Grilla grills and jerky

[big_mack]

Are grilla grills and min temp of 180F ok for doing properly dehydrated jerky? I was reading a recipe from meathead and it starts by smoking at 200F for an hour and then reduce to 140 and dehydrate but grilla grills lowest temp is 180.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I smoke jerky between 180 and 200 all the time on my MAK. I do cut thicker slices so that's part of it, but when I do thinner slices I tend to do 2-4 hours and then I move to my warming box, you could use your oven on 170 or whatever with the door cracked open.

[big_mack]

do you use a recipe that is online?

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

big_mack I either home make or use Dales marinade (1 whole bottle), brown sugar, fresh and powder garlic, black pepper, and usually a bunch of fresh jalapeno or other peppers. Sometimes cumin and other spices. No measurements, I just eyeball it except if I'm using cure, I measure that by weight. I generally use london broil and cut about 1/4 inch thick. Marinate 30-48 hours mixing multiple times a day. Sorry that's probably not super helpful.

[Michael_in_TX]

I've only done jerky once and I did it on the Chimp at 200 F PID-mode. They turned out quite good!

With my Chimp (and I think you have one as well?), it is hotter towards the hopper than at the opposite side, so you do have to rotate the slices around quite a bit. I didn't do enough of that, so I found myself taking them off in batches. Another thing that got me was making my slices inconsistent. I had some thick slices that took a long time to get dehydrated.

I did the entire cook, which took about four hours, at 200 F. If I had a true dehydrator, would the jerky have turned out better? Perhaps, but mine turned out good enough for me.

Here's the specific recipe I used, which actually is from Grilla themselves: https://www.grillagrills.com/recipes/grilla-jerky

From my research, it seems that in a non-professional setting, one wants to get those slices to 160 F as soon as possible. Also, the problem with starting out at 180 F and below is that the jerky will actually stall -- just like a brisket -- due to evaporative cooling and our slices will sit in the bacteria danger zone far long than we'd like.

[big_mack]

Michael_in_TX I don't see a video for that recipe. do you see one?

[Michael_in_TX]

big_mack Weird, you're right....it's not on the page anymore. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO3RIDb70JM

[big_mack]

Bingo @michael_in_tx
thanks. I should do a batch in the next week. Got my first brisket teed up first.

[bbqLuv]

See what you went and done by asking that question, and the answers? Now I will add jerky to my Todo List.
I added Traeger's Smoked Paleo Beef Jerky to my Todo list on the Paprika app.

[Soonerpop]

Love jerky. I’ve done jerky for years on the Cookshack with good results. I’m going to do some on the new Grilla.

[SullysSassySauce]

I just did a batch last weekend and turned out excellent. Make sure you test the temp of your smoker with a different thermometer my gorilla og was off 30-40 degrees. 225 was more like 275. If you have a new control board with Wi-Fi you should be able to adjust within the app.

[big_mack]

I finally got some suitable meat for jerky. Flank steak 2 piece bulk pack from costco. Just doing one of them to start with and using the Grilla recipe number one (non bourbon). I'm going to marinate for 1.5 days and then put it on the chimp grate. I did not get the chimp jerky rack because its pricey and I generally don't need more space for my cooks. if I need to do more, I'll just do two cooks. The recipe calls for 200F but I'm going to try 190F mode 2 for more billows of smoke goodness. no pictures now - who wants to see a picture of a ziplock bag of marinated flank slice anyway. Will post a picture of the finished product.

[big_mack]

almost 2 hrs in to this first batch. I have it set to the lowest temp of 180 but it so hot outside the ambient temp is 200. I think that is too high but maybe I can make it work by watching carefully and finish it earlier than normal. I used the grilla marinade. Made my own ancho based chilli power using a new high speed grinder that is good for grain instead of a coffee grinder.

Now I can see why the gilla jerky rack is a good thing to have. but its pricey for what it is. Will see if there are other cheaper ones that will fit the chimp.

[klflowers]

I have a dehydrator so I haven't used the Chimp yet. I use recipes from jerkyholic.com, his rig hand is my go to. I go all the way at 180. He says to drop it down to 145 but I am too lazy for all that lol

[big_mack]

I found that jerkyholic site earlier today. I'll have a look around it more.
after this batch I am going to try smoking for a 1.5 hours or so and then finish in a dehydrator. I think that will give me the smoke flavor that I like in jerky without overdoing the smoke flavor. I marinated for 1.5 days and I'll dial that back to 1 day. Also wasn't that happy with the grilla marinade so I'll give that rig hand a try. I can see how jerky is going to be an evolving lab experiment for me for now.

[klflowers]

big_mack when I got my dehydrator several years ago I ran it almost every weekend for around a year. It was an obsession. I haven't done any in awhile, time to get busy. I think I am going to try the next batch on the Chimp all the way.