The only difference between using an oven and a smoker that I found was that a smoker uses smoke to flavor the meat. Pretty obvious. There are probably other differences but I didn't try to find them out. The similarities are that they both use a heat source ranging relatively low at about 130-170 degrees Fahrenheit. And the heat source is convectional. Which a bake setting works great for. And soaking the meat in a brine of some sort is standard.
I didn't use fish because I am cheap and the steak was on sale. I bought thin bottom round steak from albertson's for $4. Most places on the net said to use half inch meat, but I didn't like the idea of that so I used thin slices.
1.)First thing I did was lay the meat out on a cutting board and heavily sprinkle garlic powder and pepper over the meat. I then pressed the spices into the meat with the back side of a spoon. Some people told me to use a meat tenderizer mallet, but I don't have one so I improvised. I figure the reason for this this is to get the spices into the meat, not tenderize it. I then flipped the meat over and did the same thing to the other side.
2.) I then cut the meat into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Sorry no Picture.
3.) For the brine/marinade stuff I mixed water, salt, brown sugar, and liquid smoke. My girlfriend made some and put some teriyaki flavoring in as well. The liquid smoke made all the difference in my batch. I used just salt, water and brown sugar the first time and it was good but not great. The liquid smoke gave it a really good taste. I found the liquid smoke by the steak sauce at albertson's.
A trick I learned to find the salt to brown sugar ratio: Add however much water you think you will need to a bowl. Place a whole potato in the bowl. It should sink, if it doesn't find one that does. Add salt till the potato floats keeping track of how much salt you add. I added salt in 1/8 cup increments. When the potato floats take note of how much salt you used. Double this amount and that is how much brown sugar is needed. Make sure to take the potato out. It gets kind of gross ofter a while. oops#-o
4.) I let the meat soak in the marinade for about 4 hours in a ziploc bag. No Picture.
5.) After the meat was done soaking I pushed toothpicks through the top of each piece. This is for hanging on the racks.
6.) I then lined the bottom rack of my stove with tinfoil. (To catch drips.)
7.) On the top rack I hung the pieces of meat using the support of the toothpicks. I turned the oven to 155 degrees Fahrenheit. Put a wood spatula to crack the door open about 1/4 inch and waited about four hours.
I found that it was done when the outside was dry and didn't crack or break when bent. For thicker meat I would leave it in longer. Although I have bought some meat that is 'Jerky" but was a little moist on the outside. This is how I prefer it.
My one purchase of $4 made about one full stuffed ziploc baggy. The one quart size. About $20 equivalent at the store. I was impressed at how well it tasted. I hope this doesn't seem stupid to everyone. I was just trying to be creative.
Most of the credit goes to my alaskan friends who said they prefer to dry their meat rather than smoke it. They showed me the correct method to find the salt to brown sugar ratio, and clued me in to the liquid smoke trick. Thanks guys.
I'll try to add more pictures later when I do it again. Any input or suggestions would be great, thanks guys.
