Having some extra time over the holidays due to our wonderful weather (not), we decided to make some deer jerky in our Bradley Countertop Smoker. We didn't have a specific recipe, but years ago we made jerky in our home-made aesthetically-challenged marriage-testing fridge smoker, which after careful examination or records, produces about 25% good product and 75% wastage. The Bradley seems to consistently produce great smoked foods, and in small quantities which is perfect for us. A Google search brought up many recipes, so we took the popular base (soy sauce), and added what was handy.
- 2.5 pounds of deer (or so, never measured), sliced (it was random thicknesses, 1/4 in average, even thicker chunks turned out great!)
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup water (enough to cover meat)
- 1 tbsp. garlic powder
- 1 tbsp. onion powder
- 1 tbsp. course pepper
- splash of teriyaki sauce
- 1 tbsp. Worcestershire
Mix all ingredients in a container (we used a Tupperware container) and leave overnight, we refrigerated.
Preheat smoker. It was 10f outside so we started smoking on pl03 for a couple of hours and reduced it to pl01, the temp stayed between 165 - 185.
Cooking time 6hrs.
Smoking time 4hrs.
Our thoughts - We could've sprinkled the meat with course pepper just before smoking. 5 hours would leave it moister, but it was still great after 6hrs. You could add any spices you like, we were just winging it based on what we saw upon opening the cupboard!
