Always give the meat time to cure with the spices and cure. At least 6 hours but I usually advise over night. Work meat very vigoursly to heat up and build the protiens to become sticky, this will give you a more tough chewing jerky. Remove from dehydrator just before you think the strips are dry enough. they tend to dry some after they come out of the dehydrator. Let sit at room temp for a couple hours they will get some more color as time passes. If you feel they need to be dryer just place in refrigerator uncovered. If they are too dry run them under water, shake them off and place in a plastic bag for a couple hours and they will rehydrate. Alway store jerky in a paper bag in the frig. When you take it ut use a paper bag as well. Only time you store in plastic is in the freezer, when you take it out of the freezer remove from plastice and place frozen strips on a paper towel uncovered in the refrigerator, then into a paper bag. We also sell a product now for smoking dehydrated jerky it is a powdered smoke, it does not have the bitter flavor you get from liquid smoke.