Jerky Bummer

[nhns4]

And after reading more posts I'm upping the temp a little lol

+1!  140 works great for me.   

How long.  Seems like mine has a way to go yet.  Since I had it at 115 for a while.

[DivotMaker]

If you've increased the temp, that will help.  You want to test it as you go.  Hard to say "how long;" all depends on the meat.  You want it dry, but not hard.  If the moisture is gone, and it still bends a bit without breaking, you're good!  It will stiffen a little more as it cools.

[Pork Belly]

Leave it at 115, your drying it. At 140 your cooking it then drying it. huge difference in taste and texture.

[DivotMaker]

Leave it at 115, your drying it. At 140 your cooking it then drying it. huge difference in taste and texture.

Disagree.  When I do jerky at 140, it comes out translucent - you can see light through the slices.  At 160, you cannot (it is cooked).  I personally don't think 115 is a food-safe temp for meat, and would never smoke beef at that temp.

[NDKoze]

I tried lower temps like 100-115 with a pretty full smoker and found that even with wood chips, I had a hard time keeping the smoke going for very long at that temp.

IMO 150-160 is the range where the meat starts to cook and should never go above. So, I usually smoke at 140-145. With an Auber you could maybe get away with 150, but I would still stay in the 140-145 range.

Maybe it is because I smoke such large batches, but it would take multiple days for my jerky to get done at 115. Maybe for smaller batches (less meat mass) you can get by with 115, but I find it just too slow considering I have not had any problems with the higher temp that I use.

Brian, based on my memory of your previous posts, I seem to remember that your smoker tends to run a little bit hotter than your dial. Mine actually runs a bit lower than my dial. So, I'm wondering if your actual smoking temps are closer to what Tony and I are suggesting? Or are you measuring 115 with a thermometer?

Since the meat is cured, I'm not sure that there would be any problems with food safety.

It would be a good test to try it at both temps with exactly the same process and meat to see if there is any discernible difference.

[nhns4]

Ended up probably 6 hrs at 115 and 6 hrs at 140. 
Used a cabelas brand sweet and spicy mix.   Turned out awesome.   Sure beats the dehydrator method.  Ordered up some mesh and another rack so I can utilize the whole smoker and do more per batch.

[DivotMaker]

Great, Nick!  I have a batch brined that I'll smoke this weekend (5 lbs of round eye roast).  Intended to do it last weekend, but we had a monsoon with really high winds and heavy rain....definitely NOT jerky smoking weather!  The air was so moist it would have never dried - even with the fan!