Empire Jerky Works is a brand of Empire Jerky Works based out of Citrus Heights, CA. The company has been selling jerky since 2007.

The company was started by Brian Ingraham who started making his own jerky in 1975 using an old family recipie, and for many years shared it with friends and business associates. Due to positive feedback he hired a USDA inspected meat processor and got into the business of selling jerky. Today Empire Jerky Works is sold through casinos, taverns, stores, and motorcycle rallies throughout Northern California, as well as its own website.

The company offers four varieties, this Original, a Peppered, a Teriyaki, and a Peppered Teriyaki, which I'll reviewing over the next several weeks.

Ingredients

Beef, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, brown sugar, spices, liquid smoke, garlic.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a heavy sweet flavor, followed by a liquid smoke flavor.

The chewing flavor starts with a teriyaki sauce flavor, and a moderate saltiness. The sweetness continues on, while a black pepper flavor becomes noticeable. There's also a light natural meat flavor.

The flavor that seems to dominate this jerky more than any other is the teriyaki sauce. It seems to have a stronger soy sauce flavor than any of the other teriyaki components. The sweetness is significant, but I want to say the soy sauce component is stronger. I don't really pick up the tangy and pungent components that I usually look for in teriyaki, but because this jerky isn't marketed as Teriyaki, I'm not really evaluating it for the teriyaki.

The saltiness is rather significant as well, and feels like it sits somewhere between medium and high, though the nutrition facts labels show a moderate sodium content.

But the black pepper also plays a dominant role in this, generating a fairly strong aftertaste in the back of my mouth, and as I continue to eat more pieces that aftertaste builds up and transfers itself into each piece and feels like it wants to become the primary flavor overall.

The natural meat flavors are very light, mostly sitting in the shadows behind the other flavors I mentioned above. Even the liquid smoke is more dominant than the meat flavors.

Overall, what you're going to notice in this jerky is the teriyaki sauce, being weighted more on the soy sauce component, but still with a strong sweetness. The saltiness feels somewhat strong, and there's also a significant black pepper flavor. The natural meat flavors are light with a noticeable liquid smoke taste.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced to a medium thickness, and cut into strips ranging from three to seven inches.

This is a dry jerky, having a mostly dry surface feel, but still a little sticky in some places. The strips are sliced with the grain, and still have a lot of flexibility, being able to bend all the way back on themselves without cracking open. Biting off chunks seems easy to do, while chewing is chewy, though still being easy.

The chewing texture starts off feeling pliable and flexible but dry, and presents just a little bit of initial chewing resistance. But it doesn't take much to make it break apart and doesn't take long to chew down to a soft mass. At that point it has a meaty feel, but not like a real piece of steak. There's a gummy quality to it, probably due to the sugary glaze, and slight crumbly nature.

I don't see any visible signs of fat on these strips, nor do I see any gristle or tendon. I didn't encounter any stringiness in the chewing, and didn't end up with any unchewable wads of tissue.

As for clean eating, there's a fine film of stickiness on my fingertips, but still dry enough to type on my keyboard. A few bits of black pepper stick to my fingers, but are easily rubbed off before I type.




Snack Value

Empire Jerky Works sells this Original variety from its website at a price of $6.00 for a 4oz package. If you bought four packages, and had it sent to Southern California, the shipping works out to $5.95 plus sales tax of $1.86, for a total cost of $31.81. That's a price of $1.99 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $1.99 per ounce price, it's a good value. I'm getting a good snackability for an overall satisfying flavor, good meat consistency, easy eating, and average chewing texture. Compared to the major brands of jerky you find at grocery stores, it's pretty much the same price and offering a slightly better snackability.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

This Original beef jerky from Empire Jerky Works generates mostly a teriyaki flavor, one that's more heavily weighted on soy sauce, but still with a significant saltiness. There's also a lot of black pepper flavor in this, a light natural meat flavor and a noticeable liquid smoke flavor.

Compared to the other 230+ brands of jerky I've reviewed thus far, this one doesn't really set itself as being above average, but still manages to offer a good snackability through a lot of sweet, salty, peppery flavor, easy eating, good meat consistency, and an average chewing texture. I think most people who buy a bag of Empire Jerky Works at a motorcycle rally or a tavern will be pleased with the instant gratification this has to offer.

But for discriminating jerky aficionados who want something that offers more than just snackability won't get a lot of out of this. The flavor is better than what Jack Link's or Oberto has to offer with their Original varieties, but is by no means a unique flavor, or a particularly exceptional flavor.

I think a good beer pairing for this is something more refreshing to counter the higher saltiness of this jerky, but less malty. Go with a lighter tasting pale ale, like the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, or the Anchor Steam.

Rating: Average

Buy this online:

• http://empirecigarandjerkyworks.com/