update: I Let the jerky rest overnight and the peppery taste was still strong but it lessened, and I noticed more of a smoke and paprika taste, was definitely better. Texture was a little more of a tougher chew and didn't mush up as much when eating, definitely better after it rested overnight. Still would cut back on the Black pepper and half the paprika, test Batch #2 scheduled this week, Venison and London broil, will keep everyone posted.
Batch #1 test finished
For 6 lbs
3 Tbls medium grind black pepper
3 Tbls paprika
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 Tbls chili powder
2 Tbls garlic powder
1 Tbls onion powder
1 Tbls A-1 Sauce
2 Tbls Red Hot
½ cup Mr. Yoshidos Oriental Gourmet Sauce
5 Tbls tender quick cure
½ cup Ginger Flavored Brandy
¼ cup Pineapple juice
Here’s what I ending up using, but I made a big mistake, when I originally was mixing the spices I had a sweet batch and a peppery batch, the Sweet was supposed to heave a teaspoon of black pepper and no crushed red pepper, somehow I got mixed up and added 1.5 Tablespoons of black pepper to each batch and added the crushed pepper to the sweet, so to try and salvage everything I combined the 2 batches, not realizing the black pepper content.
Lesson Learned; Measure out all spices and organize them before mixing.
I sliced the Venison to ¼” thick heavy, partially frozen, cured in above mix for 36 hours.
I was very happy with the finished thickness; I will stick with ¼” heavy, for slicing.
Temperature was about 37º outside and raining.
Heated up Smoker to about 110º using no water and needle valve
Added, Lump charcoal and apple chunks to smoker pan and started with a torch
1:00 - 112º smoke ok
2:00 - 108º smoke ok, added 10lb Granite
3:00 - 105º started another batch of wood, lump charcoal, and apple
4:00 - 95º smoke finishing up
6:00 - 100º pulled lower rack of jerky
7:00 - 100º
8:00 - 100º
9:00 - 120º turned temp up, jerky was not drying
10:00 - 130º finished up at this temp
I wanted to see how long I could keep a consistent low temp but became bored after 8 hours.
Conclusions;
1) Premix all spices and separate especially when doing multiple batches
2) I am able to keep low temps and get good smoke using Lump Charcoal, Chunk wood and a Torch
3) The stone was more of a hindrance than it was worth, either the stone has to be in the bottom, lower with the flame or don’t use it at all
4) Do not use water in pan, completely remove pan for good air flow.
5) My biggest problem, make sure to space meat evenly and not to tight on top of each other, the ideal way would be to have about 6-10” between each rack. Or 1 run straight across with nothing underneath.
6) Smoke at 130º
The jerky had a great texture, the salt content was ok, would like a little less, the Black pepper overpowered all the other flavors, and some ingredients didn’t even come thru.
The jerky wasn’t bad but it was nothing to be proud of either…good enough for a guys camping/fishing trip in April.
update
I think I like the texture of Beef better than Venison, the tear and pull is great on both but I thing the venison mushes up in your mouth more than beef.
Test Batch #2 completed and the Venison in batch # 1 had a better texture than the beef and seemed to acquire the flavors better.
Batch 2 test pending
For 6lbs. London broil
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 Tbls paprika
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 Tbls Worcestershire
1 Tbls chili powder
1 Tbls garlic powder
1 Tbls onion powder
5 Tbls tender quick cure (I know it should be 6 Tablespoons)
¼ cup brown sugar or sugar in the raw
½ cup Jack Daniels
½ cup Pineapple juice
1) Cure for 48 hours. With the above recipe
2) Rinse meat lay meat on racks pat dry and brush with Worcestershire sauce.
3) Crack some fresh coarse grind black pepper sparingly on surface of meat.
4) Sprinkle with some coarse garlic and minced onion
I ate a lot of Jerky this weekend and some things I noticed was the smoke flavor was almost non existent in the meat until the next day and seemed like the extreme black pepper flavor was lessened by the 24 hour rest.
The meat was slightly salty, but a weird kind of salty flavor, not like sprinkled on salty flavor but rather the meat itself was salty, no doubt that is due to the cure and hopefully the rinse will take out some of this saltiness.
Batch 3 will be tweaked but in addition the above I will probably only use ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper and brush with honey ½ way through the drying process, but will not know for sure until batch #2 is finished
Another note, I see a lot of recipes including White and Black pepper after seeing the price of a little tiny jar of white pepper, I decided to omit it from my recipes. I did a bit of research on the white pepper and most cooks will tell you that the white pepper is used for aesthetic purposes only although it has a lesser peppery flavor.
