Well, here is the start of the jerky season.  Don't know why, but always seem to make more jerky when it is cold outside.  I usually marinade for 24-48 hours in the spice and liquid with a cure and then I put some rub on top before it goes on the smoker.  I smoke for about 2 hours at 180°-200° depending upon the pellet grill I use and then 160° in the dehydrator for about 3-4 hours.

12/18/18 pork jerky cook - mostly Frank's Stingin Honey Garlic marinade with some Cabela's rubs on top before cooking (Pecan Honey, Maple Jalapeno, Maple Bacon Bourbon Chipotle) and some Teriyaki without any rub on top.


12/22/18 deer hind quarter - split into a 3rd each of a store bought seasoning Memphis marinade with some pecan honey rub on top, store bought inferno seasoning with some maple bacon bourbon chipotle on top, and garlic pepper in water marinade with garlic pepper on top


My brother, my buddy, and me will split the pork jerky.  The deer jerky was from a hind quarter another buddy shot about a month ago.  He paid a ransom to have jerky made for him a few years ago so I told him I could to it for much less and hopefully better tasting.

There is about 4# of jerky in each cook.

I am probably cooking about 50# (meat weight before trimming and dehydrating) of beef on Monday and Thursday for jerky.  It is nice to have the last two weeks of the year off of work and clean out my freezers of the meat I bought on sale over the last 3-6 months.

Seems like I am doing something every day on vacation - cut meat, marinade, smoke/dehydrate...repeat.   Funny, how fast it goes when people want 3# net weight of jerky at a time.  If all goes well, I will make about 100# of gross weight meat into jerky over these last few weeks of December.


Bentley, you can move this into the "Cooking" section if you want.  Please give it until the end of the year as I think it will get more visibility in this section until then.  Thanks!

If anyone has any questions on the process, fire away.  I love to help out where I can.  It is pretty easy to make great jerky at least 1/3 less than store bought stuff if you have the right equipment.

That looks really good.

I love the jerky slicer attachment.  Over 10# of meat sliced in only a few minutes.  In the marinade now, and getting cooked tomorrow.

The jerky lasts such a short time here...

I need to go check my math but this is somewhere between 10-11#.  It is now in the dehydrator.  I have between 50-60# raw beef in the fridge thawing for a cook on Thursday.  May take 3 grills and at least 2 cycles on each.

Just pulled from the dehydrator.  About 3.5 hours in smoker at 190° and 2.25 hours in the dehydrator at 160°.  Didn't weigh yet to figure out the yield.  Will probably vac seal in the morning.

33.3% yield from the original packaging weight.  46% yield from trimmed weight before the smoke/dehydration.  I hope the cure works on this batch because it has a ton of marbling that even still exists in the final product.  Just vac sealed into 15 five ounce bags.  I sell it to my buddies for $1/oz which is why I make 5oz packages...makes it easy math and $5 a bag.

is that bottom round?

is that bottom round?

It is termed London Broil here.  Sometimes it is bottom round and sometimes it is top round.  I have never had any with that much marbling before from the same grocery store.  And, it was less than $2/# on sale.

Yeah the marbling is getting into the BMS Score of 5 area!  Does it become problematic with dehydration with as thick a cut as you use?

Yeah the marbling is getting into the BMS Score of 5 area!  Does it become problematic with dehydration with as thick a cut as you use?

I think it dehydrated fine.  I'm curious if the fat will add more flavor.  I am concerned it may spoil faster though.  i did use the cure, vac seal, and refrigerate.  Will probably freeze once we finish the other batches this week and allocate the packages to everyone involved.  I have 14 more roasts to slice tomorrow so will be interested to see if they have similar marbling.

I have 29# of sliced beef in the marinade to make into jerky tomorrow.  Gonna be a long day.  Hope I can get it all completed.

We ended up with about 16# of jerky that i put in 5 oz vac seal bags.  I started cleaning up the grills and firing them up at about 8:30am.  I think it was about 9pm when I went to bed after my wife driving my buddy home.  Great time with friends and family during the day.  I just hate the cleanup afterward.

So you have your Jack Link's jerky, fairly popular brand @ $5.49 for 2.85 oz. Now maybe I am wrong with my assumption, but I am assuming this is 16 pounds of finished jerky.   So you have 256 oz. of jerky or $493 worth of jerky.  You need a jerky safe!

So you have your Jack Link's jerky, fairly popular brand @ $5.49 for 2.85 oz. Now maybe I am wrong with my assumption, but I am assuming this is 16 pounds of finished jerky.   So you have 256 oz. of jerky or $493 worth of jerky.  You need a jerky safe!

I probably had closer to 25# including my other cooks within the week (not including the venison).  I ended up with over 5# left for me.  Sold the rest for $1/oz to friends and family which is almost half price of the Jack Link's jerky and I think it tastes better than Jack Link's too.