Venison Smoker Wannabee

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myagentcam

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 28, 2015
45
20
Hey guys. My buddy just got a nice buck and we'dike to make some jerky out of it. Neither of us have ever done this type of thing before. Is there a walk through available somewhere that can be followed? I'm looking for help from the complete start to finish. From which part of the deer do we use, to how how to cure, flavor, smoke, etc. We'll figure out the part about how to eat it. That'll be easy for us. :-) Thanks everyone!
 
Try a quick search. With all the hunters on the forum there must be one somewhere.

Good luck

Chris
 
What kind of jerky are you doing? Whole muscle meat or ground ?
What flavours are you looking to use for the jerky? Are you seasoning from scratch or using kits?
I do whole muscle jerky. I use all the hind quarter meat, sirloin, round , eye etc. Run them through my slicer at about 3/16".
I do both a wet and a dry type when using kits or from scratch. Follow the directions on the pkg from kits, from scratch i make my own seasonings and add the necessary cure ( 1 tsp / 5lb meat) to the seasoning. lay out your meat sprinkle your seasonings let them sit in a container in the fridge for a day, in a wet brine / marinade i usually let it sit for 1-5 days, then pull out place on racks and into the smoker. I smoke for 1-2 hrs then just heat to consistency we luck. moist but still chewy for us. There are a number of ways to do it, thats what I do.
 
Try a quick search. With all the hunters on the forum there must be one somewhere.

Good luck

Chris

I did that and there's a million posts about jerky. It's hard to figure out what to do when everyone does things a bunch of different ways. That's why I was asking for a walk through of sorts.
 
What kind of jerky are you doing? Whole muscle meat or ground ?
What flavours are you looking to use for the jerky? Are you seasoning from scratch or using kits?
I do whole muscle jerky. I use all the hind quarter meat, sirloin, round , eye etc. Run them through my slicer at about 3/16".
I do both a wet and a dry type when using kits or from scratch. Follow the directions on the pkg from kits, from scratch i make my own seasonings and add the necessary cure ( 1 tsp / 5lb meat) to the seasoning. lay out your meat sprinkle your seasonings let them sit in a container in the fridge for a day, in a wet brine / marinade i usually let it sit for 1-5 days, then pull out place on racks and into the smoker. I smoke for 1-2 hrs then just heat to consistency we luck. moist but still chewy for us. There are a number of ways to do it, thats what I do.

These are all good questions, I guess I need to ask my buddy about what type of meat he's planning to use. He knows as little (or less) than I do with jerky making. Thanks for bringing up those questions. That actually helps steer me in a direction I woukd have not otherwise looked for.
 
If it's your first time, I would go buy a kit . Make a 1 lb batch and see how you like it . Trim up a price from the hind quarter , semi freeze , and slice . Then follow directions on the kit .
 
Anyone tried the Backwoods jerky seasoning? I can get that on Amazon with prime. Time is of the essence now, so I need it fairly quickly.

What about the High Mountain Mesquite? That's also prime. I think I'd prefer the original, but I don't see any of the as Prime.
 
My friend just said the meat is all cut up and he made some online recipe marinade. It hasn't been cured but it will have been sitting in the marinade for about 30 hours tomorrow morning. We are going to fire up the smoker and see what happens. Are we going to die from eating the meat that has t been cured? I've read online and some sites seem like it'll be riddled with bacteria, other sites seem to think it's not a big deal to smoke at 160 for hours with hot the cure. What are your thoughts?
 
Here is some info I have saved from people on this site.

"In other words the meat cannot be between 40-140 for more than 4 hours without risking getting sick eating it."


CURES - Cures are used in sausage products for color and flavor development as well as retarding the development of bacteria in the low temperature environment of smoked meats.

Salt and sugar both cure meat by osmosis. In addition to drawing the water from the food, they dehydrate and kill the bacteria that make food spoil. In general, though, use of the word "cure" refers to processing the meat with either sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate.

The primary and most important reason to use cures is to prevent BOTULISM POISONING (Food poisoning). It is very important that any kind of meat or sausage that will be cooked and smoked at low temperature be cured. To trigger botulism poisoning, the requirements are quite simple - lack of oxygen, the presence of moisture, and temperatures in range of 40-140° F. When smoking meats, the heat and smoke eliminates the oxygen. The meats have moisture and are traditionally smoked and cooked in the low ranges of 90 to 185° F. As you can see, these are ideal conditions for food poisoning if you don't use cures. There are two types of commercially used cures.

Prague Powder #1

Also called Insta-Cure and Modern Cure. Cures are used to prevent meats from spoiling when being cooked or smoked at low temperatures (under 200 degrees F). This cure is 1 part sodium nitrite (6.25%) and 16 parts salt (93.75%) and are combined and crystallized to assure even distribution. As the meat temperate rises during processing, the sodium nitrite changes to nitric oxide and starts to ‘gas out’ at about 130 degrees F. After the smoking /cooking process is complete only about 10-20% of the original nitrite remains. As the product is stored and later reheated for consumption, the decline of nitrite continues. 4 ounces of Prague powder #1 is required to cure 100 lbs of meat. A more typical measurement for home use is 1 level tsp per 5 lbs of meat. Mix with cold water, then mix into meat like you would mix seasonings into meat.

Prague Powder #2

Used to dry-cure products. Prague powder #2 is a mixture of 1 part sodium nitrite, .64 parts sodium nitrate and 16 parts salt. (1 oz. of sodium nitrite with .64 oz. of sodium nitrate to each lb. of salt.) It is primarily used in dry-curing Use with products that do not require cooking, smoking, or refrigeration. This cure, which is sodium nitrate, acts like a time release, slowly breaking down into sodium nitrite, then into nitric oxide. This allows you to dry cure products that take much longer to cure. A cure with sodium nitrite would dissipate too quickly. Use 1 oz. of cure for 25 lbs. of meat or 1 level teaspoon of cure for 5 lbs. of meat when mixing with meat. When using a cure in a brine solution, follow a recipe.
 
My friend just said the meat is all cut up and he made some online recipe marinade. It hasn't been cured but it will have been sitting in the marinade for about 30 hours tomorrow morning. We are going to fire up the smoker and see what happens. Are we going to die from eating the meat that has t been cured? I've read online and some sites seem like it'll be riddled with bacteria, other sites seem to think it's not a big deal to smoke at 160 for hours with hot the cure. What are your thoughts?

You can always get the temp of the meat up to 165F and then lower it to do the smoke and dehydration job. Or go low and then at the end up it to hit the 165F temp. I saw a guy do this in a video once and seemed sensible and easy to do if concerned :)
 
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