Thursday, November 8, 2012

Clint & Sons Beef Jerky - Chile Lime

clint and sons beef jerky
Next in the series on Clint & Sons Beef Jerky is this Chile Lime variety. See our reviews of their other flavors.

Clint & Sons is a meat processing facility located in White Deer, TX. It's a family run business that goes back to 1944 when Clint Freeman opened it up. Today it's run by his sons and grandchildren. The company recently upgraded from state inspection to federal inspection, allowing them to sell jerky across all 50 states.

This Chile Lime variety is described as a tender cut that has been slow marinated in a unique blend of seasoning, and then slow smoked over real hickory, and finally hit with a hint of lime.


Ingredients

Beef, water, teriyaki flavored marinade, lime powder, cure, black pepper, cayenne pepper, sodium nitrite.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a well-noticed lime flavor, with its citrusy, fruitiness. A light smokiness lies behind that, along with a light saltiness. Meanwhile, a light spicy burn is building.

The chewing flavor starts with an increased saltiness, along with a touch of soy sauce, and the natural meat flavors. The burn continues to build. There's a fair amount of black pepper flavor noticeable in the background.

For being marketed as a Chile Lime beef jerky, it seems to hold up well. I get a fair amount of chile pepper heat, though not much of the chile pepper flavor. However, I do get a lot of lime flavor. I can pick up the unique flavor of lime, but I can also taste the citrusy, tangy, citric acid taste, along with a nice fruity, slightly sweet flavor.

Otherwise, the flavor that defines this jerky the most is clearly the lime flavor. After that, it's the smoky, lightly salty, natural meat flavors. There's a hint of soy sauce back in there, and a fair amount of black pepper flavor in the background.

As far as the heat goes, I'd rate this on my personal heat scale as "medium", (level 3 out of 5).

The level of saltiness in this feels to be moderate.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced into strips of two four inches in length, and sliced medium thickness.

This is a dry jerky with a dry surface feel.  The strips have a lot of flexibility, but in a very meaty, steak-like feel, and not the rubbery type represented in the company's other varieties.  Chewing is largely easy.

The chewing texture starts out feeling stiff, somewhat woody.  It gives way fairly easily in the first few chews and immediately feels meaty.  By the time it chews down to a soft mass, it feels exactly like a well-done cooked steak.

I can see small bits and streaks of fat on these strips, creating some marbelized meat flavor.  I don't encounter any gristle, tendon, or significant stringiness.  This is very meaty.

In terms of clean eating, it's very clean, leaving my fingers free of residue.

chile lime beef jerky

chile lime beef jerky
Snack Value

Clint & Sons sells this Chile Lime beef jerky from their website at a price of $22.50 for four packages of 3oz each. They charge $10.00 flat rate on any size order. If you bought three of these four-packs, the total comes to $82.00, or a price of $2.15 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.15 per ounce price, it's a good value. I'm getting a good overall flavor with an excellent meat consistency, and great chewing texture. Compared to national brands of jerky sold in stores, it's priced a little higher but offers a far better snackability.

Rating

clint and sons beef jerky nutrition
I'm giving this a good rating.

This Chile Lime beef jerky from Clint & Sons offers plenty of lime flavors, enough to notice the citrusy, tangy, citric acid, along with its sweet, fruitiness. It also serves up a medium level of heat, but I couldn't taste much of the chile pepper flavor.

In a lot of ways, this Chile Lime variety is much like the company's Black Label variety I reviewed last week. It has a good natural meat flavor, lightly marbelized, and well smoked. The meat consistency is good, easy to chew, and the chewing texture seems very steak-like. The difference is that you get that rich lime flavor and a moderate level of heat.

Overall, I think I still prefer the Black Label over this Chile Lime, but in comparison to other brands of Chile Lime jerky, this has the best lime flavor I've encountered yet.

Rating: Good

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