Batch #1 test finished
For 6 lbs
3 Tbls medium grind black pepper
3 Tbls paprika
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 Tbls chili powder
2 Tbls garlic powder
1 Tbls onion powder
1 Tbls A-1 Sauce
2 Tbls Red Hot
½ cup Mr. Yoshidos Oriental Gourmet Sauce
5 Tbls tender quick cure
½ cup Ginger Flavored Brandy
¼ cup Pineapple juice
Here’s what I ending up using, but I made a big mistake, when I originally was mixing the spices I had a sweet batch and a peppery batch, the Sweet was supposed to heave a teaspoon of black pepper and no crushed red pepper, somehow I got mixed up and added 1.5 Tablespoons of black pepper to each batch and added the crushed pepper to the sweet, so to try and salvage everything I combined the 2 batches, not realizing the black pepper content.
Lesson Learned; Measure out all spices and organize them before mixing.
I sliced the Venison to ¼” thick heavy, partially frozen, cured in above mix for 36 hours.
I was very happy with the finished thickness; I will stick with ¼” heavy, for slicing.
Temperature was about 37º outside and raining.
Heated up Smoker to about 110º using no water and needle valve
Added, Lump charcoal and apple chunks to smoker pan and started with a torch
1:00 - 112º smoke ok
2:00 - 108º smoke ok, added 10lb Granite
3:00 - 105º started another batch of wood, lump charcoal, and apple
4:00 - 95º smoke finishing up
6:00 - 100º pulled lower rack of jerky
7:00 - 100º
8:00 - 100º
9:00 - 120º turned temp up, jerky was not drying
10:00 - 130º finished up at this temp
I wanted to see how long I could keep a consistent low temp but became bored after 8 hours.
Conclusions;
1) Premix all spices and separate especially when doing multiple batches
2) I am able to keep low temps and get good smoke using Lump Charcoal, Chunk wood and a Torch
3) The stone was more of a hindrance than it was worth, either the stone has to be in the bottom, lower with the flame or don’t use it at all
4) Do not use water in pan, completely remove pan for good air flow.
5) My biggest problem, make sure to space meat evenly and not to tight on top of each other, the ideal way would be to have about 6-10” between each rack. Or 1 run straight across with nothing underneath.
6) Smoke at 130º
The jerky had a great texture, the salt content was ok, would like a little less, the Black pepper overpowered all the other flavors, and some ingredients didn’t even come thru.
The jerky wasn’t bad but it was nothing to be proud of either…good enough for a guys camping/fishing trip in April.
update
I think I like the texture of Beef better than Venison, the tear and pull is great on both but I thing the venison mushes up in your mouth more than beef.
Test Batch #2 completed and the Venison in batch # 1 had a better texture than the beef and seemed to acquire the flavors better.
Batch 2 test pending
For 6lbs. London broil
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 Tbls paprika
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 Tbls Worcestershire
1 Tbls chili powder
1 Tbls garlic powder
1 Tbls onion powder
5 Tbls tender quick cure (I know it should be 6 Tablespoons)
¼ cup brown sugar or sugar in the raw
½ cup Jack Daniels
½ cup Pineapple juice
1) Cure for 48 hours. With the above recipe
2) Rinse meat lay meat on racks pat dry and brush with Worcestershire sauce.
3) Crack some fresh coarse grind black pepper sparingly on surface of meat.
4) Sprinkle with some coarse garlic and minced onion
I ate a lot of Jerky this weekend and some things I noticed was the smoke flavor was almost non existent in the meat until the next day and seemed like the extreme black pepper flavor was lessened by the 24 hour rest.
The meat was slightly salty, but a weird kind of salty flavor, not like sprinkled on salty flavor but rather the meat itself was salty, no doubt that is due to the cure and hopefully the rinse will take out some of this saltiness.
Batch 3 will be tweaked but in addition the above I will probably only use ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper and brush with honey ½ way through the drying process, but will not know for sure until batch #2 is finished
Another note, I see a lot of recipes including White and Black pepper after seeing the price of a little tiny jar of white pepper, I decided to omit it from my recipes. I did a bit of research on the white pepper and most cooks will tell you that the white pepper is used for aesthetic purposes only although it has a lesser peppery flavor.
