Friday, June 1, 2012

Slantshack Jerky - Bronx Pale Ale

slantshack jerky
The newest flavor from SlantShack Jerky is this Bronx Pale Ale variety. See my previous reviews of their other flavors here.

Bronx Pale Ale is a popular brew made by Bronx Brewery of New York City, NY. As the story goes, the folks from SlantShack Jerky were sipping Bronx Pale Ale at a bar, and it just so happened that the Bronx Brewery team were at the other end of the bar trying some SlantShack Jerky. The bartender took notice of the coincidence and simply brought the two together, and just like that a new jerky flavor was born.

This Bronx Pale Ale jerky is made with a blend of the said brew along with Tin Mustard to create new jerky variety like none other. As with all their jerky flavors, SlantShack uses 100% grass-fed beef.

Ingredients

Beef, The Bronx Pale Ale, Soy Sauce, Whole Grain Mustard, Mustard Powder, Vinegar, Salt, Brown Mustard, Honey, Molasses.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a light soy sauce flavor, followed by a hint of mustard, a touch of sweet, and little bit of a meaty flavor.

The chewing flavor starts with a bit more sweet, just a little more definition from the mustard, and a light natural meat flavor.

For being dubbed, "Bronx Pale Ale", I can taste some of the malt flavors that makes up a pale ale, and maybe a touch of the bitter hops. Overall, this jerky doesn't have a beer flavor, rather it tastes like beef jerky, but with overtones of malt and hops. If you've ever marinated steaks in beer, you probably know what I'm describing.

Otherwise, the tastes that largely defines this jerky is the mild soy sauce flavor with a light saltiness. There's a light natural meat flavor that comes in next, supported by a touches of sweet, and a touch of mustard.

The mustard component will vary in strength based on how many mustard seeds I bite into. Sometimes I get a nice burst of flavor that tastes like gourmet, whole seed mustard. Other times, I get just a hint of the flavor. The pungent flavor of mustard seems to compliment the lightly sweet, soy sauce flavor of this jerky.

To sum up, this is a mild flavored jerky, despite the whole grain mustard, with touches of malt and hop flavors. But if you haven't spent any time experimenting with beer marinades, it might be difficult for you to identify any beer flavors.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced into thin slabs of medium to large sizes.

This is a dry jerky with a dry surface feel. There's a slight bit of a crunchy consistency to these slabs. Biting off chunks is very easy to do, while chewing seems moderately easy.

The chewing texture starts out feeling soft and pliable, not necessarily moist and tender. Chewing causes the jerky to compact down into a more chewy mass. But once chewed down into a softer piece, it tends to feel like a real piece of steak, one cooked well-done.

I can see small spots of fat on several slabs, though no streaks of gristle. The slabs are dry enough that the fat is unnoticeable. I feel a moderate degree of stringiness, but nothing else unchewable.

In terms of clean eating, this is very clean eating. A few seeds of mustard fall off, otherwise my fingers are left dry with no residue.

bronx pale ale jerky

Snack Value

SlantShack Jerky sells this Bronx Pale Ale variety from its website at a price of $45.00 for a one-pound package. Add to that shipping of approximately $6.00, and it works out to a price of $3.19 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $3.19 per ounce price, it's a fair value. I get an overall good flavor, with a good chewing texture and good meat consistency. Compared to major brands of jerky found in grocery stores, it's much higher in price, though considerably better in snackability.

As a beer and mustard flavored beef jerky, at the same $3.19 per ounce price, it's a decent value. Considering that it's made with a craft brew like Bronx Pale Ale, and not something domestic and watery, it's understandingly higher in cost. But I do identify the effects of the malt and hops in this meat, and I can easily identify the mustard flavors in this.

Rating

slantshack jerky nutrition
I'm giving this a good rating.

This Bronx Pale Ale variety from SlantShack Jerky offers up an enjoyable flavor that combines touches of malt and hops from the well-known Bronx Brewery, along with a light soy sauce base, a light natural meat flavor, light flavors of whole seed mustard, and faint bits of sweet.

More of a mustard-flavored jerky than a beer one, the mustard seems to work really well with the touches of sweet and the light soy sauce taste. You're not going to identify a strong beer flavor in this jerky, but you'll pick up the malt and hop influences if you're well familiar with beer-marinated meats.

And if you love that old-fashioned, thin-sliced slab jerky, you'll love this stuff from SlantShack, having that light bit of crunch in the chewing.

My recommended beer pairing for this? Why not stick with the Bronx Pale Ale!

Rating: Good

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