Beef Jerky

[GrillMeister]

It's Jerky time and I want to try out my new Bull Rack Ultimate 6 on my Ironwood.

Start off with a very lean cut of beef. Eye of Round is probably the cheapest and leanest cut out there. Rather then deal with a bunch of little packs, I asked the butcher at my local HEB for the whole cryovac bag. He gladly accommodated me.

Next whip up a marinade. There are loads of marinades out there, but I do not want any sugar in mine as I want Keto Friendly beef jerky. Here's mine.

5 lbs meat

1.5 cups soy sauce
3/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. garlic powder
1 Tbs. onion powder
1 tsp. ground chipotle
1 tsp. black pepper
Optional: (I added a few sliced whole cloves of garlic)

Next make sure you trim as much fat as you can from your meat. Fat will go rancid over time and you don't want that. Then slice it thinly across the grain if you want tender jerky or with the grain if you want new dentures. Unless you have a very sharp knife, it helps to put the meat in the freezer for a short time to firm it up.

Now, just put the meat in a non-reactive container with the marinade for 24-48 hours. I put mine in a 2.5 gallon Ziplock. I also will open the bag and make sure all the slices of beef get access to the marinade. You can see the optional whole garlic slivers I added to this batch.

This Saturday, I'll be smoking the jerky at 165 for 5-7 hours. I'll pull a tray for SWMBO as she likes it very tender and I'll keep some smoking for longer for a drier jerky for bagging in vacuum bags for long term storage.

Stay tuned for more of the process this Saturday.

 

[Mr.Fabulous]

Can’t wait for the post-smoke report!

 

[Seed]

This is so cool.

 

[Sodaking27]

Can’t wait to see the finished results.

 

[GrillMeister]

It's Jerky Time! I got my Bull Rack 6 Ultimate out and washed it. This is the inaugural use. I have BR4 that fits in my Century 22, but when I bought my Ironwood 885, I knew the BR6 (which has 2 more trays and a drip pan) would fit. The Earthworks website has a sizing chart, but it has not been updated to show the Ironwood and Timberline models for the BR6. The Ultimate version gives you 6 perforated trays with 6 wire rack inserts to keep your jerky suspended for airflow and smoke. The bottom drip pan shown below makes it easy to load without making a mess. I had to put down a sheet of foil for my BR4 loading.

Next slide in a perforated tray.

Then drop in a wire rack.

Next start to add your marinated meat. Now many recipes recommend you dry your meat with a paper towel before placing on a rack for dehydration. That is not necessary with a Bull Rack in a Traeger, that is only for those air blown dehydrators that sit on your kitchen counter. No need to wipe your meat. Leave that tasty marinade on there. It will dry out just fine in the Traeger.

As you fill each rack, just add another perforated tray and rack and repeat till you have all the meat loaded.

A 6.92 lb whole cryovac Beef Eye of Round Roast needed just only 4 trays. I had to trim the fat, but there was still over 6 lbs. of meat. My slice is thicker than some jerky, but will work well for me.

Now, just carry it out to your Traeger and leave it in on Smoke for 5-7 hours depending on how dry you want your jerky.

I have mine at 165 on Super Smoke with Hickory Pellets.

Stay tuned for more updates later today.

 

[Mr.Fabulous]

Lovin’ it! I have always used London broil for my jerky, sliced across grain. May have to give this a shot. Definitely cost effective

 

[Seed]

Inspired! Ordered the same setup yesterday. Good stuff.

 

[GrillMeister]

Jerky turned out great! Flavorful and plenty of chew! Next time, I'll slice these big sliced in half though. One piece can keep you busy.

I like to vacuum pack mine. It keeps very well at room temp and even longer refrigerated or frozen. Just 3 to 4 pieces to a bag like this is great for sharing or taking on the road.

Let me know if y'all have questions.

Cheers,

 

[GrillMeister]

Inspired! Ordered the same setup yesterday. Good stuff.

Cool. When it comes time to for clean up, I just take the top rack out of my dishwasher and put everything in the bottom rack and run it through a cycle.

 

[GrillMeister]

BTW,

You have to assemble the rack for the BR6 and once done, it will not go back in the box like my BR4 does.

I found that this tote bin that you can find at Home Depot or Lowe's fits it perfectly. Just slide all your trays & racks in place and lower it in the bin and put the lid on and it's stored and ready for the next batch of jerky.

 

[CampWhatnot]

Well done!

 

[RemE]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing, that rack system looks like it will just fit into the TL850 as well.
Huge jerky fan, guess it's time to roll my own now. Found the racks on Amazon, free shipping.

 

[GrillMeister]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing, that rack system looks like it will just fit into the TL850 as well.
Huge jerky fan, guess it's time to roll my own now. Found the racks on Amazon, free shipping.

Yep, it fits in all Timberlines as well as Ironwoods!

Next batch, I'm heading to Costco and picking up 10 lbs of eye of Round so I can fill the whole rack.

 

[Seed]

Yep, it fits in all Timberlines as well as Ironwoods!

Next batch, I'm heading to Costco and picking up 10 lbs of eye of Round so I can fill the whole rack.

Im gonna go grab a slab tomorrow well. I'm itching to do this. Rounds seems like the way to go?

 

[GrillMeister]

Im gonna go grab a slab tomorrow well. I'm itching to do this. Rounds seems like the way to go?

Yep, Eye of Round is the most lean economical way to do BEEF jerky. The recipe I posted also works great on Venison. I marinate my Venison for 3 days before it hits the Traeger.