So, I've been doing my own jerky off and on for a while now and for the most part I just slice my beef, marinade it for a day or two in the fridge, then lay the beef out in an electric dryer to dry out, usually about 6hrs or so and it's good to go.  It's a little chewy and sticky from the marinade but, usually pretty dang good.

Well, a couple months back I wanted some Jerky and picked up a brand from the gas station called Wild Bills Hickory Smoked Beef Jerky.  It was pretty good IMO.  It was quite hard though, as in you had to either chew a lot harder or let it soak up some saliva in your mouth before you chewed it.  I was curious what part of the process made it this hard?   If I let mine dry longer in the electric dryer it just gets brittle.  

The website lists it as marinade and then smoked and the major ingredients being soy sauce, corn syrup, garlic, pepper, and red pepper.  I was curious if someone had a recipe similar to this I could try to get a similar flavor and if there is a method I can use in an electric dryer to get a similar hardness without the brittle meat I get now.

Thanks!

Not even a secret family recipe?  Dang...  haha

Mine is never the consitancy of store bought. I assume they steam it maybe?

Got any pics?

It's difficult to drool over your paragraph.