How To Make Beef Jerky On A Pellet Smoker

I know what you’re thinking Joe’s gonnasmoke another brisket not today ontoday’s video I’m gonna be smoking upsome beef jerky on my Yoder why 640pellet smoker stay tuned[Music]all right so what we’re starting with isa nine pound beef I have ground and thisis a superior Angus beef I saved thepackage to so you guys can see that I’venever seen the superior Angus beef tagbefore so this has got to be a prettygood piece of beef now I did reach outto my buddy riot cooking with rye and Iasked him hey what piece of meat do Iuse for making some beef jerky becausehe is the beef jerky master he’s done iton an offset smoker and he recently dida video on a pellet smoker so I’m gonnaleave a link up top to his channel rightup here so you guys can see that andcheck out some of his beef jerky videosas well so again I’ve got a nine poundbeef I have round and it’s got some faton the outside so I’m gonna trim it upone thing I was doing is I was justtugging at this right now and it kind ofcomes off real easy it’s I’ve neverreally seen this before but this is apretty lean piece of meat so I’m justgonna keep tugging and see what happensbut look at this it comes off prettyeasy now I did get one of therecommendations from rye as well as faras to this as far as to put the meat inthe freezer for a little bit cuz itmakes it easier to slice I do have ameat slicer right here next to me on myleft side and I’m gonna use that to makesome nice not too thin and not too thickslices okay so I’ve got some silver skinthat I’ve got to remove and this sidehas a good hunk of fat so the the thetrick of putting it in the freezer for alittle bit that right mentioned in oneof his videos I do that with my brisketsI actually put them in the freezer forabout 30 minutes before I get totrimming them because I think it’s a loteasier to trim a brisket when it’s coldokay so we saw what I did there I justpinched right through this silver skinhere just trying to stay right below ithere and then cut across but straightand then lift up one side hold yourknife flat like that that way you don’tgouge a whole lot of meat here’s somemoreso this is gonna be a process becausethere is a lot of silver skin throughoutthis entire beef I have rounds as youcan see here okay it’s not too badactually to trim it’s the silver skincomes off pretty easy so if you notice II cut a flap okay so I cut a flap stayabove right up right above that meatright below the silver skin lift it andthen put your knife down and then keepslicing but try to stay right rightbelow that silver skin you can almostsee your knife okay there you go here’sa little bit a little bit more I enjoytrimming meats this is really lean lookat thatbeautiful piece of meat so got some faton this side I’m just gonna trim some ofthis off I think it’s okay you’re justlosing a little bit of meat it’s notgonna hurt anything so the meat is notfrozen but it’s really really cold andthat’s what you want I think it makes atrimming process a little bit easieryou know I I travel a lot for work andyou know you stop by the store and getsome get some Road snacks if you willand you know I really like beef jerkyand I used to buy the beef jerky thestore-bought beef jerky but that stuffdoesn’t taste really good you knowthere’s a lot of preservatives in thatand I just don’t like it I mean I usedto I used to like it but it almosttastes like fake meat I don’t know aboutyou guys leave a comment and if youthink that that store-bought be jerk isjust not good I don’t like it I preferto buy my beef jerky from a store thatthat specializes in beef jerky they’rekind of popping around the country Imean I’m in Texas and they’re pretty bigin Texas and parts of New Mexico as wellyou see these stores itself nothing butbeef jerky and it’s pretty good sohere’s the that fat cap if you will soI’m just gonna trim off a little bit cuzI don’t want to dig another meat toomuch there you go not too bad now youdon’t want a whole lot of fat on yourbeef jerky okay especially if you’regonna you’re gonna try to preserve it alittle bit I think this will cause it tospoil so this feels like a pretty bigfat cap so I’m just gonna cut a littlebit and try to stay right below the fatthere so they’re got a little bit ofmeat not too bad and then just a smalltrim hereand I want to show you guys this processjust you know in the event that you wantto make some beef jerky yourself thatyou know what to expect when you’retrimming this I don’t like to edit mytrimming process out of my videosbecause you know a lot of you guys willhave questions man I wonder how hetrimmed this or I wonder how you trimthis period so I like to to show peoplehow I do the trimming process anyway getsome of the silver skin off that party’snot gonna hurt anything but again thisis a really nice piece of meat here so Igot some meat here and I got some fat soI’m just gonna again try to stay underthat fat right there so I’ve probablytaken off maybe a pound and a half offat and there’s a little bit of meat butthat’s okay I got a real sharp knifethis is a hammer stall filet knife supersharp I keep it sharp you always want totrim with a good sharp knife and thecold piece of meat I think it makes iteasier the trim alright we’re almostdone herea little bit more just a little justsome small pieces of fat here you cantake this off a little bit here I thinkin future key