First batch of jerky

In the little Master Forge smoker from the box Home Improvement store.

We've been looking on and off for a smoker. I read Cowgirl's Country Life. She has one amazing blog. It can make me hungry even if I've just eaten.

You've been warned. ;o)

She has to be a master smoker, and a very accomplished cook as well. If I'd had the sense to ask her, instead of us just making a spur of the moment purchase, we probably would not have bought this smoker. But we did.
One of the first things I learned about it? The temp gauge on the front does not read right.

But, in getting it ready to smoke the jerky, I was surprised to see it read pretty close to the same as the 2 oven thermometers I placed inside it. Why 2? I didn't remember I had bought one when we tried to make jerky in the itty bitty trailer oven, haha. And we bought one. So, I put one on the top smoker rack, and the other on the near bottom smoker rack. They were identical in their readings.

Yes, I am confused.

But, using thermometers is cheaper than a digital reader thingy for me; and simple enough for me to use, too.

Anyway, here is the jerky and some things I have learned:

It is extremely hard to get the temp low enough for jerky. It needs to be in the 165F-170F range. I thought when I went to bed last night, that I had it about 175F, which should have worked; but this morning it was closer to 200F.
So the jerky is... crunchy, haha! But I've done that before in my most used method - a regular oven.

The jerky is salty. That's my fault. I've never marinated such a small batch of meat before. And it has been about a year since I've made any. I should have known to rinse the meat after taking it out of the marinade. I only marinated it about 4 hours though. I didn't think it was that long when I have marinated meat over night. That, I always rinse.

Next time, I'll make it during the day. Night time has always been the time I made it before. Once I get the temperature set, pop it in, go to sleep, by morning, it's usually done. (If I got it in about 6 PM.)

I miss the smell of the jerky drying. It always made the house smell fantastic!

Next batch, I'll play around with ways to keep it a little cooler. No picture, but I used an old rake head this time. I'll try to remember to take a picture next time.

That's it for tonight. Have a blessed week!

P.S. the picture of the smoker came from an about dot com post I had read when I first realized the smoker heat gauge was waaaaaay off.

P.P.S. If you need a jerky recipe, or another jerky recipe, just email me and I'll happily share mine with you. It's not spicy, we don't like a lot of heat, but you can always make yours spicy. ;o)
I've used my recipe with deer and moose; and with salmon too when we lived in Alaska, but salmon is too oily to dry properly.