Complete Information on making Beef Jerky

Day One:
• Purchase rump roast of bottom round roast (basically, any type of roast will do as long as there are no veins of fat).
• Freeze roast.

Day Two:
• Make marinate as below, combining all dry ingredients first, mix, then add all wet ingredients and mix well.
• Partially defrost roast (the meat cuts easier if it is partially frozen - especially the bigger roasts 5 pounds or over).
• Remove as much of the fat as possible.
• Cut strips of roast as thin as possible - I use a knife that is extremely sharp.
• Place strips of meat in marinate.

Day Three:
• Transfer meat to second plastic container. Try to get as much spices on the meat as possible. Pour remaining juice into second container.
• Place wood chips in pail of water to use in the fire for smoke flavor.

Day Four:
• Start your fire in the smoker.
• Add water to the water bowl.
• Add wood chips to fire, depending on taste.
• Spray each grill with a product such as PAM (this will make clean up easier). Do not use near fire.
• Place cuts of meat on grills as close as possible without touching or overlapping meat.
• Every 20 minutes move the lowest grill to the top so that the cooking process will be evenly distributed.
• Every 60 minutes, add more charcoal and wood chips to the fire.
• Once the grills have made the entire cycle from bottom to top and you are moving the same grill for the second time, rotate the grill 180 degrees this will help evenly cook all of the meat.
• After about 2 1/2 hours, you should be able to start pulling meat off of the grill - the thinner and smaller pieces will cook quicker. My preference for beef jerky is chewy and soft, the meat will have a shine to it. Your tastes might be for a fuller cooked meat.
• Place finished cooked meat to clean container. When all meat is finished, use container to store meat and place in refrigerator.
• As each grill is free of meat, remove from smoker and set the grill aside to clean. Allow a few minutes for the grill to cool.
• Clean grill with a nylon type brush such as a tire brush.
• After all meat is cooked, grills and water bowl is cleaned, clean the inside of the cabinet, Put all grills and water bowl back in smoker, add more charcoals to dry the smoker and equipment.
• After smoker is completely cooled, clean all ashes from smoker and cover smoker.

Equipment needed: Bandera smoker 10 additional grills - smoker comes with only 4 grills. Purchasing more allows you to make a larger volume of beef jerky. Contact New Braunfels at 1-800-232-3398. This allows you to make 6 pounds of jerky. After removing the fat and smoking the meat, there is about a 60% loss in weight, so that a 5 pound roast will make about 2 pounds of jerky. I make 16 pounds of jerky at once. 10 pound bag of charcoal lighter fluid wood chips for smoke flavor - your preference bottom round roasts sharp knife 2 sweater size containers for marinating meat - found at dollar type stores. soap, water, tire brush and SOS type pads for clean up. vegetable type spray such as PAM. cover for Bandera smoker pot holders for moving grills around in smoker

Equipment needed:
• Bandera smoker
• 10 additional grills - smoker comes with only 4 grills. Purchasing more allows you to make a larger volume of beef jerky. Contact New Braunfels at 1-800-232-3398. This allows you to make 6 pounds of jerky. After removing the fat and smoking the meat, there is about a 60% loss in weight, so that a 5 pound roast will make about 2 pounds of jerky. I make 16 pounds of jerky at once.
• 10 pound bag of charcoal
• lighter fluid
• wood chips for smoke flavor - your preference
• bottom round roasts
• sharp knife
• 2 sweater size containers for marinating meat - found at dollar type stores.
• soap, water, tire brush and SOS type pads for clean up.
• vegetable type spray such as PAM.
• cover for Bandera smoker
• pot holders for moving grills around in smoker

Ingredients for marinate for 6 to 8 pounds of meat, double each ingredient if cooking 16 pounds :
• 1/3 cup salt
• 1/3 cup coarse ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoon brown sugar
• 3 teaspoon celery salt
• 3 teaspoon onion powder
• 3 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup teriyaki sauce
• 1 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups water
• liquid smoke (I don't use, but it is an option that you can experiment with)
• save used apple cores in the freezer and add to fire to give a slight citrus taste

Beef jerky is an excellent source of protein, low in carbs (if on Atkins diet), packs well for vacation trips, great snack and an even better present to give to friends and family members. There is a large volume of work to make beef jerky, but the end result is worth it. Two pounds of jerky usually lasts me a month, the remainder I give away to friends and family members.