You did a great job on your smoker.I just made me some pecan smoked boneless wild boar ham and some pecan smoked whitetail tenderloin and backstrap.I used Morton's Tenderquick Curing Salt and let me tell you they came out awesome.I used 1/2 oz. per lb. of meat.Dissolved the salt cure in a cup of water,used an injection needle and injected the meat,this helps get the curing process started on the inside.I then put the meat in a large plastic bag and poured the cure solution on the meat.Make sure the meat gets mixed around good so the cure can go to work on the outside.I keep the meat iced down in the bags for 2-3 days,then I rinse the meat and let it soak for several hours in fresh water to help remove the excess salt.I repeat the fresh water rinse and soak three times and it's OK to let it soak overnight.I've found that soaking the meat three times gives me a light salt taste where soaking the meat twice will give you a fairly salty taste.So it's really a matter of how you like yours.When I get ready to smoke it,I take the meat out of the bags,run some butcher twine through the meat so I can hang it in the smoker,then sprinkle the outside of the meat with med. ground black pepper.I set my smoker temp at 130-140 degrees,hang the meat and smoke for two hours at this temp.After two hours I quit the smoke,but kick the temp up to around 160 degrees for two hours.Then after the two hours at 160 degrees,I kick the heat up to 180-185 degrees for round eight hours,depending on how thick your meat is(I use boneless meat around a couple of inches thick).Anyway,just keep it at this temp till you reach your desired dryness.After your drying is complete,take meat out of the smoker and let it cool.Wrap the cooled meat in butcher paper and store in the refridgerator for a day or two if you have room,if not just go ahead and freeze what your not going to eat now.
