Jedidiah's Jerky - Premium Hickory

Jedidiah's Jerky is a brand produced by Jedidiah's Jerky and Gourmet Snacks, based out of Laughlin, NV. It's been around since 2005.

The business was founded by David Coffey, a veteran in the beef jerky marketing business since 1984, having spent many years at Polley's Beef Jerky, and having started another brand, River Run Jerky.

The Jedidiah's brand focuses on finding unique recipes and styles of jerky to meet a growing demand from gourmet jerky lovers. Thus far the brand offers two lines of jerky, this Premium line, which appears to be their standard jerky, and a Private Reserve line, which is soft and tender beef brisket jerky.

Ingredients

Beef, salt, sugar, monosodium glutamate, paprika, spices, hickory smoke flavor, garlic, sodium nitrite.

Taste

A combination of salt and smokiness are the first tastes that hit me right away. That's followed by a faint garlic flavor, and a faint sweet flavor. There's some natural meat flavors that show up after I start chewing.

For being a hickory variety, there is indeed a strong hickory taste and aroma to this jerky.

The saltiness is well pronounced. It's probably the most dominant flavor in this, with the hickory smoke flavor coming in a close second. After about four pieces of this, it's starting to scorch my mouth.

The faint garlic flavor I described above actually becomes more noticeable as I continue to eat more pieces, and as I allow each piece to soak in my mouth for several seconds.

And that sweetness I also mentioned is even more faint. It's not something that stands out, I wouldn't normally notice it if I weren't writing a detailed review. It's there in the background, like ambiance.

Lastly, the natural meat flavors are there, but are not well defined. I'd say the heavy salt flavor does a good job at masking it.

If you were to allow a piece to soften up in your mouth, what you'd find is the hickory smoke flavor dominating, with the garlic, and the "spices", adding background touches. Once you chew into the piece, the salt leaches forth and blots out every other taste.

Overall, this jerky is packed with a lot of flavor, mostly as salt however, but with plenty of hickory smoke flavor too. The garlic and sweet background gives this jerky some added taste dimension. It's a great jerky to just suck on and enjoy the flavors.

Meat Consistency

This appears to be made from whole pieces of meat, sliced into medium and thick widths, and in small to medium sized pieces.

This jerky is dry, retaining some flexibility, but will crack and break if bent too far. Most of the pieces are moderately easy to tear apart, with some offering a lot more resistance. I found one piece that was pretty hard. Chewing requires a moderate amount of effort, and some more in the tougher pieces. But like I said, there's enough flavor in this you'd want to suck a piece for awhile before chewing.

Some of the pieces are very lean, with nary a bit of fat, while others have some good fat marbilization. I can't really see the fat on these, but I can certainly taste it. But I find nothing chewy in the way of tendon or gristle.

Overall, this is a dry jerky requiring some effort to tear and chew, but providing a lot of lean meat.




Product Value

Jedidiah's sells this Premium Hickory variety from their website at a price of $5.99 for a 3.5oz bag. That works out to $1.71 per ounce, putting this in the average price range.

I'd say that this offers a so-so value for general jerky eating purposes. It's got a lot of flavor that lasts throughout the chew, and some snackability, but offering enough effort in tearing and chewing that you'd find it somewhat distracting. The heavy salt flavor is also something that wears me down after several pieces.

But as a hickory variety, it offers a great value because it does offer plenty of hickory taste and aroma.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

This hickory smoked variety from Jedidiah's offers a lot of hickory smoke flavor with some garlic and faint sweet notes, in a mixture of lean and fat-marbilized meat consistency.

But the heavy salt flavor, and with enough pieces requiring some effort to tear apart and chew, takes away from this jerky's snackability. With a few pieces left to go in writing this review, I don't feel enthused about the eating the rest.

While the toughness can be mitigated by just letting each piece soften up in your mouth, and you can enjoy more of the flavors that way, you're still left with salty jerky. That might be ok with some folks, but it's just my preference to avoid heavily salty jerky.

Rating: Average

Buy this online:

• http://www.jedsjerky.com