Redneck Seasonings - Danse Macabre Beef Jerky

Next in the series on Redneck Seasonings is Danse Macabre Beef Jerky. See our review of their Filet of Ghost.

Redneck Seasonings is a brand run by Ray Templeton out of Moscow, ID. Over the past couple of years the business has been selling seasonings, jerky, and bratwurst. Among their specialities is infused sea salts, infused with a variety of seasonings. The inspiration for his line of jerky came when he started using a Bhut Jolokia Inufsed Sea Salt. Today, his jerky brined with this particular blend, and produced into two flavors, the Filet of Ghost (a milder variety), and this Danse Macabre (a more hot variety).

Templeton makes the jerky himself and sells it at the Moscow Farmers Market as well as online.

Ingredients

Beef, Turbinado sugar, white sugar, Bhut Jolokia Infused Sea Salt, Habanero Pepper Infused Sea Salt, pure Bhut Jolokia Pepper powder, pure Habanero Pepper powder.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a salty, oily flavor, with several chile pepper flavors coming in soon after. The heat builds up quickly to a great intensity, and before too long, my mouth is on fire.

The chewing brings in much of the same flavors but with some natural meat flavors.

For being marketed as, "Danse Macabre", and as an intensely hot beef jerky, it's holds up well. The burn is intense, very intense. It might be as hot as Ed's Roadhouse Ghost Pepper with Scorpion Bite. It also has a noticeable chile pepper flavors as well.

While I consider myself tolerating a lot of hot foods, this goes above my capacity, making it difficult to review. That being said, I'm only able to take small bites and wait in between for several minutes.

But otherwise, the flavors that define this jerky starts off with infused sea salts with the Bhut Jolokia and Habanero pepper powders. There's still quite a bit of saltiness in this as with the Filet of Ghost I reviewed last week. But the natural meat flavors come in pretty well, having a well marbleized taste. Finally, light touches of sweet round out the flavors.

The level of heat in this ranks as "hot" on my personal heat scale (level 5 out of 5). If my scale went up to 10, it would be a 10.

The natural meat flavors are quite tasty, having an aged flavor but mixed with a nice fattiness to impart a more beefy experience.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced into thick strips.

This is a dry jerky with a slightly oily surface feel. The pieces have a flexible, rubbery feel. Biting off chunks can take some effort to do, while chewing can be a little tough.

The chewing texture starts out feeling stiff and rubbery. With several chews, it breaks apart and feels fibrous. Eventually it chews down to a soft mass and takes on a more steak-like feel, as if cooked medium, but still keeping a little bit of that rubbery character.

I can see several streaks and bits of fat on these pieces, which contributes to the overall flavor. There's a little bit of stringiness, but well tolerable. I didn't encounter any gristle or tendon, nor any unchewable tissues.

As for clean eating, my fingers pick up an oily film, enough to require a licking and wiping before touching the keyboard.

Snack Value

Redneck Seasonings sells this Danse Macabre Beef Jerky online at a price of approximately $1.87 per ounce. Each package is weighed separately and individually priced. Shipping is flat rate at $5.95 to anywhere in the USA. If you bought 16 ounces of this jerky, with shipping added, it would work out to $2.24 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.24 per ounce price, this offers a good value. I'm getting a good overall flavor, good chewing texture and good meat consistency. Though it tends to be somewhat tough, it's not too rough on the jaws muscles. It's just rather salty. Compared to other national brands of jerky, it's priced about the same, but offers a better flavor and chewing texture.

As a Bhut Jolokia/Habanero flavored jerky, at the same $2.24 per ounce price, it's also good value. I'm getting tons of heat, as much as what you'd expect from eating Bhut Jolokia and Habanero peppers, while still getting decent amount of flavor.

Rating

I'm giving this a best rating.

This Danse Macabre beef jerky from Redneck Seasonings does a great job of turning my tongue into fiery hot charcoal while still imparting some good Ghost Pepper and Habanero Pepper flavors. I really like the natural meat flavor in this along with its fatty, marbleized character. It's still rather salty, like its Filet of Ghost brethren, but considering how intensely hot this is, the saltiness almost seems to disappear.

But compared to the Filet of Ghost, this Danse Macabre variety offers a richer chile pepper flavor, which is really what I'm after when it comes to spicy hot foods. It's enough to overcome the saltiness, and enough to make me want to fight past the insane heat.  It still has a good meat consistency and good chewing texture, though it tends to retain a little rubbery feel.

I'm not quite capable of tolerating jerky as hot as this, so I tend to take a bite, chew, swallow, and pause long in between. It's not the way I prefer to snack. However, for those of you who need as much chile pepper burn as you can possibly get, give this Danse Macabre variety a try.

Rating: Best

Buy this online:

• http://www.redneckseasonings.com/