Here is Waltons Inc says to do:
Stage Oven Smoke* Shower** Time
1 125° F Off Off 1 Hour
2 140° F On Off 1 Hour
3 155° F On Off 2 Hours
4 175° F On Off Until Internal Meat Temp Reaches 160° F.
5 000° F Off On 10 Minutes
* Do not use smoke if cooking in a household oven or dehydrator.
** To shower, simply spray with water for 10 minutes, or place product in an ice bath.
++ To increase humidity for a better looking final product, place a small pan of water in the bottom of the smokehouse during the entire cooking cycle.
Cooling: Hold 90 minutes at room temperature before moving to a fridge/cooler.
But honestly, when I tried this in my #3, I didn't get very good smoke because the temps were too low and when I did start bumping the temp up I never really did get much smoke. If you try this method, make sure you use chips or wood slivers to ensure you get smoke. My problem is that I used chunks and the temp was just too low to get the smoke going with this stepped-up method. Finally, this method just took FOREVER to smoke 1 batch of sticks (close to 12 hours) and when I do this I typically try to smoke two batches per day.
So, now my current method is very simple:
- Smoke at 150 for 1 hour without the Jerky Dryer
- Smoke at 200 for 1 hour without the Jerky Dryer
- Add the Jerky Dryer and smoke until the internal temp of the sticks hit 160° F
Notes- This method usually takes about 6-8 hours depending on how full the smoker is.
- 25lbs of sticks pretty much maxes my #3 out and that is on 6 shelves. So every 2-3 hours after I turn the dryer on, I rotate the trays top to bottom and front to back. Otherwise, the bottom shelves will get done way before the top ones. Another reason for doing this is because I have a hot spot at the back of my smoke box. So if I didn't rotate front to back, the back-side of the sticks would get burnt.
- This may seem too high of a temp and too fast for some people, but I needed to find a way to speed my smokes along so I could get two batches done per day without staying up until all hours of the night or getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to start the first batch.
This is what I found works best for me anyway. I would recommend experimenting with smaller batches until you find the method that works best for you.