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[BigDave83]

I will slice some both ways. I like more chew so with the grain for me, but the GF and a few others like the tenderness of across. I do cut mine in to manageable pieces. say 4-6 inches long.  also use cure so I am not that concerned with the fat that is on the pork loin, I trim silver skin and not much else on them except for that thin tail that runs the length it is just a hassle and I cut it off. I do trim up the fat on the whole eyes, if I find eye roasts, most of the time they are already trimmed. I have several different ways to cut mine, but lately I have just been sitting at the table and hand cutting with a knife. I need to find a better knife than what I use. For with the grain I have been wondering about that expensive mandolin I bought a few years ago, maybe a slight freeze and run it across if, not sure how it would work across the grain.

[Bar-B-Lew]

I used my LEM jerky slicer the last time.  Very fast and consistent cuts but expensive equipment if you don't do this frequently.

[slaga]

I am adjusting what I said earlier about as low as I can go for the temperature. With my Traeger it took about 5-8 hours at 150 to get it done. That was with a Savannah Stoker controller on a Traeger Lil Tex, where I could put the temperature probe anywhere I wanted and I put it just to the left of my jerky. So the temperature of the cooker was 140 to 160 just to the left of the food being cooked. The jerky at the front, back and right side (near the chimney) always finished closer to 5 hours and then the jerky on the top shelf and bottom shelf would finish next. Lastly, the jerky in the middle finished around the 8 hour mark. It was very predictable. This was my first try on the Copperhead 5 and I had a temperature probe sitting on the shelf below the bottom shelf used to cook jerky. I put the jerky on just before noon and used the top 6 shelves for jerky and the 7th shelf from the top was the one I had a temp probe placed in the middle. For the most part the temperature displayed on the controller was real close to the temp on the 7th grate. I rotated the jerky every 90 minutes. I moved the jerky on the bottom shelf to the top shelf and moved all the rest down 1 rack, spinning them 180 degrees each time I moved them down. After 6 hours (6 pm) on smoke mode bouncing between 130 and 150, nothing looked anywhere near done and I knew they would not finish by 10 so I bumped the temp up to 150 for an hour and check on them. At 7 pm I bumped it up to 180 and then at 8 pm I bumped it up to 200. They all finished at the same time around 9:30 or 10:00 last night. Every rack looked exactly alike, front to back, left to right. Everything cooked very evenly.  :cool:I will need to adjust my time and temperature as this is quite different compared to my Traeger experience. I will not go "as low as I can go", anymore. The jerky turned out great.

A couple of questions for you jerky experts. As I mentioned earlier, I've only made jerky using flank steak cut to ~5/16" thick. I'm going to make 10+ pounds to take on my yearly boat trip north. today I went to Costco and bought beef eye of round, center cut pork loin and flank steak (total 20+ lbs.). My questions concern both the pork and round eye. Do you slice with the grain or across grain (I cut flank across grain)? Do you slice it whole or do you cut them in half lengthwise to get more a manageable size for the slicer? And lastly, do you cook the pork to the same degree of doneness as beef? Thanks for the help.

I broke down in May and ordered the Weston Manual Jerky Slicer (07-3801-W-A) for $70. The tedious task of slicing the roast into steaks and then freezing them slightly to cut them up into the slices was a whole lot easier with this slicer. It was well worth it in my opinion. One of the bad reviews said that the meat kept getting hung up in the slicer and he had to take it apart repeatedly. Another said he had no issue with that as long as the meat was wet. I cut it into steaks (no freezing at all) and brushed a little olive oil on each side and the steaks went right through without any issues whatsoever. A lot of the slices were still slightly connected to the slice next to it and I had to pull them apart but it was a very minor nuisance. The first picture is showing the direction of the grain in the final product.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Very similar to my jerky slicer except mine is electric.  I had the same issue where it was not sliced fully through but I am fine with that compared to the time it saved and the consistency of the cuts which make it easier to load on trays and cook. I learned after a few cuts through the slicer that creating long steaks was better for jerky to me.  London broil was easy to do that with.  My knife blade is about an inch wide so I would use that as an approximation before I would slice the roast into long strips to run through the machine.


Glad to hear the Copperhead worked great for you outside of taking longer.  Next cook should be easier now that you have some history of how the grill performed.  I made about 4-5 pounds on the Copperhead a month or so ago and was pleased with the results.  Had similar length of cooking time issue as you, but I pulled it off and put it into the dehydrator at some point in the cook.

[slaga]

I am wondering if the water pan in the Copperhead 5 creates a more humid environment than what I had in the Traeger? I also realize the temp probe on the left side of the Traeger was the coolest location in the cooker so the jerky was smoking at temps a little higher than the 140-160 that the probe saw vs. the 130 to 150 I had in the Copperhead 5 for the first 6 hours. These slices (Weston Manual Slicer) were also a little thicker than what I did by hand on previous cooks. There a number of things that impacted the longer cook time. Time to "learn my pit" and figure out time and temps. This will be fun, especially now that the I have the jerky slicer. Slicing the meat was the least fun part before.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Where did you get those gadjets that hold the ziplocks open?

I too think that the water isn't helping dry out the meat.  I need to experiment with that at some point too.

[slaga]

They are called a "baggy rack" and we got them from Amazon.com.

[Bar-B-Lew]

They are called a "baggy rack" and we got them from Amazon.com.

Will check them out.  I just bought more of the limited edition half gallon ziplocks that have a pleat on the bottom.

[hughver]

Finished the eye of round  jerky, half done with slaga’s recipe and half done with a teriyaki/soy concoction. It’s hot here in AZ and I had a hard time keeping the Traeger below 185°. There is a way to tweak the SS4 controller to compensate for the heat but I could not remember how. I cooked them for four hours with the controller set to 150°. The slaga version is the better tasting of the two.

[slaga]

They are called a "baggy rack" and we got them from Amazon.com.

Will check them out.  I just bought more of the limited edition half gallon ziplocks that have a pleat on the bottom.

The arms are telescoping. You can put sandwich bags or gallon size bags and anything in between. Those are gallon size bags in the picture. My wife really likes soup and we will cook up a large batch and will portion it out into quart size freezer bags to freeze for a quick meal.

[slaga]

Finished the eye of round  jerky, half done with slaga’s recipe and half done with a teriyaki/soy concoction. It’s hot here in AZ and I had a hard time keeping the Traeger below 185°. There is a way to tweak the SS4 controller to compensate for the heat but I could not remember how. I cooked them for four hours with the controller set to 150°. The slaga version is the better tasting of the two.

Did it taste good? I like to sprinkle cracked black pepper on mine right before going on the smoker.

With my Savannah Stoker I would set my OutL at 15 and OutH at about 18 or so and change the cycle time to about 20 seconds. That is what I would do  to run it as low as it would go and still get a little cyclical smoke.

[hughver]

Thanks slaga, I'll give that a try when I do the flank steak tomorrow.

[Bar-B-Lew]

They are called a "baggy rack" and we got them from Amazon.com.

Will check them out.  I just bought more of the limited edition half gallon ziplocks that have a pleat on the bottom.

The arms are telescoping. You can put sandwich bags or gallon size bags and anything in between. Those are gallon size bags in the picture. My wife really likes soup and we will cook up a large batch and will portion it out into quart size freezer bags to freeze for a quick meal.

My wife does the same.  Was going to get some of these for her.