Beef Jerky

I searched, and the only thread on the subject that i found was almost 2 years old.....

I made jerkey in my apartment oven for a couple years using THIS RECIPE, but being a homeowner now, I didn't want to trash my oven.

Yesterday, I won a contest for $500 and finally went out and bought a Masterbuilt Electric Smoker for $200 and cannot wait to get home and try it out!

I have been looking at different recipes, and it seems that 1/8inch thick slices of brisket (what I have been using) are not as favorable as Flank Steak or a Beef Round. I also see a wide variance of times (from 3-12 hours) but i think that the time is a funchtion of thickness, airflow and heat.

I was curious if anyone has an electric smoker, and what recipes/temp/cut you use. Here are the 2 recipes I am going to make on Friday night.


2 lbs. of flank steak
2/3 cup of soy sauce
2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoons of seasoning salt (recommend Lawry's)

Slice flank steak diagonally with the grain of the meat into very thin slices (If slightly frozen it slices more easily). Combine ingredients and marinate meat overnight or 12 hours. Be sure all pieces are covered (coated) with marinade. Drain excess marinade. Place meat on paper towels to soak up marinade. Meat should be squeezed as dry as possible in paper towels. Place individual pieces of meat on rack in oven at 140 to 160 degrees for seven to 12 hours, or until meat is dry throughout.


4 pounds lean beef, sliced into 1/4" strips
1/2 tsp hickory or mesquite smoke flavoring
1/4 cup soy or teriyaki sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp cracked black pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons molasses or brown sugar (optional)
1/2 cup barbecue sauce or ketchup

Choose lean beef only, as fat goes rancid when making jerky. Remove all fat from meat.
Beef top round, flank steak and rump work well. To make jerky that isn't hard to chew, slice across the grain no more than 1/4" thick and don't overdry it. If you freeze meat for a short time, not until it is frozen solid, but just until ice crystals form and meat can still be pierced easily with the point of a knife, then it will be easier to slice thinly. You can also use an electric slicer (Rival or Chef's Choice make home type slicers if you'll be making a lot of jerky).

Combine ingredients and marinate meat in a ziploc bag in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours, stirring occasionally. Be sure marinade gets between the slices and covers the meat.

Drain liquid and place in smoker, oven, or food dehydrator at 160-180°F. Turn when dripping stops. They are ready when jerky is dry enough to easily break off a portion, but still has enough resilience to crack when bent, but not break (4-8 hours). It should not be tough and leathery.

I am going to ignore the times in these recipes, and check them hourly after the 4th hour, and will be able to tell when it is done.

Don't forget to follow-up with the results.

Had a buddy once that made deer jerky, and often experimented with the recipe. God, that was some good stuff...

I have that exact smoker. I normally make jerky with a temp of 130 degrees. One problem you might run into is that the way this smoker makes smoke, it will be hard to get a heavy smoke going because the element will not be on for any extended periods. I use really dry saw dust (pecan and hickory) in my wood tray. Start with the smoker set at least to 220 degrees to warm the unit up with the damper wide open. have the saw dust in the pan. once you get the unit to 220 and you are getting smoke drop the temp down to what ever you want. You might need to do this a couple of time while you are dehydrating to reignite the wood.

My dad and brother are always making beef and deer jerky. They both marinate the meat (sliced) at least overnight then put it on the dehydrator. it takes a good day or two before it's done but DAMN is it good! Not sure of their recipes...

Forgo the oven completely and allow the meat to air-dry.

Old school, baby!

Alton Brown's episode on jerky is pretty ingenious. Use cellulose furnace filters as the drying trays over the ubiquitous home box fan. Works great!

toddrod said:

I have that exact smoker. I normally make jerky with a temp of 130 degrees. One problem you might run into is that the way this smoker makes smoke, it will be hard to get a heavy smoke going because the element will not be on for any extended periods. I use really dry saw dust (pecan and hickory) in my wood tray. Start with the smoker set at least to 220 degrees to warm the unit up with the damper wide open. have the saw dust in the pan. once you get the unit to 220 and you are getting smoke drop the temp down to what ever you want. You might need to do this a couple of time while you are dehydrating to reignite the wood.

