Here is a great post from a friend of mine that should help.
- 3,127 Posts. Joined 8/2008
- Location: N/E Wyoming
As for cold smoking jerky, that's the way to go. I try to start my jerky smokes @ 120*F while I smoke. I stop the smoke after about 15-20 minutes (or the smoke gets too heavy). The small thin pieces don't take very long to smoke.
After removing the smoke wood, I like to slowly (spread out over about 1 hr) bump the chamber temp to about 150* for cured meat. Make sure you have a good amount of draft (air flow) to carry the humidity out of the cook chamber.
Also note that the more jerky you load into the smoker, the longer the drying time will be. I can put 14lbs into my Smoke Vault 24 (10 grates) and it will take about 12-14 hours with about 40% relative humidity. If I cut back to about 8lbs, the drying time will be around 8 hours.
Remember the humidity has a lot to do with drying time...you may need a bit higher temps to overcome high relative humidity.
I know what you mean about cooked jerky...not that great to eat...the cured/smoked/dried jerky is over the top. Check your texture after several hours (bend test, squeeze test), and more often as it feels like it's close to what you're looking for. For a lot of chew, take it all the way to a leathery feel. I like to finish the drying in an open baking pan/cookie sheet lined with paper towels, if I find some pieces that were not quite where I wanted them.
Man, I gotta do another batch again soon, myself...running pretty low.