Saturday, June 27, 2009

Datil Daddy's Beef Jerky - Teriyaki

Datil Daddy's Beef Jerky - TeriyakiNext in the series on Datil Daddy's Beef Jerky is this Teriyaki variety. See my previous review of their Datil Pepper.

Datil Daddy's is a brand of St. Augustine Originals, LLC, based out of Saint Augustine, FL. The brand has been around for a little more than a year. The brand specializes in the Datil Pepper, a chile pepper comparable to the habanero in terms of heat, but is said to be more sweet and fruity.

This Teriyaki variety, along with all of their varieties, include datil pepper sauce as an ingredient. The company sent was to send me each of their three varieties for review, but sent me one package of their Datil Pepper, and two packages of Teriyaki instead. So unless they can send me their Datil Hickory, there won't be any further reviews.

Ingredients

Beef, teriyaki sauce, brown sugar, hickory smoked seasoning, datil sauce, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, garlic powder, salt, cure (salt, sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate).

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a light smokiness, followed by a faint sweet. I can pick up that datil sauce like I did in the Datil Pepper variety, though in a lighter amount. There's also a tanginess in there. I can also taste the soy sauce in a light amount too. Overall, the surface flavors provide a moderate amount of intensity.

The chewing flavors start with a light natural meat flavor, a slight increase in saltiness, and a slight increase in tanginess. There's indeed a teriyaki flavor in this, but it's light. The datil sauce seems to have a bit more definition, and I can identify a faint chile pepper flavor.

Well, for being advertised as a Teriyaki variety, I don't think this jerky stands up well to that claim. I mean, I do taste some teriyaki flavor in there, but it's light, and it just doesn't step up front. It seems to sit in the background, or competes against, the datil pepper sauce, the smokiness, and the tanginess.

In fact, none of these flavors really step up and dominates this jerky. It's like a hodge-podge of flavors competing for my attention.

If I had to pick a dominant flavor of this jerky I'd give it to that datil sauce. I'm not sure that it's stronger than the other flavors, but it just contrasts nicely against the others. It has a tanginess to it, perhaps from a vinegar component, as well as a tomatoey flavor, and a light chile pepper flavor. Unlike the Datil Pepper variety I reviewed earlier, this Teriyaki variety has very little burn.

The natural meat flavors are light overall, but still easily noticeable. There's a smokiness in that meat flavor, and a flavor similar to a steak cooked medium-rare. I also pick up some fatty flavor, more like an "aged" fatty flavor, due to the visible streaks of fat and connective tissues in this jerky.

The soy sauce flavor, aside from the teriyaki, becomes more noticeable towards the latter end of chewing, as I extract out the juices.

The saltiness seems to have a moderate flavor intensity.

Overall, what you'll taste in this are several flavors competing against each other, the datil sauce, with its tomato, vinegar, and chile pepper flavors, a light teriyaki flavor, a light meat flavor with some smokiness, and a soy sauce flavor towards the end.

Meat Consistency

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

This is a semi-moist jerky, very flexible, but still cracking open easily. Tearing pieces apart with my fingers require some effort due to a lot of stringy sinews holding the meat together. Chewing is actually easy, though still encountering a lot of unchewable wads of tissue.

The chewing texture starts out feeling very soft and tender, and easily chews down to a soft mass. At that point, it has a very steak-like chewing texture, similar to a steak cooked medium. There's a little bit of mushiness here and there.

Most of these pieces have some visible streaks of fat, and there's also a fair amout of chewy connective tissues that create a rubbery chew. I also find a good deal of other stringy tissues that remain in mouth as unchewable wads.

Otherwise, it's pretty clean eating, no residue picking up on my fingertips, and no fragments flying off as I tear pieces apart.




Snack Value

Datil Daddy's sells this Teriyaki variety from its website at a price of $7.29 for a 4oz package. If you bought 3 packages, plus $4.90 for shipping, it comes out to $26.77 total. That's a price of $2.23 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.23 price per ounce, this seems to provide a good value. I'm getting a lot of snackability for its great flavor, and good chewing texture, and easy chewing. Even though the $2.23 price per ounce is higher than store-bought jerky, I'm enjoying this jerky a lot.

As a Teriyaki variety, at the same $2.23 price per ounce, it's a weak value. I'm just not getting much teriyaki flavor out of this. It's there, but it's light, and it's overshadowed by the datil sauce. I think you'll still get more teriyaki flavor from the mass-market brands at your local grocery store.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Teriyaki variety from Datil Daddy's provides a great overall flavor, is easy to eat, and has a good chewing texture. It just doesn't hold up well to its teriyaki advertisement. I can taste some teriyaki flavor in this, but it's just light, and it tends to get lost in the datil sauce flavor.

That datil sauce flavor, I think, is still the marquee flavor of this jerky, with its tangy vinegar, its chile pepper and tomatoey flavor. Add to that a light smoky meat flavor, and soy sauce flavor towards the end, and it makes for a jerky with a lot of taste complexity.

The semi-moist chew also makes this a nice jerky, being easy to chew, though there a fair amount of stringy sinews that can make it difficult to tear apart. In fact, the good deal of chewy tissues in this meat that left behind these unchewable wads in my mouth, is primarily why I kept this jerky from getting a "best" rating.

I think the datil sauce used in Datil Daddy's jerky is an excellent jerky ingredient. But for this Teriyaki variety, I would have preferred to get a thicker, sweeter, teriyaki flavor, that used the datil chiles to provide some good heat.

For my recommended beer pairing, the tangy vinegar flavor in this has me wanting something fruity, like a cherry lambic.

Rating: Good

Buy this online:

1 comment:

  1. I bought a few bags of this brand of jerky. I got the Teriyaki and the Datil Pepper. I agree about the Teriyaki as not having a very strong Teriyaki taste. In fact, I wouldn't know what flavor it was just by the taste. I do find it to be a very good jerky, but perhaps not my favorite of the jerkies I've tried (all purchased by referencing this site).

    Initially, I wasn't a big fan of the tenderness of this brand. But after a few bags, I've grown to enjoy it.

    In my opinion the "Datil Pepper" variety is the better of the two. I really like the complex "hot" flavor of the Datil Pepper. I think it's terrific, and one of the better "hot" flavors of jerky I've tried, if not the best.

    ReplyDelete