Sunday, September 29, 2013

Ed's Custom Beef Jerky - Ghost Pepper

eds custom beef jerky
Ed's Custom Beef Jerky is the creation of Ed Carbury, based out of Huntington Beach, CA, and has been in operation since 2003.

Ed originally started selling his Habanero beef jerky on eBay, and soon perfected a dozen more flavors so that consumers could mix and match their orders. All of his jerky is made from USDA London Broil and then vacuum sealed. He uses no preservatives. Ed's Custom Beef Jerky has won taste competitions on Peppers and More.

This Ghost Pepper beef jerky is described by Ed as, "This jerky is made with Naga Jolokia Ghost Peppers imported from India and blended with our Habanero Sauce. Use caution this product rated at 1 Million Scoville Units!"

Ingredients

USDA beef, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, spices, flavorings, hot sauce, garlic powder, pepper, onion powder, cayenne pepper.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is the ghost pepper flavor, with a strong heat building up fast. There's a light saltiness too and a bit of sweet.

The chewing brings in the natural meat flavors along with a more defined ghost pepper flavor, along with a bit more saltiness and some garlic.

For being marketed as "Ghost Pepper" beef jerky, it holds up well. I get a lot of ghost pepper flavor along with a high level of heat that builds up fast.

Otherwise, the flavors that seem to define this jerky overall starts with an initial sweetness that gives way immediately to the ghost pepper flavor. The salty/garlic seasonings comes in quite strong. The natural meat flavors are also well-noticeable in this. For the most part, it's a trio of ghost pepper flavor, garlic seasoning, and natural meat flavors that are most noticeable.

The heat in this ranks as "hot" on my personal heat scale (level 5 out of 5), but still doesn't quite reach the tongue-piercing burn that I've found in some other Ghost Pepper jerky brands. This tends to roll on the heat and gets it up to a high intensity, yet not so high that I can't eat anymore. It's high enough to what I'd expect in a Ghost Pepper jerky, but not too high that I can still eat more.

Otherwise, this Ghost Pepper jerky is similar to the company's Green Habanero jerky I reviewed earlier, giving off a rich chile pepper flavor, a good dose of heat, and the wonderful flavor of beef. It's just more heat.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, cut into bite-sized pieces.

This is a dry jerky with a lightly sticky surface feel. Chewing seems easy to do, with just a little bit of chewiness, but overall a tender chew.

The chewing texture starts out with little bit of initial chewing resistance, but easily breaks down and feels meaty right away. By the time it's chewed down to a soft mass, it feels very much like chewing pieces of steak.

I don't see any fat on these pieces, nor any gristle or tendon. I felt no stringiness and found no unchewable tissues. It's very meaty.

As for clean eating, there's faint bits of stickiness on my fingers, but still clean enough to touch my keyboard.



Snack Value

Ed's Custom Beef Jerky sells this Ghost Pepper beef jerky at a price of $20.00 for two 4oz bags. Shipping is flat rate $5.05 across the United States. If you bought 16oz of this stuff, it would cost you $2.82 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.82 per ounce price, it's a decent value. I'm getting a really good flavor, excellent meat consistency, and good chewing texture, though at a price that's considerably more than what I'd pay for other brands in stores. Even at this higher price, it's still worth the buy,

As a Ghost Pepper beef jerky, it's a good value. I can easily taste natural flavor of Ghost Peppers and I get a lot of heat, but yet still toned down enough to create some snackability.

Rating

I'm giving this a best rating.

This Ghost Pepper beef jerky from Ed's Custom Beef Jerky really does a great job of showcasing the natural flavor of Ghost Pepper chiles, along with a high degree of heat that you'd expect from a Ghost Pepper jerky. However, it's not tongue-piercing hot. Instead, it rolls on, rather quickly, but at a level that allowed me to keep feeding more pieces into my mouth. I can enjoy the flavor of ghost peppers without having to pause too long in between pieces.

Otherwise, this jerky is comparable to the company's Green Habanero jerky I reviewed a couple weeks ago, though with more heat, and less tanginess. Perhaps the tanginess comes from the unique flavors of the habanero versus the ghost pepper.

It's easy to chew, bite-sized pieces, also made this jerky more enjoyable to eat. The fact that it has no stringiness and no unchewable pieces, created a very enjoyable chewing experience, allowing me to spend more time savoring the flavors.

Rating: Best

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