Fatman's Beef Jerky - Original

Sometimes the best jerky is the simplest, the stuff that offers a strong taste of real meat highlighted by the marinade and seasonings. Perhaps it's the way jerky used to be, the way it was meant to be.

Having reviewed several varieties already from Fatman's Beef Jerky, that seems to be what this brand does well, emphasizing the real taste of meat, with just enough seasonings to make the jerky even better. While some of their varieties seemed to miss the mark on their advertised flavors, I found that their Cowboy Style and their Salt & Pepper were quite good, just like old fashioned jerky. And maybe that's what Fatman's really excels at.

The brand is owned by Red Meat Foods, LLC, a company started by Rick & Ellen Robey of Roswell, NM. Rick had previously owned and operated a holstein calf raising business and a USDA inspected packing plant. That gave him a good head start into the jerky making business. All of Rick's jerky is made at his facility using his own recipes. He uses only American-raised beef.

Ingredients

Beef, water, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, salt.

Taste

The first taste I get from the surface is a slight saltiness and a meat aroma. Moving into the chew, The natural meat flavors come out, followed by the soy sauce.

This jerky is largely dominated by its natural meat flavors and the soy sauce flavor. The natural meat flavors have a distinct taste that's similar to the center portion of a prime rib. The soy sauce flavor is rather mild tasting, not overly salty, but still very noticeable.

For being free of any added preservatives, this jerky retains a fresh taste.

The worcestershire sauce noted in the ingredients list is hard to taste, I don't really taste it, or otherwise it's lost in the soy sauce flavor.

Overall, it's a good tasting jerky; you can't go wrong when you have plenty of natural meat flavors, with a fresh taste, and free of preservatives. Even though it has a soy sauce flavor, there's still a blandness to this, but I didn't find myself getting bored with it. That taste of meat kept me reaching for more.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, sliced thin, and in small to medium sized pieces.

This is a thin dry jerky, being somewhat crunchy. It's very easy to tear apart, and very easy to chew. Once it moistens up in my mouth, it chews just like a real piece of steak.

It's also very clean in that these pieces left no residue on my fingers, and nothing falling on my lap.

Several of the pieces in this review sample have a good deal of connective tissue between the meat grains, but it's not chewy. This jerky is dry enough that it all chews up like meat. I didn't find any gristle or fat in these pieces.




Product Value

Fatman's sells all of their jerky varieties at a price of $7.99 for a four ounce package. That works out to $2.00 per ounce, putting this into the expensive price range.

For general jerky snacking purposes, it presents a good value. I found it very snackable with its strong meat flavor, great meat consistency, and it's ease in eating. But you might only find value in it if you prefer "simple jerky", not loaded up sugar, salt or preservatives.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This original variety from Fatman's is very snackable, and serves to do well in that regards. Above that, it gives out a great taste of natural meat flavors, and a great meat consistency. But after that, it doesn't have much else to excite me. I wanted to find that extra dimension of "wow", but just didn't find it.

But don't let that discount this jerky. There is indeed a demographic of "jerky purists" out there that want the taste of real meat, and little else to get in its way, with no preservatives, and no sticky sweetness. This jerky is for them. My palate, however, wants something more complex.

If you've never tried Fatman's Beef Jerky, this original variety might actually be a great starter to get familiar with its unique flavor and consistency. From there, graduate up to the Cowboy Style and the Salt & Pepper varieties.

A good beer variety with this would be a lambic.

Rating: Good

Buy this online:

• http://www.fatmansbeefjerky.com