Making jerky in a smoker (Bradley)

[Wynette]

I'd like to make some jerky in my Bradley smoker - I just looked into purchasing the jerky trays, and they are EXPENSIVE. I'm sure they are nothing more than a regular tray with much smaller holes in the mesh. Can anyone give me some ideas on something that I can maybe lay inside my current trays that would do the trick? I thought maybe hardware cloth, but that's still too large of a hole. Any ideas?

Also, any hints/tips on making jerky in my smoker would be appreciated, too. Thanks!

 

[wegotchickens]

When I made venison jerky a spread the meat in a single layer on a cookie rack. The kind that has squares like hardware cloth, about 1/2" apart. It did just fine. I put a layer of foil underneath the rack in case any slipped through.
I don't have an official smoker though, just a grill that I use (large)

Weird that you posted this thread, as I was just thinking about making some beef jerky this morning. I need to get some beef from the freezer to thaw....

 

[Wynette]

I would think, though, that if I put foil down, wouldn't that stop the smoke from filtering around/through the meat?

I've never made it before, so I'm pretty excited to try!

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
I have a shelf on my grill/smoker that I can put the meat on, and the foil goes on the bottom shelf and keeps anything from dropping down too far.

 

[Wynette]

Oh, okay - so, you put the meat on the rack, and the foil a bit lower on a lower shelf?

 

[wegotchickens]

Yup, that's what I do. Plenty of circulation around the meat for the smoke.

Now I am really craving jerky!

I was considering doing the brine as just sea salt & roasted garlic this time

 

[Wynette]

Oh, man...I'm a huge fan of most anything garlic!

do you just cut your meat in thin strips, and "jerky" that, or do you grind it?

 

[wegotchickens]

Have always cut it into thin strips. Used to make it in the oven, after soaking it in a marinade. Can't handle the extra chemicals in most marinades now though. Nitrates, nitrites and sulfa compounds don't like me.

There's a guy at the farmers market selling home-grown garlic cloves 3/$1. So we've been eating a LOT of garlic lately! I roast 6 cloves at a time and mix the garlic with melted butter to spread on bread and corn and such. I spread some on a pork tenderloin the other night and roasted it in the oven and it was awesome. So I've been thinking about garlic jerky ever since.

 

[Wynette]

OH, man, does that ever sound

I'm going to check out some recipes on the Bradley smoker website for jerky! YUMMO! Thanks for all your feedback!!

 

[wegotchickens]

No prob! Not sure I really helped, since I do not have a real smoker.

Let me know how your jerky turns out!