Click to expand...

I read that on Cabella's reviews of the smoker, thanks for the tip on how to overcome it. it won't help that I will be running the smoker in a 100degree poarch, so it will almost never run...

I also read to run it at 165 for the first 2 hours to make sure that Ecoli and Salamanilla are both killed.

I make jerky every week for my wife's diet. I use a dehydrator. I know that seems like a bland option, but I do a different recipe every week. You can marinade before hand with just about any poo that takes your fancy and it still always works out better than the commercial stuff.

I guess I have no advice to offer except play your heart out on recipes, you just can't fail. I'm doing fish, chicken, and any other meat I can find very soon.

General Tso's Chicken Sauce makes a great marinade, we buy it at our supermarket. I like to make one batch super hot with dried peppers from the garden, then the rest not so hot or not hot at all.

We use a Little Chief electric smoker. For our last batch we cut up a roast into strips and used straight Teriyaki sauce as the brine. It sat overnight and we smoked the following day for 10 hours at 130 degrees, this is the default setting (and only temp), we used three trays of Alder. The jerky came out great! One step not to forget, don't forget to leave the strips fresh out of the brine, out in open air for an hour before you rack and smoke.

Also, try the Teriyaki and garlic, this came out pretty good as well.

My latest batch, made with eye of round.

1 cup soy
1 cup Worchestershire
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
2 tsp chipotle seasoning mix
1 TBSP honey
1.5 tsp liquid smoke (mesquite)

Soaked overnight, then dried on window screens over a box fan for approximately 12 hours.

I use a food dehydrator and the following:

1 eye of round roast placed into the freezer for 15 min to firm up

Slice against the grain about 1/4 inch

mix the following in bowl

1 bottle soy sauce
1 Tbls onion powder
1.5 Tbls granulated garlic
1 tsp cayenne
1 Tbls cracked black pepper
A few shakes of tabasco, liquid smoke, and worcestershire.

Add equal amout water to soloution.

toss in meat and soak overnight.

I went through two of those smokers about four years ago and ended up getting the bradley smoker. The thermostat went out on both of them within a week or two. Bought them at cabelas so I just took them back. The bradley is not without it's problems either. You have to keep an eye on it to make sure that the feeder is really working. Other than that it works great. I haven't used it for jerky, only sausage and salmon. In the past, I've smoked jerky for a while to give it flavor and then finish it on the dehydrator. Smokers aren't very trustworthy at low temps IMHO. They'll cook the meat before you know it instead of just drying it out.

I used to have a small Jerky Company called Armageddon Jerky.

Sold my stuff mostly online and at Motorcycle Shows.

I made four basic flavors, and would come up with an "experimental" flavor about every three or four months.

Did really well....working out of a small church commissary and my apartment, got to the point where I needed to expand dramatically or give it up. I gave it up. I know, I know, a church commissary and a Jerky Company called Armageddon.......

Dried mine in a commercial dehydrator...at any rate I have scaled down versions of all of my marinades.

O.G. (Original Gangster, this was the first marinade I came up, with hence the name)

Armageddon (my companies namesake, not for the weak at heart, this stuff is made with Red Savina's, up until a couple years ago the Savina was the hottest chile known to man)

China Syndrome (nice and spicy, but no where near as hot as Armageddon)

Teriyaki (one of my best sellers...)

All marinades are soy based, and use liquid smoke. The liquid smoke can be eliminated if you plan on drying the Jerky in a smoker.

I've always had good luck with Excaliber brand dehydrators whether it's one of their commercial grade dehydrators or the smaller home cook versions.

If any one is interested drop me a PM and I will glady send the recipes. I only have hard copies here at home, the soft copies are on my work PC, I won't be back at work until Dec 1st........let me know if anyone would like copies of the marinades?