Amaz-N-Smokers

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I may just put together an order for mats, and the large expando.

This place is almost as bad as the camera and gun forums for "enabling" us to spend our money! ;)

Not needing to hang the jerky would make life a lot less tedious. I could just come up with more racks, and some spacers to let me lay in two or three times as many.

When I hang the jerky, I can get a lot loaded into the smoker. But man, is it ever time-consuming!



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That seems like a good method to explore.

Making jerky is so time-consuming and labor-intensive. I spent hours just slicing the meat last time, doing it in phases so it could go into the fridge quickly in batches.

Then hanging the strips on toothpicks was extremely tedious and time consuming, too. My fingers were well marinaded, and my back was sore by the time I was done with that. Gotta use gloves next time!

And removing the dried product from the toothpicks was also a very lengthy and tedious process. The stuff stuck to the toothpicks. I will oil them beforehand if I try that again!

The time before that, I used some non-stick skewers (Teflon-coated steel) , and hung them off of zillions of paper clips that I attached to the racks. That was easier in some ways, but still tedious and fragile while carrying the racks to and from the smoker.

I'd make more jerky, for sure, if it was easier. So I want to try your method. Keep us informed on what you try next with it.

And I think using the Matz will be a big help, in general.

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That seems like a good method to explore.

Making jerky is so time-consuming and labor-intensive. I spent hours just slicing the meat last time, doing it in phases so it could go into the fridge quickly in batches.
Depending on the size of the meat chunks, chill them and put them through an electric slicer if you have one. It will save a lot of time.
 
 
My last jerky.....  I rolled it out then cut it up when done....   93/7 Ground Beef...  NESCO seasoning...   leaves a lot to be desired so I'll work on that....  I sprayed the mats with PAM for insurance....
Looks a promising method Dave. Let us know how you get on developing it 
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Try string and a needle....
Hmmm.  That's a great idea!  Or maybe even just use some stainless steel wire as the "thread"!
 
Depending on the size of the meat chunks, chill them and put them through an electric slicer if you have one. It will save a lot of time.
These were some eye of round "steaks".  I've read that almost freezing the meat will make it behave better.  I need to try that.

And you won't believe it, but I bought a slicer a few years ago, partly for making jerky and partly for slicing home made bread, and I have never once fired the thing up!  I really need to clean the dust off of it, bring it inside, and try it the next time.  It HAS to be easier than slicing the meat by hand.  And I think it would surely be very consistent, too.

But I'd have had to bring the unit in from the garage and wash it off before I could use it, and I was impatient.

I have a saying for that kind of thing:

"I'm too lazy to do it the easy way!"

Think about that the next time you beat on something with the wrench that's in your hand instead of going off and finding the hammer.  ;)
 
I have an OK Joe offset that I converted to propane and I have an 18" AMNTS. Would it be better to put the tube in the fire box or the cook chamber?
 
How is that working for you? Mine works great. I am using the wood chunks in the can thing. Works great! Best part is I can reuse the charred chunks as lump coal.
 
I love the burner, but the smoke seems heavy and white using the can. Looking for better quality smoke and was hoping to get it from the tube smoker it I've been having trouble with it staying lit.
 
That burner is a lot easier to use for sure. It actually makes the OKJ worth keeping. As for the smoke, the thick color is normal. It is good smoke for the meat. Same process found in vertical smokers.
 
I should find the link, but do a web search for the Walter Lewin physics lecture about why the sky is blue and clouds are white.

He explains and demonstrates why smoke consisting of extremely small particles scatters primarily blue light (short wavelengths) while smoke or particles that are larger scatter all wavelengths (white light).

There is a threshold of particle size that determines the type of scattering you get. Rayleigh scattering versus Mie scattering.

Clouds look white due to the large particles causing Mie scattering. The sky looks blue due to Rayleigh scattering.


The point is: When smoke looks white, you know that it consists of much larger particles / droplets, but when it appears blue, you know that the particle size is far smaller.

From what people have observed, what you want for the best flavor are only the tiny smoke particles. The larger ones consist of more bad-tasting compounds, creosote, etc.

I'm speculating here, but:

The challenge for us is to create conditions of combustion that generate only the blue smoke, and/or condense out the larger particles before it reaches the food in the smoker.

I know this is off topic, but I wonder if what we want is a situation where the smoker fuel (pellets, dust, chips, etc) burns, but not too well. Enough oxygen to let it smolder, but not so much that it can burn too hot or something like that. It might be that as we strive to keep our smoke generators from going out, we can go too far. And what we really want is to maintain a fine balance between failing to burn vesus burning too well.

And that may be why we relish the effect when a smoke generator burns completely, but burns for a long time (not too fast).

And that means that we always need to adjust and maintain conditions. And it can be different for different days, wood types, wood form (pellets, dust, chips, chunks), generators, weather conditions, smoker loading (how much, and how moist the meat is), etc.

This may be part of why a mailbox mod or the like is helpful. You can control some of the variables of combustion more easily by separating the combustion from the smoking chamber conditions. Plus, you get the chance to condense out the larger particles before they get to the smoking chamber, which makes it even more forgiving. You can lean toward more positive combustion (for reliability), but condense out some of the bad smoke constituents that result from that "too good" combustion.

Again, I'm just speculating here about some of that. But I want to set up a smoker system that lets me experiment with some of this!






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