Lando's Jerky - Garlic Pepper

Last week I reviewed the Hickory Beef Jerky from Lando's Jerky, today I have their Garlic Pepper variety.

Lando's Jerky is run by Alex Landers of Chicago, IL. He says he's been making jerky for years and started selling it to his co-workers. Since then he's set up an eBay store and is now selling it to everyone.

All of his jerky is made fresh to order using USDA choice grade angus from his local meat market, marinates for 24 hours, and then finally slow-cooks and smokes it for 6 hours.

Ingredients

None provided, however his product literature says all his flavors are made with base ingredients of teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, black pepper and garlic powder.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a light pepper flavor followed by a saltiness. There's a light bit of a soy sauce flavor that starts to come in.

The chewing flavor starts with a bit more saltiness and a bit more soy sauce. The black pepper builds up a little more strength. There's a light touch of garlic in the background.

For being labeled as "Garlic Pepper", this seems to be more weighted towards the black pepper than the garlic. The black pepper is noticeable, perhaps just a bit more than with Lando's Hickory variety, but doesn't take the spotlight. The garlic is only a touch heavier in this compared to the Hickory variety, but overall it's still light and still only sits in the background.

Otherwise it's still the soy sauce that seems to make up the primary flavor of this Garlic Pepper jerky. The faint sweet teriyaki flavor that was noticeable in the Hickory variety is now all but lost perhaps due to the slightly heavier garlic and pepper seasoning.

The natural meat flavors in this are about the same as the Hickory variety, being overall light, but even more light in the thinner sliced strips and a little more strong in the thicker slices. There's also the same oily flavor due to the oily surface.

The saltiness in this feels about medium-high.

Overall, what you're going to notice in this is a soy sauce flavor but with a slightly higher garlic and pepper seasoning than compared to Lando's Hickory variety. You'll also pick up a light natural meat flavor and a considerable saltiness.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced into strips of medium thickness, and in lengths ranging between 2 to 10 inches.

This is a dry jerky with an oily surface feel. The strips are able to bend a full 180 degrees without cracking mostly because the grains run lengthwise. Biting off chunks requires a little effort in biting and tearing, while chewing feels chewy and varies between easy and somewhat tough.

The chewing texture starts out feeling stiff with a fair amount of chewing resistance. Chewing is a little labored at first, but it seems to chew down to a soft mass in about 15-20 seconds. At that point, it feels pretty much a real steak, comparable to one cooked medium-well.

I found small streaks of fat on some of these strips, but most strips appear to be free of fat, gristle and tendon. I did find a fair amount of stringiness, but not really all that bad. I didn't encounter any sizeable wads of unchewable tissues.

These strips are also quite oily to the touch and require me to lick and wipe my fingers before touching my keyboard. But I find no fragments of meat or seasoning falling off.




Snack Value

Lando's Jerky sells this Garlic Pepper variety at a price of $13.95 for an 8oz package. I wasn't charged for shipping. That works out to a price of $1.74 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $1.74 price per ounce, it seems to provide a good value. I'm getting a good snackability for an overall good flavor, good meat consistency and great chewing texture. Considering that price is about the same as what you'd pay for the major brands of jerky at a grocery store, I think you're getting more snackability out of this.

As a Garlic Pepper beef jerky, at the same $1.74 price per ounce, it's a weak value. I'm getting only a light garlic flavor and little bit stronger black pepper flavor. Seems like most other brands that advertise a garlic and/or pepper variety seem to provide more of that flavor than this.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Garlic Pepper beef jerky from Lando's Jerky seems to be a better jerky than their Hickory variety, only because the Hickory seemed to be too light on the seasoning, whereas this feels just right.

However considering this jerky labels itself as "Garlic Pepper" I would expect a stronger garlic and pepper flavor. The black pepper in this is perhaps at an acceptable level, but the garlic is just too light for a jerky that bills itself as Garlic. That is, if you bought this specifically because you love garlicky jerky you're not going to find a "knock your socks off" garlic flavor.

But just evaluating this jerky for what it is, this seems to have the right amount of marinade and seasoning for what could be Lando's plain, original flavor. It has a good meat consistency and chewing texture. Perhaps if I could get more smokiness and a thicker cut to get more of the meat flavor, it might even fetch a higher rating.

I think a good beer pairing for this is a light brown ale, go with a Newcastle Brown Ale or the Moose Drool Brown Ale.

Rating: Good

Buy this online:

• http://www.ebay.com/usr/lando-jerky