doesn’t have to have ashape I think the different pieces aregood because you’ll have some thickpieces and some thin pieces and I thinkthat’s that’s how beef jerky should belike a puzzle if you will differentshapes and sizes need a bit more fatthere we go that looks good to me I’mgonna take this looks like it’s a pieceof oxidized meat here just take that offas well briskets will have that on theedges too so there we go guys a littlebit more silver skin here okay I likethis a little bit more fat here didn’tsee that all right I’m gonna clear outmy counter fire up or connect my slicerand I’ll bring you guys back to staytuned all right so I’ve got my meatslicer all set up now this is a Cabela’scommercial grade meat slicer and it hasa knob on this side right in front of methat lowers is deck where your meat isgonna sit okay and you can see it kindof going up and down here if you movethe knob the higher the number thethicker the piece of meat so just inlooking at this if it’s at zero it’sflush one is real thin it’s almost likean eighth of an inch two is a littlethin I don’t think I’m like in threeokay so I’m gonna I did cut the the beefinto thirds just to make it a little biteasier to handle okay so I’ve got itherejust gonna push down on this just alittle bit not too much and then I’mjust gonna turn on the meat slicer andcut a test slice if you will and see ifthat’s thick enough for me so here we gookay so this is what we’ve got righthere and I actually like that okay it’snot too thin not too thick and if thepieces are too big I’ll slice them inhalf but I actually like this size righthere it’s kind of kind of thick littlelittle not too thin okay but I’m gonnago ahead and slice this up I’ll comeback and show you what the slices looklike stay tuned all right so I wanted tobring you guys back real quick and showyou that the grains of this beef Iaround they run the length of the of thepiece of meat okay so I don’t want toslice them this way I want to cutagainst the grain not with the grainbecause I think that you’ll end up witha tough piece of jerky so I’m slicingthem I’m putting on my meat slicer thisway so it cuts against the grain okayand again let me show you just anotherlittle piece that I that I cut I thinkthis is a good size probably it’s notreally an eighth and it’s not really aquarter of an inch so it’s right therein between this is what I’ve got so I’mgonna continue slicing and as soon as Igot an all sliced up I’ll bring you guysback stay tuned all right so I’ve got mymeat sliced up and I’ve got severaldifferent piles here and I want to showyou the reason why so these pieces hereare pieces that I don’t think need to becut because I think they’re just theperfect jerky size and trimming and Ialso have a small pile of these are justlittle scraps okay that I’m not gonnaturn into jerky but I can do somethingwith this later so I’m gonna save thatand this pile I had the pile of meathere and I just sliced right down themiddle and the reason I did that isbecause I felt they were too big forbeef jerky so now I’ve got these smallerpieces here if I can grab one just likethis okay so that’s the reason why Islices this in half and I’ve got anotherpile here that I’m gonna do the exactsame thing just slice it right down themiddle and I pile them up okay so that’snicelet’s slice this one in half as wellagain just so you don’t have a big pieceof beef jerky okay that’s the onlyreason I slice them like that all rightso the next step and I’m gonna show youI want to marinate these and these aregonna marinate for 24 hours before Ieven put in on my smoker so I’m gonnadoing this the day before so I’m justgonna grab a pile of this meat here putit in a baggie two piles actually justlike thatokay so I’m gonna make three baggiesmaybe even four bag uses a lot I didn’tthink I was gonna be a lot but this is alot of beef jerky here so okay there’s alittle bit there actually I want tothrow some of these little pieces inhere too and I’m gonna take actually nothat’s good I’m just going to put someof these pieces in this bag as well okaya little bit more in this one okay youhave three different batches is what Iwant to make okay there you go and thenthese pieces here all rightso RIE I was texting Rai and he saidthat he loves the teriyaki beef jerky soI’ve got this sweet baby Ray’s this is ateriyaki sweet teriyaki wing sauce andglaze but I might use it as a marinadeokay so I’m just gonna put some of thisin there just like that put enough of itokay this one is also gonna get some ofthat same marinade in fact they’re allgonna get it but I’m going to show youwhat I want to do different to each oneto each bag okaygive some in here just like that andthis tastes good right out of the bottleokay so this batch right here I’m gonnatry to take a lot of the air out thatone is just gonna have the teriyakiglaze by itself and I’ll I’ll mix thisup jindal 15 K separate the the piecesof beef in there so they all get niceand marinated so on this one here I’vegot some fresh cracked peppernow this was a half I think a half cutpepper and I just put it in my mygrinder I’m gonna put a little bit ofpepper in here with this glaze mmmyeah it’s a lot of meat so I thinkthat’s good don’t want to overdo it okayso this one is just the teriyaki withpepper you can try to take out a lot ofthe air out of the bag and this one isgonna be some teriyaki glaze with somered