Saturday, July 13, 2013

Billy Franks Beef Jerky - Roast Beef & Mustard

billy franks beef jerky
Billy Franks beef jerky is a small-batch maker of eclectic beef jerky, based in London, England. The creation of computer programmer, Will Francis Yates, it's all hand made from rare breeds of indigenous cattle such as Red Devons, Angus, Dexters, Herefords, and Galloways from Cornwall and Scotland.

Yates gets his taste and love for smoked meats after having lived in Texas for a number of years. Billy Franks beef jerky collaborates with London's street-food sensation, "The Rib Man" to create a special line of "Holy Fuck" beef jerky, some of the hottest jerky around, which I'll be reviewing later.

This Roast Beef & Mustard beef jerky is described by Yates as, "40g of prime British beef flavoured with 3 types of mustard. just enough to tease the taste buds but not overpower the meaty Scottish beef we use."

Ingredients

British Beef, White Wine Vinegar, Mustard, Mustard Seeds, Ketchup, Soy Sauce, Honey, Lemon Juice, Black Pepper.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a light mustard flavor with a touch of vinegar. A light bit of sweet is also noticeable.

The chewing brings in a bit more of the mustard flavor, while the vinegar has more definition with a tangy chew.

For being advertised as "Roast Beef & Mustard", this seems to hold up well. There's clearly a mustard character in each chew, having that gourmet, cracked mustard seed flavor. As for the "roast beef" part of the name, I don't taste anything more beefy or more roast beyond what I tasted in other Billy Franks varieties, but there's still a noticeable natural meat flavor.

Otherwise, the flavors that define this jerky starts mainly with the mustard seed. It's almost as dominant as if I had dabbed a bit of "Grey Poupon" on each strip of jerky. The natural meat flavors seems to be the next most noticeable flavor, followed by a light tangy vinegar, a bit of saltiness, and a touch of sweet. I can even pick up faint notes of ketchup.

The amount of mustard on each piece is sharp and pungent enough to generate a fair amount of spiciness. I still see this as "mild" on my personal heat scale, but know this if you have a sensitive palate.

Collectively, the ingredients combine to create a sense of dipping marinated, dried strips of beef into a small amount of spicy, gourmet mustard. There's just a light amount of ketchup and vinegar to add an interesting burst of flavor before the mustard kicks in.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced into small, thin strips of one to four inches in length.

This is a dry jerky with a dry surface feel. Biting off a piece can require a little bit of effort, while chewing varies between moderate to tough.

The chewing texture starts out feeling tough and dry. There's a good deal of initial chewing resistance, but once it does chew down, it breaks down quickly. Once chewed down to a soft mass, it feel very much like a piece of steak, one cooked well-done, and rather dry.

I don't find any bits of fat on these strips, nor any tendon or gristle. I didn't find any stringiness and no unchewable tissues. It's very meaty.

In terms of clean eating, it's very clean, leaving no residue on my fingers and no bits of meat or seasoning falling on my lap or desktop.

mustard beef jerky

mustard flavored beef jerky

Snack Value

Billy Franks sells this Roast Beef & Mustard beef jerky from its website at a price of £2.99 for a 40g bag. By today's currency exchange rates, that works out to $4.66 for approximately a 1.5oz bag. I don't know what the shipping costs are, particularly to the United States, that works out to $3.11 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $3.11 per ounce price, it's a decent value. It's expensive jerky, and that's without the shipping price considered, yet it's flavor is quite good and interesting, beyond what most other brands offer, and perhaps is enough to make it worth the buy.

As a "Roast Beef & Mustard" flavored beef jerky, at the same $3.11 per ounce price, it's a decent value again. It definitely does have a well-noticed mustard flavor, and more of the gourmet, brown mustard flavor than the typical American-style yellow. Considering there are very few mustard-forward flavored jerky brands out there, and that this one from Billy Franks does a good job at it, it seems worth the price.

Rating

I'm giving this a best rating.

This Roast Beef & Mustard beef jerky from Billy Franks generated a lot of eye-opening snackability for me with a well-pronounced mustard flavor just as if I had dipped it lightly into a jar of gourmet mustard. The light tanginess from the vinegar and the touches of ketchup flavor creates a unique contrast to the mustard to stimulate the epicurean in me.

The meat consistency and chewing texture is still on the tough and dry side, but yet mitigated by the thin sliced strips that makes I was still able to bite and chew without too much labor. But otherwise, this jerky is very meaty with little to zero fat and nothing unchewable that I could find.

Overall, I felt that Billy Franks did a great job of making a mustard-flavored jerky, of which very few other brands offer. But it's not just mustard that makes this good, it's the contrast of tangy vinegar and sweet ketchup that first hits the taste buds that adds a tantalizing quality to this jerky.

Rating: Best

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