I did my first jerky this last weekend. Here's how it went. I had a couple of briskets to do so after getting them prepped and in the smoker I started on the jerky. I had 3 eye of the rounds from sam's. About 5 1/4llbs each. I made the mistake of cutting cross the grain when I sliced but did go with the grain for the strips. Removed all visible fat. I used the Hi Mountain Hickory cure/seasoning and marinated for 36hrs. I used paper towels to dry the meat before going into the FEC100 which was cold but with a set temp of 200*. I start all my cooks in the FE cold as to add a little more smoke. Used pure hickory pellets. After 1 hr. I opened the door to let out some of the moisture (lots had built up)then on for another hr. Again opened door for more moisture removal. At this critical point....the wife wants to go to the movies so I say well, 2 1/2 to 3 more hours should be about right. Bad move, had to catch next movie cause first was sold out, then just as it's over, wife gets called out for an emergency at the hospital. So after taking her there, I've now added a good 1 to 1 1/2 hours to the cook. Jerky ended up in the smoker about 5 hrs. Surprisingly, it still turned out pretty good. Because I cut it wrong it was still kinda tender as far a jerky goes. I did notice, even though I used enough cure/seasoning for a full 15# of meat for the 13# that I had after trimming, I thought it could have been seasoned better. All in all considering, I think it came out pretty good. Oh, I used 10 jerky rods spread over 2 of the 4 shelf brackets. I think you could do 30# in the FE without much trouble.
I'll post some pics when I can find my camera cable.
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