pepper flakes and get a little bitof spice right or a lot of spicedepending on how you like it okay try toget all the air out okay and you want tomix this up really good you can get someof that glaze again this is a glaze butI’m using it as a marinade and it tastesreally goodso I know this bee jerk he’s gonna bepretty darn good okay here’s the onewith a pepper you can see the pepperinside the bag there just mix it all inthere make sure every piece of meat getsome of the marinade get some of thatpepper there you go just like that okaythat’s what we got right there so it’sgonna have a good peppery taste becauseof the pepper the amount of pepper thatI put in there and I’ll shake these alittle bit more off camera you guys knowwhat to do there and then this is theone with the red pepper flake here okayI’m gonna do the same thing mix it allin there get that pepper flakewe’ve got teriyaki glaze all over thisand I’m gonna see which one I like youknow is the teriyaki by itself gonna begood I know this one with the red pepperflakes gonna be good in fact thatthey’re all gonna be really good cuz Iagain I tasted the the sweet teriyakisauce out of the bottle and it’s got areally good flavor but I was like mmm Ithink a little bit of spice a little bitmore pepper will be good so these aregonna go in my fridge for 24 hours I’llsee you guys tomorrowwhen I put these in the smoker staytuned alright so it’s been 24 hourssince we put the jerky to marinate andthis is the beef jerky with just theteriyaki sauce this is the teriyaki withblack pepper and I add a little bit moreblack pepper before I put these in thefridge because I didn’t think it wasenough black pepper and then I also puta little bit more red pepper flake onthe teriyaki pepper flake beef jerkybecause I didn’t feel that there wasenough once I mix it all up so it’staking a look at this it’s gonna bemessy okay so what the color of thejerky actually got a little bit darkerit smells good actually and all I’mgonna do is just place them evenly onthese cooling racks so I’m gonna havedifferent shapes different sizes youwant to make sure you don’t have twopieces of jerky that are on top of eachother give them a little bit of space aswell that way the smoke is able to toget around the entire piece of jerky sohere’s a couple pieces here okay soagain this is the beef jerky with justthe teriyaki and I might have to make acouple of batches because I’ve only gotthree of these cooling racks but I’mgonna use today now I know that theorder makes a shelf system so if I likethe way this beef jerky turns out whichI think I’m gonna be pretty happy withit I’m gonna I think I’m gonna invest inthose racksthere’s the peppered oneokay you can see that there’s pepperdefinitely present in that beef jerkeythere and this has a really good smellas well so just take out a couple piecesof this each case and see this man thissmells good oh you can definitely tellthat there’s some pepper present youknow compared to this one that thislooks plain with the teriyaki sauce solet’s take a look at our third batchwhich is our teriyaki and red pepperflake I have a feeling this one’s goingto be my favorite because it’s not onlyit’s gonna be hotbut I’d like a little bit of spice okayand as some of the be tricky folds overwithin each other just make sure youopen it up that way it cooks evenly youcan see the red pepper flakes in therethat are present in the turkey now asfar as the moisture content you knowthere is a lot of moisture because ofthe teriyaki sauce that I’m using as amarinade there’s nothing wrong withdoing this but just know that it mighttake a little bit longer for thatsurface to dry but this is also going tobe a little bit kind of tacky jerky ifyou will um we’ll see I mean I’m justgoing based off of what the teriyakisauce consistency looks like what youcan see the red pepper flakes there solet me spread these out on these racksI’ve got my Yoder y 640 pellet smokerset at 165 and I’ve never ever used mysmoker at 165 before and the smell ofthe smoke is totally different thananything that I’ve ever done beforebecause I think there’s a heavier smokepresence and that’s what you want that’swhat you want to cook at that 160 165the Yodo a 640 Feld smoker you can setit as low as 150 but I think that’sgonna prolong the cook I think 165 isgonna be that magic number so let mespread this jerky out evenly and beforeI put him in the smoker I’ll bring youguys back stay tuned alright so I’ve gotmy beef jerky on the yoader why 640failed smoker and again my temperatureset at 165 you can see a lot more smokethan normal that’s what you’re gonna getat these lower temperatures okay 165 soI’ve got my plain teriyaki jerky up topI’ve got my red pepper flake teriyakijerky down here and the teriyaki andblack pepper over here now the reason Idid it this way is I don’t want theflavors of the pepper or the red pepperflake to fall on my plain teriyakiTurkey and vice versa I didn’t reallydon’t want the flavors to blend if youwill so I’m gonna give this it close thelidI’m gonna give it about maybe an hourand a half and I will probably onlyrotate the red pepper flake and theblack pepper the two on the bottom justrotate them from left to right so we’llsee you guys in about that one half staytuned all right so we’re one and a halfhours into the cook let’s take a look atthis jerky oh yes so it looks like someof these closer to the