Friday, April 13, 2012

PA Dutch Style Beef Jerky - Some Like It Hot

pa dutch style beef jerky
Next in the series on PA Dutch Style Beef Jerky is this "Some Like it Hot" variety. See my previous review of their Peppered variety.

It's the creation of Lisa Heinemann, who started making jerky in 1992, but just started selling it on eBay late last year. She makes it all fresh to order, and offers seven varieties in all. Her jerky is all hand-trimmed and preservative-free.

She describes "Dutch Style" as meaning "slightly sweeter and not as salty as some". This "Some Like It Hot" variety is her original sweet/salty jerky and what appears to be her spiciest offering.

Ingredients

None provided

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a moderate sweetness, followed by a light chile pepper flavor. Some saltiness comes in later.

The chewing flavor starts with a more defined chile pepper flavor, along with an increased sweetness and saltiness.

For being marketed as "Some Like It Hot", this seems to hold up to such a billing. I get a good deal of heat from this, what I would rank on my personal heat scale as "medium-hot" (level 4 out of 5), even though there's only a light scattering of chile pepper flakes visible on these pieces.

Otherwise, the flavors that seem to define this jerky overall is a combination of the chile pepper and sweetness. It's very much the "sweet heat" classic but taken a little more seriously with some extra sweet and some extra heat. Aside from that I'm picking up a light to moderate saltiness, but not much else.

The chile pepper flavor, by the way, seems to have light smoky flavor, perhaps lightly roasted to bring out slightly chipotle flavor.

I don't taste any natural meat flavors in this.

Overall, what you're going to taste in this is a strong combination of sweet and chile pepper flavors, a medium-hot level of heat, and a light to moderate saltiness.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced against the grain into small to medium sized pieces, and sliced medium thick.

It's a dry jerky with a sticky surface feel. They have some flexibility, and will crack open if bent far enough. Biting off chunks seems easy to do, while chewing is a little more chewy.

The chewing texture starts out with some initial chewing resistance, but then breaks down into a little bits and chunks. Some pieces seem to mesh together as a single piece of meat, while others tend to remain chunky. Those that mesh feels like chewing real pieces of meat, cooked rare, while others just feel chunky and sticky.

I can spot tiny bits of fat on these pieces, but for the most part it's seems very lean. A couple pieces revealed small streaks of gristle, but I didn't feel them in the chewing. No stringiness that I could find, and nothing unchewable noticed.

In terms of clean eating, my fingers picked a little bit of the stickiness from these pieces, but not enough to warrant a licking and wiping before touching the keyboard.

hot beef jerky

hot beef jerky
Snack Value

PA Dutch Style Beef Jerky is sold on eBay at a price of $24.25 for a one pound package. Shipping is free. That works out to a price of $1.52 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $1.52 per ounce price, this is a good value. It's priced considerably less than the major brands of jerky sold in grocery stores, and seems to offer a much better snackability in terms of flavor and meat consistency.

As a sweet and spicy beef jerky, at the same $1.52 per ounce price, it's an excellent value. I get a lot of sweetness countered with a good deal of spicy flavors of chile peppers and a medium-hot level of heat.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This "Some Like It Hot" variety from PA Dutch Style Beef Jerky packs a nice wallop of sweet and spicy flavors, mostly as lightly roasted chile pepper flavor with a medium-hot level of heat. But aside from the light saltiness, I wasn't able to find much else to taste, not even the natural meat flavors.

However, I still found the trio of sweet, spicy, and salty flavors to be snackable enough to warrant the four-star rating, primarily because of the chile pepper flavor which I like better than the black pepper. I also found the meat in this batch of "Some Like It Hot" to chew more like real meat than the Peppered variety. However, I still found some pieces to chew into chunks and bits, but overall it seems more of a meaty chew.

But the price point still seems to be strength of this jerky, giving you better flavor overall than most of the other budget-minded jerky brands you find in stores, plus knowing it's made fresh to order.

My recommended beer pairing, go with a nutty brown ale, try the Alesmith Nautical Nutbrown, or the Rogue Hazelnut Brown.

Rating: Good

Buy this online:
  • No longer in production!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks again Steve! I will get my remaining varieties to you asap. I believe the reason the previously reviewed "peppered" variety of mine, is kind of crumbly on chewing, is that I actually pound the pepper, and lots of it, into the meat itself. My first few customers reordered, and asked for more pepper, which I gladly provided. I myself, LOVE fresh cracked pepper. I may add another pepper flavor, but a bit lighter, and keep the one you reviewed as an "extra peppered" type. I also am working on other flavors, but ebay subtititles has run out of room, or, I have run out of bad grammar. I am soon to have a "brand" name, very cool one too, nothing to do with snakes or spiders,or other lowly critters, although I do love them all, always been a nature freak and, and,.. a website. I much appreciate your reviews, it's so interesting to see someone take the time to actually address every detail of the product. Very helpful to persons like me who have hopes of becoming succesful in the jerky business.

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