Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Wal-Mart Great Value Beef Jerky - Peppered

Wal-Mart Great Value Beef Jerky - PepperedThe "Great Value" brand is probably Wal-Mart's greatest brand, representing thousands of products found around the home, pantries, and refrigerators. And as such, their offering of beef jerky is quickly building up as a popular buy by many snack food eaters.

The peppered variety remains my favorite of all beef jerky varieties, just because I love the taste of black pepper, particularly when mixed with steak.

Just like I mentioned in my review of Wal-Mart's "Sweet & Hot" beef jerky, there offering leaves me wondering if Jack Link's is their private labeler. These pieces have a look, aroma, and taste that resembles Jack Link's. But who knows.

Ingredients

Beef, water, sugar, corn syrup solids, salt, maltodextrin, dried soy sauce, monosodium glutamate, flavoring, hydrolized corn protein, spice, sodium erythorbate, paprika, smoke flavor, sodium nitrite.

Taste

Mostly what I taste is the black pepper. There is a good amount of it visible on each piece. There is also a slight sweetness, but it's the same slight sweetness you tend to find on much of the big brand jerkies. The saltiness is light, in fact the nutrition label shows 370mg per serving, which is on the lower end compared to most jerky.

There is some slight taste of the natural meat flavors. You have to keep a piece in your mouth for about 10-15 seconds, chew on it slightly, and suck out the juices. But it's there. Would prefer to taste more, but then again, you get what you pay for.

Overall, it has a good taste, plenty of peppery flavor, but aside from that, nothing else spectacular.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be real cuts of beef muscle, sliced in average thickness, and in medium to small pieces.

The pieces are soft and tender, and easy to tear apart and chew. They are not "dry" as far as jerky goes, but not moist. They're just soft. I did find one piece that was stood out as being dry.

I can see some fat marbilization in these pieces, and found some chewy tendon in many of them.

Some of these pieces have that rubbery like consistency, "gummy jerky", that Jack Link's is known for, further suggesting that it was made by them.

Wal-Mart Great Value Beef Jerky - Peppered

Wal-Mart Great Value Beef Jerky - Peppered

Product Value

I paid $2.98 for this 4 ounce bag, making that $0.75 per ounce, within the cheap range.

I consider this to be a pretty good value, maybe even a "Great Value", considering it's largely an average beef jerky at a low price. I've had more expensive beef jerky that basically tasted no different. If what you're looking for is a decent beef jerky, with lots of black pepper taste, at a low price, this is the stuff.

As a peppered variety, this lives up to its claim.

I could see myself buying more of this, just to enjoy some peppered beef jerky for a low price.

Rating

Wal-Mart Great Value Beef Jerky - PepperedI'm giving this an "average" rating.

It's still an average beef jerky. While it offers plenty of black pepper taste in a black pepper variety, it offers very little natural meat flavors. I would like to taste something extra to compliment the black pepper.

But as a beef jerky in general, it's still good.

It also offer plenty of snackability, keeping you reaching for more.

Rating: Average

Where to Buy: Any Wal-Mart.

3 comments:

  1. This is one of my favorites. Just found your site. I am not a connoisseur, but I like jerkey. I used to buy Jack Links. I now pass over the Jack Links for this stuff because it comes in the 8oz bag instead of the 7oz ones and costs marginally less. I agree with you, it is very much like Jack Links.

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  2. Beef jerky is the Best :)

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  3. Even the regular at 5 carbs per ounce is sugary. Tastes like molasses to me, but is a bargain price.

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