I have been on a jerky kick lately. Trying different types of mixes, ground beef, pork, etc. With good results too. But I wanted to try sliced beef jerky (actually the request came from my daughters). So I found a receipe and went to the store for supplies. At the meat counter, I looked at all kinds of steaks & roasts but was intrigued by brisket ends. This was the flat from the thin end opposite the point. All the fat was trimmed off. The grain was very straight and they had almost 4 lbs of them cheap. My receipe called for soy & wor sauce. Garlic & onion powder, TQ, lots of pepper. I added some apple cider vinegar, a little cayenne, and cut up some garlic cloves. Let this sit. I sliced the meat parallel to the grain about 1/4" thick. Some were long, some short but for my experiment I didnt really care. Put the meat & marinade in a gallon bag, sealed it, and put it in the fridge for 36 hours.
Then yesterday afternoon I put some of this meat in my dehydrator with some pepperoni beef sticks and let her rip. Put the rest of that brisket meat on skewers and hung in my 008 under the top rack. Used 2 ozs of hickory. Set temp at about 160 and waited. I checked both units after 3 hours. Meat from both seemed to be drying. just slowly. Checked again after 4 hours and the meat in the 008 was done. Pulled it and let it cool.
After 5 hours the dehydrator meat was done. Pepperoni beef sticks were excellent! But the brisket meat was too tough, chewy, and hurt our teeth. And did I mention DRY? Almost inedible. But to our surprise, the jerky made in the 008 was tender, a little smokey, and excellent! It was exactly the taste my kids were looking for. And the meat retained most of it's thickness unlike the meat in the dehydrator. And this was brisket meat!
I will do this again soon and will document with some pictures. Just another reason I now have to keep my 008 busy and keep thinking of different ways to cook.
bob
Original Post