Here is how I make my dried beef. This method is from bearcarver, modified by me.
Eye round roasts work the best for me, they are lean and usually fairly uniform in size. (I use eye round for my beef jerky as well)
1/2 oz of Morton Tenderquick and 1.5 tsp brown sugar per lb of meat, weigh each piece individually. I generally do 4 roasts each batch due to the time involved, I want to make it worth my while.
Combine MTQ and brown sugar for each individual roast, rub in thoroughly and seal in bag, adding any cure mixture that falls off to the bag as well. I vac seal them in a big enough bag to be able to open and reseal one time. Massage and turn over each day. After 3 days I cut the end of the bag open and use an injector to draw up the accumulated liquid and inject it into the meat, then reseal. I think my DB turns out much better since I started injecting after 3 days. After 7 days, remove the meat from the cure, rinse well and soak in cold water for 1/2 hr. Pat dry with an old towel and sprinkle each piece generously with course black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Place in fridge on inverted racks overnight to get a pellicle started, I put frogmats under them as well. In the morning set them out at room temp while you get your smoker ready. I use a 12' amazen tube with hickory pellets and find this gives me enough smoke for my taste. Put meat in smoker at 130F for the first couple hours, then 140 for a couple hours, 150 for a couple hours. Then increase temp to no more than 180F until the meat gets to 152-155 IT. Much like making jerky, keep in mind that you are drying this more so than cooking it. The entire drying process usually will take 15-18 hours. Once you get it to IT, remove and allow to cool, then wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate for a day before slicing. There are a few photos in my dried beef post further down in this section.
Enjoy!
