Monday, December 30, 2013

Three Jerks Jerky - Memphis Brand BBQ

three jerks jerky
Three Jerks is a new brand of filet mignon beef jerky, based out of Venice, CA. It was launched by three friends who were inspired to do something new and unheard of before.

I had actually introduced them before on Best Beef Jerky this past Summer while they were running a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter. The sent me some samples back then and I published my initial thoughts but didn't want to assign ratings until I could taste the actual production jerky.

This Memphis Brand BBQ flavor is described as a "Superlative BBQ made unique for jerky. Using a quintessentially Memphis style blend of natural spices, we created a dry rub that starts off sweet. But beware, just when the seasoning happily layers your taste buds, the cayenne kicks you in the back of the mouth! With sweet heat, the meat is rubbed by hand with an array of seasonings, transporting you to the south. Treat yo self! We may be jerks, but this southern gentleman jerky is a little fiery, yet refined."

Ingredients

Beef filet mignon, water, paprika, black pepper, salt, brown sugar, garlic powder, celery, salt, mustard, cumin, cayenne, pepper.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a lightly smoky, lightly sweet, blend of seasonings, mostly with the cumin, but also the cayenne and garlic.

The chewing brings in a little more definition of the cayenne, while the black pepper becomes noticeable. There's also a fair amount of heat building up.

For being dubbed, "Memphis Brand BBQ", it seems to hold up well. Memphis style BBQ is largely focused on dry rubs and seasonings, not so much the thick heavy sauces that you find in Kansas City style. And this variety of beef jerky from Three Jerks seems to follow in that same line. It's a lot of seasoning flavors up front, with a touch of smokiness, perhaps coming from the cumin and paprika. There's a spicy chile flavor from the cayenne along with a moderate level of heat. The garlic and black pepper help create that spicy-savory combination.

Otherwise, the flavors that seem to define this jerky is largely a combination of sweet, light smoky, and cayenne pepper flavor. The garlic and black pepper tends to roll in a little later into the chewing, and there's also touches of the mustard ingredient helping the brown sugar create a saucy background.

As far as the heat goes, there's enough cayenne in this to generate a "Medium" on my personal heat scale (level 3 out of 5).

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, run through some kind of tenderization process, sliced into slabs of medium thickness.

It's dry jerky having a semi-moist surface feel. There's a lot of flexibility in these slabs. Biting off chunks is easy and chewing is very easy.

The chewing texture starts out feeling meaty with little chewing resistance. It quickly and easily chews down and immediately takes on a more steak-like feel. By the time it's chewed to a soft mass, it feels like soft, tender pieces of filet mignon.

I can see some streaks of fat on these pieces, and they do contribute a little to the overall flavor. I don't really find any stringiness in the chewing, nor any other unchewable tissues. It feels very meaty.

As for clean eating, it seems to be mostly clean with little to no residue on my fingers. I do get some bits of cayenne and black pepper falling off, though.
filet mignon beef jerky

filet mignon jerky

Snack Value


Three Jerks sells this Memphis Brand BBQ beef jerky from its website at a price of $14.99 for a 2.5oz package. That works out to $6.00 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $6.00 per ounce price, it's a weak value. Compared to other brands of beef jerky, this filet mignon jerky maybe more tender than most, but the price of $6.00 per ounce is extremely high compared to other standard beef jerky.  Even though it has a great flavor and chewing, there are still other brands of exceptional quality that cost far less.

As a filet mignon beef jerky, at the same $6.00 per ounce price, it's a good value. I'm not able to find any other filet mignon jerky brands based in the United States, so it's tough to compare. But it does offer a good overall flavor, good chewing texture, and meat consistency.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Memphis Brand BBQ variety from Three Jerks Jerky has a lightly smoky, yet bold spicy seasoning flavor, that hits you up front, with a sweet and lightly mustard sauce in the middle, and touches of garlic and black pepper to round things out.

Overall, it's very much like the type of BBQ you find in Memphis, mostly dry rubs and complex seasonings. And this jerky does a good job of creating an enjoyable flavor that you can think about and pick apart as you chew. I wasn't, however, able to get much of the natural meat flavors, which I would have liked considering the higher price of this jerky and that it's made from filet mignon.

Considering it's made from filet mignon, it has the soft, tender chewing that filet mignon is known for, and still chews and feels like real filet mignon steak, once you get it chewed down.

Rating: Good

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