Being on holidays, I want to do as much smoking as I can. The night before I marinated some slices of round steak with DL Jardine Steak Seasoning, soy sauce and a little bit of water. The next morning, I took them out of fridge and dried them with paper towels.
At 8:15am, the chimney on and ten minutes later, the pit was lit. I grabbed a big chunk of Plum wood for the smoke source. I had to create an alfoil basket for all the small chunks of charcoal I had. In fact, most of what I bought were small chunks and would fall through the grate. I think I prefer heat beads as they tend to hold their heat longer and of course, are a uniform size compared to charcoal. Sure, lump charcoal smells great but I've found I end up using more.
I started this off with 2 of the vents at half and 1 open fully. At 8:40am, it was sitting nicely at 160F. About 10 minutes later, the rangehood temperature was starting to rise higher, so I closed off one of the vents. I want to try and keep it as low as possible for the jerky cook.
At 9:40am, the rangehood temp was 160F with just one of the vents opened. At 10:30am, the jerky was looking real good. I took a piece off to try and it tasted pretty damn good, just like store bought jerky without the extra toughness (yet). I was very pretty impressed.
At 11:30am, I tried another piece and it had a nice flavour and felt touch; snapped too. My wife said they tasted a little salty but honestly, I didn't pick up on that, probably because I'm use to jerky.
So, for my first attempt. It turned out great. I'm definitely going to do this again. I'll try a different marinade next time for sure.
At 8:15am, the chimney on and ten minutes later, the pit was lit. I grabbed a big chunk of Plum wood for the smoke source. I had to create an alfoil basket for all the small chunks of charcoal I had. In fact, most of what I bought were small chunks and would fall through the grate. I think I prefer heat beads as they tend to hold their heat longer and of course, are a uniform size compared to charcoal. Sure, lump charcoal smells great but I've found I end up using more.
I started this off with 2 of the vents at half and 1 open fully. At 8:40am, it was sitting nicely at 160F. About 10 minutes later, the rangehood temperature was starting to rise higher, so I closed off one of the vents. I want to try and keep it as low as possible for the jerky cook.
At 9:40am, the rangehood temp was 160F with just one of the vents opened. At 10:30am, the jerky was looking real good. I took a piece off to try and it tasted pretty damn good, just like store bought jerky without the extra toughness (yet). I was very pretty impressed.
At 11:30am, I tried another piece and it had a nice flavour and felt touch; snapped too. My wife said they tasted a little salty but honestly, I didn't pick up on that, probably because I'm use to jerky.
So, for my first attempt. It turned out great. I'm definitely going to do this again. I'll try a different marinade next time for sure.