edgeoh the smoker and even in the back isgetting a little toasty okay so what Itry something different here it’s gonnarotate these well these look good so I’mgonna have these change the deer in thedirection of these those are theteriyaki and pepper and these are theteriyaki and red chili flake you can seethe red chili flakes in there so againthe ones that were in the front got alittle bit toasty that’s okaythose will still be edible okay so I’mjust gonnaactually I’m gonna rotate these likethis try to stay away from that frontedge but that’s a you know somethingI’ll do different next time you know tokeep them off of his front edge becausethat the heat does come from the bottomon the edges all the way around so thistop rack looks pretty goodthese ones in the back are a little bitdrier if you will you can see here sothese are nowhere near being done butthat’s what we look likeit’s almost transparent you can almostsee right through it’s got a nice darkred color okay so I’m gonna give thisanother hour and a half and we’ll comeback and check on I can tell you thatthe surface is drying nicely okaythere’s still a couple that are thesurfaces wet but the jerky has shrunkdown only an hour and a half into it andthe surface is pretty dry so so far sogoodstay tuned alright I wanted to bring youguys back real quick just for a quicksecond and to let you know that I didturn the temperature down to 160 youknow I don’t like that the front edgethough that one tray was was a littlebit darker I’m not sure if that’s gonnahelp but I think 160 might help a littlebit more help keep the beef jerky fromovercooking if he will so I’m gonna try160 at this point actually ate thatlittle piece that was a little cooked onthe front edge and it was the teriyakiand the red pepper flakes and it wasreally good nothing wrong with it but Ijust don’t want to get the jerky thatdark color so I turned it down to 160again we’ll see you guys in about anhour and a half stay tuned alright sothree and a half hours into the cook nowand what I did is I rotated the pepperones that were on the far bottom rightand I moved them to the top and theteriyaki ones I put them on the bottomthe surface is dry enough now that Idon’t have to worry about any sauce oranything dripping on tothe other pieces of jerky so I’m okaywith with moving them around now theservice is nice and dry and I’ll showyou here just grab one of these a littlebit stuck but that’s what we look likenow as far as it and it’s almost readyvery crazy so I think that when Raicooked his beef jerky his was a littlebit thicker I want to say I I think Isliced mine a little thinner than ryeand that’s why I’m getting that thatbreakage already so these are almostready the service is you know prettypretty dry already in fact I want tocome this ready you know maybe another30 minutes for these anyway it seemslike the smoker was definitely hotter onthe bottom right-hand side that’s whythese are almost ready the this is theteriyaki only okay and these I can tellyou they still need more okay you cansee it right there it’s still notcrackingso these teriyaki ones need a little bitmore and let’s look at this one this isthe teriyaki with pepperthis one’s breaking as well so I’m gonnagive them another maybe 20 minutes andI’ll pull them off so stay tuned I sawour beef jerky is ready and the totalcook time was four hours and 15 minutesand again I lower the temperature to 160on that first hour and a half of 165 Ifelt was a little too hot and 160actually worked perfect okay and and Ididn’t want the jerky crispy or anythinglike that I wanted it to be a little bitflexible but still break when you had tobend it so four hours and 15 minutesagain a lot faster than I initiallythoughtso here we have it I’m gonna give this ashot this is our teriyaki jerky againit’s pretty translucent just like jerkyis at the store but here we go[Music]hmm how BIG’s[Music]it’s got a really good flavor got somesesame seeds in there too hmm that’sgoodI’m gonna try the one with the thepepper go piece right here pepper andteriyaki oh mansee how it bakes mmm my favorite so farso I have that teriyaki flavor but thatpepper Lilly kicks it up a notch thisone for some reason tastes sweeter aswelloh that pepper it’s kicking me back tothe throat there so this one’s not assweet I’m thinking because the pepperkind of offsets that sweetness okay lookreally really good mmm[Music]that peppers getting me and then here isour teriyaki with chili red chili pepperflakes I think this one’s going to myfavorite in fact I’m gonna get one withmore chili like this one we go[Music]mmm-hmmyeahthat um that red chili flake the pepperma’am there it is it’s not hot at firstbut then it gets you but it’s not likeSuperDuper hot has the right amount ofheat miss or heat level for me anywayyou know what I’m thinking that thepepper and the red chili flakes togetherI think what would go very well they’reall really tasty I recommend that youmake this this is only about half ofwhat I’m what I’m smoking I’ve gotanother batch in my smoker because againI just didn’t have enough room but it’sa lot of jerky hid behind your jerkyfrom the store make it yourselfthis teriyaki and the additionalingredients the pepper and the red chiliflakes definitely kicked it up a notchgive it a shot hope you guys like thisvideo hit that subscribe button tillnext time Joe of smoking deals for thebarbecue see ya