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...

waiting for a good one here

me too!

I've done 20lbs or so lately. Elk jerky. Its come out great. I use Hi Mountain Seasonings jerky cure and seasoning. I start with a 8-10 lbs roast, slice jerky sized pieces and sprinkle the seasoning on it. It soaks for 24hrs and then is put into a traeger bbq/smoker and set on low heat/ hi smoke for 4- 6 hrs depending on outside temp, thickness of pieces, and load size. I like mine meaty and a little chewier, but put some into the oven after smoking to toughen it up and make it more jerky like. Pretty easy jerky. Only problem I have is after a week and half to 2 weeks the jerky will start to get moldy spots in the fridge. Doesnt matter how long its smokes or in the oven it all molds the same. Normally it gets eaten within a few days so its no big deal but last batch sat around and had to be throw out a few lbs that were left. Anyone else have mold issues?

vac pack and freeze.

yes. my guess is water content and not enough nitrate/salt. like dogfish said, a vacuum pack program will prevent. most jerky's suggest freezing after 2 weeks. it would be cool to figure out a process that would result in a product that would not require cooling...

That's the key, but have the vacpac ready when it's hot off the grill and start stuffing bags and seal hot.... Savors the flavors and moisture... Plus it will pull in more flavor as it thaws so add some sort of flavor prior to sealing, personally I like a sweet/spicy bbq sauce in light amounts with some tapatio sauce for some extra kick oh and don't forget about a couple good shakes of cracked black pepper...

Keith

how do you add the liquid and not fu.k up the seal?

Push over ride and seal before the juice comes out. Or freeze first then seal while frozen.Good luck,
SZ

I have been using the same recipe for years now, I use yoshitas, honey, hot sauce, and a little water. slice meat(elk, deer, beef) and put into zip loc bag for a day or two in fridge flipping once or twice a day.. then I rack it on cabalas oven jerky racks these things are killer. crack oven at 185 degrees till done, when we lived in Monroe and were on natural gas it would be 6-8 hours. now in Sequim and on electric about 4 hours. keeps in a zip loc counter top for 3-4 weeks even big batches doesn’t make it longer than this.. everyone that tries it likes it, although I will say with deer it is just good... but everything else is great...

You add just enough and it's more of a sauce than a liquid anyhow so it doesn't screw up the sealing process...

Just do this:
6 pounds meat
1.5 cups soy sauce
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup Yoshidas regular
Teaspoon cracked black pepper
Teaspoon Sriracha (rooster sauce)
1/2 cup garlic powder
3 caps liquid hickory smoke

Cut meat to 1"x1"x length of want, Mix all together, soak meat at fridge temp for 24 hours mixing every 8 hours or so... Pull out wet put on smoker, sprinkle cracked black pepper on, smoke/dry for 4-6 hours to desired doneness, then follow the steps I mentioned above for the sealing process...

Dynomite!! Matter of fact, you won't look back... It's taken me years to dial this one in...

Keith

thanks Keith, will use next week!