Ok, Tried the yoshidas and it was great. that got the ball rolling for me this year. I am going to do a couple of batches over the next few weeks. I am hoping we could discuss some recipes and or good things to add to already existing recipes..

Last year horror story. Made a large batch from a nice Muley I shot last year. followed one of the recipes from the big chief smoker book. Turned out like dog $hit! If fact, given the choice between eating dog $hit and that jerky I would have had to think about it... way too salty! wouldn't give it to my lab for fear of hypertesnion.

I'll start with another one I did recently that turned out good.
Rolled meat directly in some sodium nitrate (1/2 cup for a large batch) I got from the butcher and also used brown sugar. let sit for awhile then added about a cup of yoshidas, 4 cups of apple juice and some red pepper flakes. soaked overnight, smoked with 3 pans of alder, cooked in oven at 180 for another 2 hours. Even my wife grubbed on it and she is super picky...