Thought I’d share some pictures of some traditional smoked deer jerky on a ceramic cooker.
There is a few ways to do this, most guys lay strips on the grate but I’ve always hung from the elevated rack with toothpicks.
This was four backstraps from two late season January deer. I cut the straps into 5”-6” lengths and then fileted about 1/4” thick. The backstraps from these deer ended up as 6lbs of slicked jerky steaks.
I don’t make my own seasoning, I cheat and buy the pre-measured seasoning/cure. This batch was a combination of original and mesquite.
I applied ingredients and let sit in fridge for 36 hrs.
Today around 2:00 I started smoker (a Safire 19” ceramic Kamado)
Once temp stabilized at 225 I added dry hickory smoke chips. Most people recommend soaking chips but I usually don’t. Many people will also recommend delaying adding the smoke for an hour or two so it doesn’t overpower the thin steaks and cause them to come out bitter. I don’t and my jerky always seems to be the right amount of smoke flavor.
I cooked for 6 hours at 225 but probably would have been fine to pull off around 4.5-5 hrs. I never know when to remove jerky since a thermometer probe doesn’t work on such a thin piece of meat. I’d rather over- do jerky a little rather than it being under-cooked.
So there you have it! Oh and in case you were wondering the 19” grate will only do about 3 lbs of jerky at a time so I did half in the oven. It is no where near as good as the smoked jerky.
There is a few ways to do this, most guys lay strips on the grate but I’ve always hung from the elevated rack with toothpicks.
This was four backstraps from two late season January deer. I cut the straps into 5”-6” lengths and then fileted about 1/4” thick. The backstraps from these deer ended up as 6lbs of slicked jerky steaks.
I don’t make my own seasoning, I cheat and buy the pre-measured seasoning/cure. This batch was a combination of original and mesquite.
I applied ingredients and let sit in fridge for 36 hrs.
Today around 2:00 I started smoker (a Safire 19” ceramic Kamado)
Once temp stabilized at 225 I added dry hickory smoke chips. Most people recommend soaking chips but I usually don’t. Many people will also recommend delaying adding the smoke for an hour or two so it doesn’t overpower the thin steaks and cause them to come out bitter. I don’t and my jerky always seems to be the right amount of smoke flavor.
I cooked for 6 hours at 225 but probably would have been fine to pull off around 4.5-5 hrs. I never know when to remove jerky since a thermometer probe doesn’t work on such a thin piece of meat. I’d rather over- do jerky a little rather than it being under-cooked.
So there you have it! Oh and in case you were wondering the 19” grate will only do about 3 lbs of jerky at a time so I did half in the oven. It is no where near as good as the smoked jerky.
