Saturday, October 4, 2008

Fatman's Beef Jerky - Green Chile

Fatman's Beef Jerky - Green ChileGreen Chiles are one of my favorite foods, but always as an enhancement to something else. For me, just about anything goes better if you stick a green chile on it. While this Green Chile variety of beef jerky from Fatman's doesn't have that slab of slippery tangy green stuff, it contain bits of green chile, and green pepper sauce to boot. So this stuff really has me anticipating.

Fatman's Beef Jerky is a brand produced by Red Meat Foods, LLC, based in Roswell, NM. The same town that's known for its flying saucers, may very well become known for its beef jerky someday. The reviews of Fatman's I've written thus far have become the most widely read reviews here on Best Beef Jerky.

The company was started by the husband and wife team of Rick and Ellen Robey. For 30 years, Rick owned and operated a holstein calf raising business and a USDA inspected packing plant, which perhaps gave him a good head start into the jerky biz. All of their jerky is made from inside rounds of American-raised beef, marinated for 24 hours in Robey's own homemade recipes. It's processed and packed in their own facility.

Ingredients

Beef, water, soy sauce, green chile, lemon juice, garlic salt, green pepper sauce, black pepper.

Taste

I get a slight taste of meat right off the surface of these pieces, followed by a slight salt taste, and maybe a hint of chile pepper seasoning. Moving into the chew, I pick up more of the natural meat flavors.

As a Green Chile variety, I can't say that I get a strong taste of green chiles, I get only a slight taste of it on some pieces. Other pieces don't really provide any taste of green chiles at all.

I certainly do see chile pepper seeds on this, and I can also see bits of dark stuff on the jerky pieces which I presume to be dried green chiles. But their unique flavor doesn't register on my tongue.

Otherwise, the predominant flavor of this jerky is the natural meat flavors, of which it has a strong and pleasant flavor. It's a fresh tasting meat flavor considering this jerky contains no added preservatives aside what's already contained in the soy sauce. The flavor reminds me of the center portion of prime rib.

Salty is probably the next most dominant flavor, but I don't see this as being too salty, it's rather moderate. As for the other listed ingredients, the soy sauce makes a scant showing, mostly when I let a piece sit in my mouth and then suck out the juices. The other ingredients are mostly there as ambience.

Overall, I still found this with a snackable taste, mostly for its strong natural meat flavors, and backed up with the salt and soy sauce flavors. Every now and then, that green chile taste peeks its nose out there to say that it's still hiding.

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 presents a bit of crunchiness. Even though crunchy, it still moistens up and chews like a well-done steak. It's easy to break off a piece, and easy to chew.

It leaves no sticky, oily, or powdery residue on my fingers, it's very clean.

Nor did I find any amounts of fat, tendon or gristle on these pieces. Overall, a very good meat consistency.

Fatman's Beef Jerky - Green Chile

Fatman's Beef Jerky - Green Chile
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 offers a decent value. For the higher price, you're getting a good tasting jerky, that presents a strong meat flavor, and a easy to eat consistency, with a bit of crunchiness added in.

As a Green Chile variety, it's presents very little value because it doesn't really offer any significant green chile flavor. If you buy this specifically because it says "green chile", you may be disappointed.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

It's otherwise a really good jerky, it just doesn't live up to the green chile advertisement, in terms of flavor anyways. I suppose one can make the argument that it does live up to that billing simply because it has green chiles in it. But nonetheless, I think if someone bought this because they saw the words "green chile" on it, they'd expect a green chile flavor.

But it offers some great snackability through its strong natural meat flavors, and some additional flavoring in the salt and soy sauce, plus the background flavors of the other seasonings. You'll still get a slight green chile flavor out of this, but only through some pieces, and just slightly. And what else can I say about its meat consistency being so easy to eat, that you'll empty the package in minutes?

After reviewing several varieties of Fatman's, I can see a pattern evolving of a jerky brand that belts out a strong natural meat flavor, combined with an ease of snacking, and light doses of seasonings.

A pale ale would go great with this.

Rating: Good

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