So... first jerky smoke.
Started with 5 lbs of venison hip roast from last fall. Trimmed down to 4lbs with all fat, sinew and silverskin removed. The pieces were cut on a meat slicer (with the grain) so they were all slightly less than 1/4" thick.
Meat was put in the marinade at 2 pm on saturday. Came out of the marinade at 8:30 on sunday and in the smoker by 9am.
For smoking temp I went with 125 throughout out the smoke. I set it at 250 with the door open and 1.5 ounces of apple. Once it started smoking I dropped the temp to 125, inserted the trays and closed the doors.
I started checking doneness after 4 hours. Things were progressing nicely so I mixed a cocktail and set alarm to check back in 3 hours.
Starting to look drier on the ends but significant moisture on all pieces. set the alarm for 3 hours and made another cocktail/snoozed on the back patio.
10 hours in and half are ready to take out and the other half are back in. Conscious of the hour and the fact that it is a work day tomorrow, I raised the temp to 135 for the remaining pieces.
2 hours later and the rest of the pieces are done. Bang on 10 hours.
We did a taste test and found the chew to be good but nothing that would set your fitbit to tracking the activity. They definitely weren't salty enough so next time they will stay in the marinade longer. Using an internet tip we bagged all pieces in a ziplock and put in the fridge overnight as this is supposed to equalize the moisture content. Before doing that I laid all the pieces out and sprinkled a little old bay seasoning on both sides.
Monday evening after work we pull out the bag and sure enough each piece has a uniform moisture feel to it. As well, the old bay seasoning has given it some needed
flavour flavor.
Notes for next time. Definitely should have left in the marinade for at least 48 hours. Will likely try a dry cure.
FYI. The jerky fan is a dryer vent cover (home depot $11), a computer fan (free from old computer), and a 9 volt wall wart (left over from some piece of technology that died) and it performed flawlessly.