It's the idea of Craig Mitchell, who a few years ago, had sent me samples of his own homemade jerky, with the intent of launching a business someday. Mitchell received his Culinary Arts degree from Johnson & Wales University, and has been cooking professionally since 1978.
As of this review, the only flavor Chef Craig's offers is this Original.
Ingredients
Beef, brown sugar, soy sauce, hot sauce, liquid smoke, browning sauce, worcestershire sauce, black pepper, steak seasoning, red pepper, lemon pepper, garlic, onion, chili powder, chipotle chile pepper.
Taste
The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a saucy sweetness with some smokiness mixed in. It's almost like a sweet & smoky combination of worcestershire, soy sauce, and au jus (think French Dip). A light burn begins building.
The chewing flavor brings in a natural meat flavor, but with some citrus-like tanginess. The burn continues to build up.
For being the company's Original flavor, it's anything but plain. In fact, it's very flavorful, with a well-seasoned marinade that tastes much different than many other brands. The tanginess in the chewing livens up the snacking, while the natural meat flavor satisfies the carnivore in me.
It also has a moderate level of heat in this, something I'd rate on my personal heat scale as "medium" (level 3 out of 5). But I don't really taste much of the chile pepper flavor, perhaps just a faint bit reaching through the heavier saucey-seasoned marinade.
The flavor of this jerky seems to build up higher as the chewing goes on. When I put a piece into my mouth, the flavor starts out low and gradually increases with each chew. You could suck on a piece without chewing, and almost get the same effect. There's enough flavor in these meat slices that you can get a lot of it without chewing.
The level of saltiness in this feels moderate, maybe a touch above.
Overall, what you're going to get is a well-seasoned marinade with a very saucy flavor, much like a trio of worcestershire, soy sauce, and french dip au jus, along with a noticeable natural meat flavor, a nice tanginess in the chewing, and moderate amount of heat.
Meat Consistency
These are slices of whole meat, sliced into bite-sized pieces of medium thickness. There's a fair amount of smaller sized bits too.
This is a dry jerky with a slightly sticky surface feel. These pieces have a good deal of flexibility, and seem slightly rubbery.
The chewing texture starts out with that slight rubbery feel, and offers a light bit of chewing resistance. A few chews into it and it starts to soften. It begins to take on a very meaty resemblance, and by the time its chewed down to a soft mass, it feels very much like a piece of steak cooked medium-well.
I don't see much fat on these pieces and found no gristle or tendon. I don't encounter any stringiness, but felt a few pieces of unchewable tissues. It's mostly all meaty.
In terms of clean eating, it's mostly clean. My fingertips do collect a light bit of stickiness, but not enough to require a licking or wiping before touching my keyboard.
Rating
This Original beef jerky from Chef's Craig's tastes far from ordinary, packing in a lot of good flavors. It has a very tasty marinade, more like a combination of worcestershire, soy sauce, and french dip au jus, but with a good deal of sweet and smokiness mixed in.
But then it adds a nice natural meat flavor with a citrus tanginess. Throw in a touch of chile pepper flavor and a moderate level of heat, and it creates a very impressive flavor profile, and not overly salty
The meat consistency is overall good. It starts out with a light rubbery feel, but manages to chew down to a steak-like texture. It's very meaty with little to no stringiness or unchewable tissues. Collecting together the tiny bits of meat can provide something of a hindrance, but overall not that bad.
For me, it was the impressive flavor that opened my eyes and made me think, "Wow, this is great!"
My recommended beer pairing for this, go with a porter, such as the Sierra Nevada Porter, or the Stone Smoked Porter.
Rating:
Best (5/5)Buy this online:
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I'm Steve Johnson, and I've been in the Internet marketing and publishing business since 1997. I've been a life-long fan of beef jerky and decided to merge my profession with my snack food of choice, and gave birth to Best Beef Jerky.
Bought some of chef craigs jerky the other day via mail. I have to say omg! This stuff is great! I will be buying more of this jerky. The ingredients packed into one bag is highly skillful. The flavors that you taste when eating it is undescribable in my words. Has a lil heat that creeps in but does not kill the sweet juicy flavors that errupt. Thanks for inventing this stuff, you rock!!!
ReplyDeleteChef Craig's package arrived today. I wasn't happy with it...
ReplyDeleteI was actually blown away, and ecstatic. :)
Very pleased to discover that is undeniably one of THE most impeccably prepared jerkies man has ever made. It should be called genius jerky. No lie.
I've made it a bit of a mission in life to seek out the best dried meats the world has to offer, and I've had a fair share of excellent products. This one is just amazingly unique in its own way. The reduction of the complex blend of diametrically opposed flavours into one simplified experience is the essence of its perfection. The way the flavours evolve so consistently over time is truly a testament to the masterpiece that is Craig's culinary jerky work. So many jerkies will just taste the same way throughout the chew, but this actually evolves over each bite, again and again. It is therefore comparable to music, where the end no longer sounds like the beginning, in the instant, yet the whole is ultimately the sum of all parts. This is some serious Mozart jerky!
I could go on, but I got more jerky to eat. So I'll wind it down here with a heartfelt and sincere bit of applause for this outstandingly eminent product. Bravo. In an ocean of dried cattle, I'm absolutely certain this will quickly rise to the top, to achieve the legendary status it entirely deserves. Every jerky lover owes it to themselves to taste this, at least once. It's bucket list jerky.
With that, I wish the honorable Chef continued, unbridled success in all his meaty endeavours, and can't wait to order more!
Agreed, this is a very unique jerky - quite delicious! Very well balanced, nice zing and, as you said, kind of "saucy." (I love that description - I wouldn't have thought of it but it is quite accurate.) I did try sucking on the pieces and was amply rewarded.
ReplyDeleteChef Craig's is one of the brands I tried during my "get out of your rut" initiative (OK, it was a tasty rut, but still...) for the holiday. I love my regular purveyors but am very glad I tried Chef Craig. Excellent turn around as well - late night order on a Thursday, arrival on Monday.
Excellent! I'm on a low carb diet and wanted something to snack on. Chef Craig's jerky is awesome. I bought both original and teriyaki. I won't be bored with this diet, just wish I knew the carb., sugar, etc. content.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Found the nutritional info!
ReplyDelete