Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Pap's Beef Jerky - Asian Style

paps beef jerky
Note: Pap's Foods is a sponsor of this website, but has no effect on our ratings and reviews.

The newest flavor from Pap's Beef Jerky is this Asian Style. See our other reviews of Pap's Beef Jerky.

Pap's Beef Jerky is a new product from Pap's Genuine Beef Sticks, which we reviewed previously. Pap's is a creation of Rick Waldon, based out of Junction City, KY.

This Asian Style is described as "A sweet and savory marinade infused with garlic, pepper and red chili’s meld together to deliver a beef jerky that compliments the natural beef flavor of the meat with the sweet spicy barbecue style created centuries ago in Asia."


Ingredients

Beef, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, vegetable glycerin, brown sugar, red pepper, hot sauce.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a heavy sweetness, followed by a light beef flavor. A bit of heat begins to rise, and there's a light garlic noticeable.

The chewing brings in more of the natural meat flavors, while a saucy flavor comes in as well. The heat picks up a bit, and I can detect the chile pepper flavor. The garlic remains about the same.

For being marketed as, "Asian Style", and as "sweet spicy barbecue", it does fit the bill. It's very sweet and quite spicy, mostly through the red chile pepper. I don't pick up much of the "infused garlic", though I do taste a light bit of it. As for being "Asian style", yes there's certainly an Asian character to this, more like the sweet & spicy sauces you'd expect to find at a Chinese restaurant.

Otherwise, the flavors that seem to define this jerky is begins largely with the heavy sweetness. The spiciness of the red chili pepper and its associated flavor perhaps takes up the second-most noticeable flavor, with the garlic, soy sauce, and worcestershire combination rounding the rest. There's also a light natural meat flavor going on.

Together, the ingredients seem to generate a very flavorful jerky, largely as heavily sweet and moderately hot, and then lighter amounts of the other flavorings. It still manages to impart a flavor reminiscent of Asian cuisine, mostly through that sweet & spicy coating.

The level of heat in this ranks on my personal heat scale as "medium", (level 3 out of 5)

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced into slabs of small to medium sizes, and sliced medium thickness.

This is a dry jerky with a lightly sticky surface feel. There's a good deal of flexibility, almost to a plastic-like feel. Chewing varies from easy to moderately tough.

The chewing texture starts out with a fair to heavy amount of initial chewing resistance. With a good deal of chewing, it takes on a dry, but meat like feel. The heavier sweetness in this jerky makes the chewing feel gummy. But once chewed down to a soft mass, it feels quite meaty, though not exactly steak-like.

I found one slab with a significant piece of fat, producing a stringy chew. Otherwise, the other slabs were very meaty, with no signs of fat or gristle. Much of the chewing was largely void of any unchewable tissues.

In terms of clean eating, my fingers pick up a light stickiness, but still dry enough to type on the keyboard.

paps beef jerky

paps beef jerky

Snack Value

Pap's Beef Jerky sells this Asian Style variety at a price of $6.99 for a 3.5oz package. I don't have shipping info. Without shipping, it works out to a price of $2.00 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.00 per ounce price, it's a good value. I'm getting a good overall flavor, good meat consistency though tough chewing in some pieces. Compared to other gourmet brands of jerky, it's a better snackability as a whole.

As an Asian style beef jerky, at the same $2.00 per ounce price, it's also a good value. I get a flavor that seems to resemble the sweet & spicy sauce I'd expect to find at a Chinese restaurant.

Rating

This Asian Style beef jerky from Pap's Beef Jerky imparts a sweet & spicy sauce flavor much like what you'd find at a Chinese restaurant, with a heavy sweetness and flavorings of red chile pepper. It's also moderately hot, giving Asian food lovers a taste of the spicy side.  It doesn't, however, taste like the jerky made by actual Asian food companies, however.  It still tastes like American style jerky, but with Asian style flavorings.

But while I got a lot of the sweetness and a good touch of the red chile pepper, the other ingredients seemed lost on me. It's hard to identify the soy sauce, worcestershire, garlic, and hot sauce. While I'm sure they combine to create a good marinade, the flavors that seem to register on my palate is largely the sweet and red chile, with a light natural meat flavor.

Otherwise, the meat consistency seemed great, and the chewing was largely meaty, though the heavy sweetness created a gummy quality. Some pieces tended to be tough, while others were easy. Overall, this Asian Style still comes off as being better than the average lot of jerky brands and flavors.

Rating: Good

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