Smoked Beef Jerky
Jerky was always just jerky until I was introduced to the cowboy chunk style from Mahogany Smoked Meats in Bishop, CA. From 1980 until 2009 I always bought a pound to consume while on my annual High Sierra back country vacations. In 2010, after nearly 70 years, they stopped making it due to a crackdown by the FDA. They said MSM wasn’t bringing the meat to the ‘correct’ temperature while it was in their brick smokeouse. MSM told me they tried raising the temp but the product was ruined.
UPDATE: Mahogany Smoked Meats resumed production of cowboy style in 2011. They said they cut it a little thinner but it is still real good. Buy it here.
The past year I have been attempting to produce my own mahogany smoked jerky using a Luhr Jensen’s Big Chief electric smoker. Throughout the years I have tried many cuts of beef and now have narrowed it down to cross rib roast I buy at the supermarket. Also, short rib cut from chuck is good if it contains no fat.
I customized my Big Chief smoker by installing a Little Chief heating element. The Big Chief element was too hot.
Remove any excess fat and connective tissue from the cross rib roast and cut it into
one inch thick chunks. Dry salt the chunks using Hain or Morton sea salt by
coating all sides and edges generously but not so it is caked on. Put the salted meat in a zip
bag or plastic box and let cure in its own juices for 8 - 12 hours in the refrigerator.
After curing, rinse the meat with cold water and drain in a colander. If you don't rinse, it will end up too salty. Lay the chunks on the smoker racks so that they do not touch each other and let them air dry in the house for at least 1 hour The thicker chunks should be placed on the lower racks so that they are closer to the heat source.
While the meat is drying, turn on the smoker so that it is just starting to smell like burning wood before you install the rack of meat. If you put the meat in first and then plug in the smoker, flies will have time to get in there and lay eggs on the meat. Later on you might find dried up maggots on a few pieces. If the smoker is burning first, it will repel the flies.
With the Little Chief element it might take the mahogany 6 - 8 hours to start smoking after you plug in the smoker. Other wood like hickory or mesquite take less time.
Once the meat has air dried, slide the rack into the smoker and burn 1 pan load of mahogany sawdust and chunks. When using mahogany, one pan load will suffice as it is many times more dense than hickory, apple or alder. IMPORTANT: Spread a 1/4 inch layer of sawdust on the bottom of the burning pan, layer some solid chunks, then top it off with more sawdust. If the larger chunks are piled into the burn pan with space between them, they could ignite and cause a fire, which will ruin everything. Putting a top layer of sawdust over the chunks resolves this problem. If you put the chunks directly on the bottom of the burn pan without that first layer of sawdust they will not burn. Once the pan load of wood has stopped smoking, remove the pan. Don't leave the pan full of charcoal inside the smoker to smolder, as it willl throw off the flavor slightly. For the best flavor it is important to smoke the meat as soon as you put the rack into the smoker. Don't wait!!!
Depending on the air temperature outside, it will take between 4 and 7
days to
become jerky. The hotter the weather is, the faster it’s done.
After 3 days in the heat of the electric element, pinch the thinnest chunk.
If there is give that means it is still raw. Normally you will be
removing chunks of jerky one at a time throughout the week as they become hard, but not so hard they are
crunchy.
Keep the jerky in zip bags in the fridge. What will happen is the moisture in the middle of each chunk will rehydrate the outer dry pellicle and after a few days the dry/moisture will distribute evenly throughout the chunk.
This is the basic salted, smoked beef jerky with no flavorings. The resulting beef flavor and tenderness always, always, always depends on how fresh the meat is and what the animal was fed and who knows whatever other factors. When selecting the meat, be sure it is nice and bright red with bright red juice at the bottom of the packaging. If there is any gray or brown, don’t buy it.
It is not easy to obtain mahogany to smoke with. The name of the tree is mountain mahogany and is found in most western states around 7,000 – 10,000 feet on the dry slopes of mountains. I get it in the Eastern Sierra. There is some near Lake Sabrina right at the turnoff to North Lake. Also the whole northwest side of Convict Lake is a mahogany forest. The best wood is on a live tree but dead and bleached white like bones. It is hard like ironwood so you will need a chainsaw if you want thick logs. You can break the smaller branches off the tree too. It all smokes the same. Picture of a mountain mahogany, and another picture of one.
In 2011 I found an expansive mahogany forest along Sawmill Meadows Road on the east slope of Glass Mountain in Mono County off Highway 120. Lots of good bleached white wood is easy pickin's along the side of the road. You can use your truck to pull it out with a rope but don't let the forest ranger catch you. You're only supposed to pick up dead wood that is lying on the ground, not connected to a live tree.
I take my branches and logs and cut them on my table saw. I sweep the garage floor, put the saw down and keep feeding the logs into the carbide tip blade so that I end up with a lot of sawdust and small, thin slices that I use in the electric smoker burn pan. Be sure to remove any bark before cutting with the table saw.
In lieu of mahogany, Luhr Jensen’s bagged hickory chips that you can find at Big 5 or Sportchalet work well. With this wood you might need to burn 3 pan loads as opposed to the 1 pan load of mahogany.
Avoid using wood chips that are too big because there will be too much air between the pieces. The wood will ignite into flame and ruin everything.