Ed's Roadhouse Jerky is a family run business based out of Buffalo Grove, IL. It's run by Ed Herman, who says his fascination with BBQ and meat goes back to his childhood, after visiting a restaurant in Chicago called "Talbots". The sight and smell of BBQ, the ribs, rubs, sauces, rotisserie, all left a profound impact on his psyche that guided him down a course of pursuing great BBQ.

About 20 years ago, he started "Ed's Roadhouse Jerky", making his own jerky, spices, and sauces, focusing specifically on a balance of sweet and hot. The package label comes with a freshness guarantee that all the jerky he makes is made to order (as opposed to sending you something off the shelf I presume). It comes without preservatives, and advises that as soon as you receive it, you refrigerate it.

This "Lil Sweet Jalapeno Habanero" is supposed to be Ed's hottest jerky. He has about nine other varieties to choose from as well.

Ingredients

Beef, habanero, jalapeno, natural spices, soy beans, sugar, garlic, water, salt, wheat, flour, molasses, pepper extract.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a medium level sweetness, followed by a chile pepper flavor, and quickly followed by a medium level burn that continues to build. I can also pick up a bit of saltiness. There's also a slight meaty aroma on the surface.

When I start chewing, I can get a bit more saltiness, and a slight bit of natural meat flavors. I can pick up some soy sauce too. The chile pepper burn continues to build to about medium-hot.

As for being advertised as "Lil Sweet Jalapeno Habanero", it's definitely sweet. I can get a good deal of it on the surface, and continue to taste it throughout the chewing, though it gets weaker as I chew.

But I think the jalapeno/habanero combination is much more noticeable. I can get a taste of the chile flavor on the surface, and then get a good deal of chile heat. I don't pick up much of this flavor inside the meat, however. I'd rate the burn as "medium hot" on my hot scale for most of this jerky. Some pieces seem to have a more intense burn, perhaps depending on the concentration. Some of you might see the whole jerky as just "hot". I'm getting a light perspiration on the scalp, a little bit of watery eyes, but still not enough to stop me from eating more.

The natural meat flavors in this are light, but still clearly detectable. Considering it's without preservatives, it still seems to have a fresh flavor. The meat flavor has a fatty flavor, backed up by the fact that I can see a lot of marbilization in these pieces. The taste is perhaps comparable to a piece of grilled porterhouse steak with 50/50 combination of fat. The fat seems to add more "body" to the taste.

Inside the meat I get a clear taste of soy sauce along with its associated saltiness. Overall, the saltiness seems medium in intensity, but it tends to feel higher perhaps being exacerbated by the chile pepper burn.

The garlic is also noticeable in this.

Overall, you're going to get an initial sweet shot off the surface. The chile pepper seasoning will be tasted quickly, and followed immediately with a burn that builds up to a medium-hot level. The chewing flavor is largely the soy sauce, mixed with the natural meat flavor. The sweetness seems to last half-way through the chewing, and then weakens to just light taste. The chile pepper flavor seems to fade away more quickly. When you get close to swallowing you're only tasting the soy sauce and meat flavors over a burned tongue.

Meat Consistency

This is a slab-style jerky, sliced thin, and cut up into bite-sized pieces.

It's mostly dry, but very flexible. Some pieces I can bend a full 180 degrees, with the grain, and not get any cracking. Others seem to crack around 90 degrees. Tearing a piece apart with my fingers is easy, and chewing is moderately easy.

The chewing texture starts out with some of that rubbery resistance, but takes on a meat-like texture within about 15-20 seconds of chewing. For the most part, it doesn't really feel like steak; I don't get a lot of that fibrous character. It tends to take on a gummy quality instead, which may be due to the sweet coating and fat marbilization. However, I did find a few pieces that had the fibrous steak-like texture.

In terms of clean eating, my fingers don't seem to pick up any residue. I don't get any fragments falling off of these pieces, mostly because each piece is bite-sized and doesn't require any tearing apart.

As I said, there's a good deal of fat marbilization on these pieces, but I don't pick up a spoiled taste at all. I don't find any tendon or gristle, but a few pieces contained some chewy sinews that remained in my mouth as unchewable wads.




Snack Value

Ed's Roadhouse Jerky sells all of their jerky varieties from its website at a price of $3.75 for a 2oz package. They also tack on $5.75 for shipping. If you can buy one pound of their jerky, in different varieties, it'll cost you $35.75. That works out to a price of $2.24 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.24 price per ounce, it presents a good value. I'm picking up a lot of snackability for its great overall taste, and easy eating. It's a very flavor intense jerky that lends itself to being sucked on and savored. I think the fat marbilization in this adds to the snacking satisfaction.

For being a "Lil Sweet Jalapeno Habanero" variety, also at the $2.24 price per ounce, it's also a good value. I'm getting a good deal of sweet, along with a good deal of chile pepper flavor and burn. I'm not sure that I'm specifically tasting jalapeno and habanero pepper, versus some other kind of chile pepper. All I know is that I can definitely taste the flavor of chiles. If you want to spend money on some hot jerky, I think you'll get a good return on your dollar.

Rating

I'm giving this a best rating.

This Lil Sweet Jalapeno Habanero variety from Ed's Roadhouse Jerky is a very tasty jerky, with a great blend of chile pepper seasonings. It's largely this blend of seasonings, along with the high flavor intensity, and flavor complexity that won this rating. I was able to identify several flavors, the sweet, salty, soy sauce, chile pepper, garlic, and meat flavors, well enough that it lent itself to sucking and savoring the juices.

It also offers a light natural meat flavor, albeit a fatty meat flavor. You'll have to decide if that's a desirable flavor for you. In comparison to other jerky brands that offer a great meat flavor, Ed's Roadhouse Jerky doesn't win a best rating for its meat flavor. Even though I enjoy the taste and feel of marbilized beef, it's meat flavor still falls well short of other gourmet brands.

The moderately gummy chewing texture is another consideration.

But I think the strong chile pepper seasonings in this are pretty good, combined with the garlic, the soy sauce, and sweetness, all makes up for its shortcomings to create a very tasty meat snack. The bite sized pieces and easy eating boosts the snackability. It also lives up to its advertised flavor very well, not only being sweet, but packing a lot of heat.

For a good beer pairing, I think I'd go with a plain pale ale.

Rating: Best

Buy this online:

• http://www.edsroadhousejerky.com