Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Fatman's Beef Jerky - Teriyaki

Fatman's Beef Jerky - TeriyakiFatman's Beef Jerky is a product of Red Meat Foods, LLC of Roswell, NM. The company was founded by Rick and Ellen Robey in May 2006.

Prior to launching Fatman's, Rick Robey owned and operated a holstein calf raising business for 30 years as well as a USDA inspected packing plant. Robey says that his experience in in the beef industry told him that all of the commercial jerkies on the market lack a "good true beef flavor", which lead him to start Fatman's.

The company, whose roadside signs can be seen entering the town of Roswell, makes all of their jerky from inside rounds of American-raised beef, marinated for 24 hours in Robey's own homemade recipes. It's processed and packed in Fatman's own facility. They add no preservatives aside from what's already in the seasonings.

Ingredients

Beef, water, brown sugar, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, orange juice, cinnamon, black pepper, red pepper flake, salt.

Taste

Opening this package of teriyaki beef jerky, I get a sweet-smelling aroma, similar to opening a package of cinnamon-raisin oatmeal.

And it's that combination of sweet and cinnamon that presents the first taste off the surface of these pieces. Some saltiness comes through immediately following. Moving to the chew, some natural meat flavors come through.

For being a teriyaki variety, I get very little teriyaki taste, and only during the chew, and only in certain pieces. It's nothing that reminds me of a hibachi or Benihana restaurant. Instead, the sugar and cinnamon dominates the surface taste, and carries over into the chew for a bit. If I didn't know this was teriyaki beef jerky, I'd guess it was "cinnamon & raisin oatmeal beef jerky".

As for the natural meat flavors, they are there but harder to find than in Fatman's other varieties. As I said above, the sugar and cinnamon carries over into the chew for a bit, and do well to compete against it. I can pick up the meat taste halfway into chewing.

There is a very slight bit of spiciness from the red pepper flake mentioned in the ingredients. It doesn't really provide a burn, but makes a slight appearance on the back of my tongue after several pieces. I'm also picking up a black pepper aftertaste after several pieces as well.

And as for that saltiness, it's a mild salt flavor, not too salty at all.

Overall, it's the sugar and cinnamon that dominates the flavor of this jerky. I don't really get any teriyaki flavoring, and I get only a little bit of the natural meat flavors. On its own merits, it's not a bad jerky. In fact, there's a strong sweet-cinnamon combo to taste here if that's what you like. That, combined with some natural meat flavors, salt, and a bit of spiciness would make this an enjoyable jerky to others.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, sliced thin, and in small to medium sized pieces.

This is a thin dry jerky that has a slight amount of crunchiness to it. It's very easy to bite off a piece, and easy to chew. I can just bend a piece up and down, and it breaks right off.

And they're very lean as well, seeing I found no visible pieces of fat, tendon, gristle, or connective tissue. Overall, it's an excellent meat consistency.

Fatman's Beef Jerky - Teriyaki

Fatman's Beef Jerky - Teriyaki
Product Value

Fatman's sells all of their jerky varieties at a price of $7.99 for a four ounce package. That works out to $2.00 per ounce, putting this into the expensive price range.

For general jerky snacking purposes, it presents a decent value. It still offers plenty of taste, and a great meat consistency, which contributes to its snackability. It's sweet, salty, and crunchy nature provides that magical snacking formula that snack food manufacturers are keying in on these days.

As a teriyaki variety, it's a poor value providing no teriyaki taste in any decent amounts.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

This teriyaki variety from Fatman's doesn't really provide a teriyaki taste that I can recognize. Growing up in a Japanese household, I've had a lot of teriyaki in my time, and I just don't find it in this jerky. Living up to its advertised flavor is a major factor in my ratings.

But that doesn't make this a bad jerky by any means. It's still packed with flavor primarily in the sweet and cinnamon. It even provides some natural meat flavors, unlike many other teriyaki jerky brands, and throws in a bit of salty and spicy.

Interestingly, someone, somewhere, asked me if I ever had teriyaki beef jerky with cinnamon, and went on to say that it's absolutely delicious. So, I know there's a market for this stuff. It might actually be better to label this as a "Cinnamon Teriyaki" variety, it may find a more targeted customer-base. I do like sugar and cinnamon together, don't get me wrong, but mostly like it with cookies, and oatmeal. Finding chunks of smoked beef in my oatmeal is something I haven't gotten used to yet.

A really good beer with this is a Blue Moon Apricot Ale.

Rating: Average

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