dan813@aone.com>  Posted to bbq-digest V5 #489 by Glenn Manning
<gmanning@ionet.net> on  Aug 27, 1997

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