Friday, October 1, 2010

Luther's Smokehouse - Turkey Jerky

Luther's SmokehouseLast in the series on Luther's Smokehouse is this Turkey Jerky. Read my previous reviews of their Old Fashioned Beef Jerky, Hot Beef Jerky, Teriyaki Beef Jerky, Jalapeno Beef Jerky, Pemmican Style Beef Jerky, Pemmican Jalapeno Beef Jerky, Midnight Special, and Cowboy Pocket Food.

Luther's Smokehouse is a smokehouse located in LeRoy, KS, owned and operated by Martin Luther. Luther started out running a slaughterhouse, but in 1974 he added beef jerky to his list of products and today it's his primary business.

Luther makes all of his jerky at his own USDA inspected facility. He also runs a restaurant and country store.

Ingredients

Turkey, salt, spices, sugar, dehydrated onion & garlic, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a smokiness and saltiness mixed together, and faint touches of sweet.

The chewing flavor starts with an increased saltiness, and a garlic & onion seasoning.

As a turkey jerky, I'm not tasting much natural turkey meat flavor. I do get light touches of flavor here and there, but not consistently there.

The ingredients that seem to have the dominant flavor are instead the saltiness and garlic & onion seasoning. The saltiness seems to be the most dominant, while the garlic & onion tends to add some color. I'd rate the level of saltiness at a medium to high level.

There's a faint bit of sweet noticeable throughout the chewing, and a light black pepper aftertaste that builds up after eating several pieces. I can also pick up a light fatty flavor too.

Overall, what you're going to taste in this more than anything else is a medium to high level of saltiness, a garlic & onion seasoning. You'll get light touches of natural turkey meat flavor, but not consistently throughout.

Meat Consistency

This is a chopped & formed jerky, pressed into strips of medium thickness, about an inch wide and three to six inches long.

This is a dry jerky with a light oily surface feel. These strips are very flexible being able to bend back on itself with no cracking. Biting chunks off seems easy to do, while chewing is a little chewy, but overall easy.

The chewing texture starts out feeling stiff and plastic-like, with a little bit of initial chewing resistance, but seems to break down and chew down to a soft mass very easily. At that point, it has a meaty feel, with something similar to turkey breast, but more moist and slightly mushy.

I don't find any crunchy, hard, or stringy bits in this chopped & formed jerky, it all seems very meaty.

As for clean eating, my fingers pick up a light oily film. I don't find any fragments of meat or seasoning falling off on to my lap.

turkey jerky

chopped and formed turkey jerky
Snack Value

Luther's Smokehouse sells this Turkey Jerky from its website at a price of $7.00 for an 8oz package. If you bought two packages, to be sent to Southern California, the shipping comes out to $8.95, for a total of $22.95. That works out to $1.43 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes at the $1.43 per ounce price, it seems to offer a decent value. I get an average snackability due to a satisfactory flavor and a good overall meat consistency for a chopped & formed product. That price is considerably lower than many other jerky brands found in grocery stores, yet it seems to have a comparable snackability.

As a turkey jerky, at the same $1.43 per ounce price, it's also a weak value. I'm not tasting much natural turkey meat flavor at all, and it has a little bit of a turkey meat chewing texture.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

This Turkey Jerky from Luther's Smokehouse starts out with a light smokiness, and then leaves you only with a medium to high saltiness and some garlic & onion seasoning. There isn't much natural turkey meat flavor left in this, maybe just light touches here and there.

It still seems to generate some snackability, however. It's not a bad tasting jerky, just not an exciting one. The easy eating and chewing seems to help the snackability along, and I didn't encounter any weird bits of material in the meat. So despite having a simple flavor, there's nothing to subtract from my enjoyment.

If anything, it's cheaper than the turkey jerky brands you find in stores, but yet seems to offer the same snackability. If you're already buying the major brands of turkey jerky, you'd save money on this stuff.

My recommended beer pairing for this, go with a German style wheat beer, try the Franziskaner Weissbier.

Rating: Average

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