Saturday, July 18, 2009

Joey D's Jerky - Teriyaki

Joey D's Jerky - TeriyakiNext in the series on Joey D's Jerky is this Teriyaki variety. See my previous review of their Original.

The brand is owned by DiSalvo Enterprises, Inc. based out of Sanford, FL, run by Joseph DiSalvo, who got started making beef jerky at home back in 1999. The brand officially went on the market in August 2008.

Originally a cabinet maker in New York, DiSalvo moved to Florida, obtained college degrees in engineering and business administration, honed his entrepreneurial skills with positions at Northrup Grumman and Siemens Westinghouse.

Joey's D's includes four varieties of jerky, this Teriyaki, an Original, Tangy, and Hot. It also include three varieties of salsas.

Ingredients

Beef, marinade sauce (soy sauce, water, dehydrated garlic, spice, modified corn starch, sunflower oil), soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, flavorings.

Taste

The first thing I notice from the surface of these pieces is a light sweet, followed by a teriyaki flavor in a moderate intensity. Overall the surface flavor has a moderate flavor intensity.

The chewing flavor starts with a more defined teriyaki flavor, with the soy sauce component becoming more clear. I can taste a light pungent flavor, similar to ginger, though I don't see ginger specifically mentioned in the ingredients. There's a well-noticed saltiness.

For being dubbed a "Teriyaki" variety, I definitely pick up a flavor that I'd call "teriyaki". It has an easily-noticed sweetness, but not quite the thick sweetness you'd find in some other brands. It also has the well-defined soy sauce flavor that seems to marry into the sweetness. I can easily detect a pungent component, perhaps coming from the onion and garlic ingredients, and a very light tanginess. Overall, I think it's a good teriyaki flavor, quite comparable to real teriyaki.

I don't pick up the natural meat flavors in this like I could with the Original variety. I can only get a very faint meat flavor, where in the Original it's a little bit stronger, but still "light".

The level of saltiness in this seems moderate.

While worcestershire is noted in the ingredients, I don't don't really notice it.

Overall, what you're going to taste in this is the teriayki sauce, which I think resembles much like true teriyaki sauce.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, sliced medium to thick, and in bite sized pieces. There's also a lot of crumbled bits in the bottom of the bag.

This is a semi-moist jerky, soft and tender. Pieces tear apart with my fingers very easily, in some cases breaking apart easily as well. Chewing is very easy.

The chewing texture starts out feeling quite soft and tender, and requires very little effort in chewing down. Once it's chewed down to a soft mass, it's largely a mushy feel. Compared to the Original variety I reviewed earlier, this seemed to be more mushy. There's still a bit of a meaty-feel, with some of that fibrous texture, but "mushy" seems to be the word.

I didn't find any pieces of fat, and no pieces of tendon or gristle, and no stringy sinews. It's all meat.

It's fairly clean eating, in that my fingers didn't pick up much residue, they only had a faint sticky feel. The copious amounts of jerky crumbles in the bottom of the bag tends to fall out of my fingers as I pulled them out.




Snack Value

Joey D's Jerky sells this Teriyaki variety from its website at a price of $6.00 for a 3.5oz package. If you bought four packages, it'll cost $24.00, plus shipping of $6.00, the total price runs $30.00. That works out to a per ounce price of $2.14.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.14 price per ounce, it seems to provide a fair value. I found this jerky to be quite snackable, with a good tasting teriyaki flavor, and a semi-moist, easy to eat consistency. But the mushy chewing texture and the large amount of crumbled bits, tended to temper that snackability. But overall, the flavor and the easy to eat consistency scores some good points with me, and helps justify that higher-than-average price.

But as a teriyaki variety, at the same $2.14 price per ounce, it seems to provide a decent value. I found this teriyaki to be a lot better than what the mass-market brands give you, and more along the lines of true teriyaki. Meanwhile the $2.14 price is higher than the mass-market brands, but I think you're getting a teriyaki flavor that matches the higher price.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Teriyaki variety from Joey D's Jerky offers a good tasting teriyaki flavor, comparable to what I'd consider "true" teriyaki. It has a noticeable sweet, but not necessarily the heavy thick sweetness you'd expect from a Japanese restaurant. It has a well-noticed soy sauce flavor that marries into the sweet quite well, along with a ginger-like flavor that contrasts well with the sweet. There's even a bit of tanginess to the teriyaki as well.

The meat consistency is soft, tender, and very easy to eat. The chewing texture, though, seems to be more mushy than anything else. I can still pick up a little bit of that steak-like chew, but the mushiness seems to come through much more.

It's quite snackable just for that good overall teriyaki flavor, and if the teriyaki flavor is particularly what drives you to buy teriyaki jerky, then perhaps the chewing texture won't be of any concern to you.

I'd recommend a light tasting beer with this, like a cream ale, or kolsch.

Rating: Good

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