Friday, March 20, 2009

Dad's Jerky - Original Steak

Dad's Jerky Dad's Jerky is a brand of Dad's Jerky, LLC, based out of Lake Isabella, CA.

The company's website says it uses sirloin for its jerky, and puts a lot of focus on obtaining the best quality meat for their jerky, which they then trim off 97% of the fat, and marinate for 18 hours.

I didn't contact the company for additional details, so I don't have much background info to give you. I assume Dad's makes their own jerky because their website goes into detail about how they make jerky. But the USDA stamp suggests it came from Border View Foods out of Chazy, NY, the folks who make Backwoods Jerky. My guess is that Dad's purchases meat from Border View, and has it shipped out to California.


Ingredients

Beef, soy sauce, corn syrup, caramel color, potassium sorbate, worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, seasoned salt (salt, tumeric, natural flavors & less than 2% silicon dioxide, flavorings, spices).

Note the worcestershire sauce is listed as containing MSG, in case you're wondering.

Taste

The first thing I taste off the surface of these pieces is the worcestershire sauce along with a bit of saltiness. Sucking on a piece yields more of the same. In the chewing, what I taste is also more of the same.

After a few more pieces, it seems what this jerky offers is the flavor of worcestershire sauce in a medium-level intensity. It's the dominant taste off the surface flavors and chewing flavors. There's a noticeable sweetness in the worcestershire sauce that helps soften its pungent, salty flavor.

The saltiness in the worcestershire is anywhere from light to medium depending on your sensitivity. But I notice it gaining strength at the tail end of chewing, probably due to the worcestershire's flavor wearing off.

The soy sauce listed in the ingredients is noticeable, but the unique flavor of worcestershire seems to be more easily recognized.

The natural meat flavors are not noticeable at all, however.

The garlic powder mentioned in the ingredients is very light, and perhaps only colors the background.

Overall, it's just worcestershire sauce that you're going to taste in this.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, in a medium thickness, and in bite sized pieces.

This is a dry jerky, but with some flexibility, and they even have a slightly moist feel on the surface. Tearing pieces apart isn't necessary due to their small sizes. Chewing seems moderately easy or moderately tough, however you want to look at it.

The chewing texture starts out tough, and for that matter lends itself to being sucked on for a moment to help soften things up. It seems to chew down into a meaty mass in about 15-20 seconds. At that point, it feels quite steak-like, similar to being cooked well-done. I'd say about half the pieces contained some chewy sinews that left behind unchewable wads of tissue in my mouth. The other half all seemed to be pure meat.

I don't find any visible chunks of fat, and didn't encounter any tendon or gristle. It also seems to be pretty clean eating, leaving no residue on my fingers, and no fragments on my lap or desk due to these being bite-sized.




Snack Value

I purchased this Original Steak variety from Dad's Jerky as part of their "Four Pack Special", where I got four varieties of their jerky, each in a 3.75oz bag, for $24.99. Add to that shipping fees of $6.93, that comes out to $31.92 for 15oz total, or what amounts to $2.13 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at this $2.13 price per ounce, it seems to provide a fair value. I'm getting an average snackability from this. It has a snackable flavor, in what's largely a worcestershire flavor, but it has a good meat consistency and chewing texture. Yet, for that higher-end price, I don't feel I'm getting enough return for the dollar. Worcestershire sauce is nice, but I want more flavor complexity for that spend.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

This Original Steak variety from Dad's Jerky provided an average amount of snackability for me, enough to keep me busy typing on my laptop, or watching a television show. But in terms of flavor, it doesn't really go beyond that.

It's flavor seems rather narrow, providing mostly that worcestershire flavor, and little else. I didn't get any natural meat flavors either. But the meat consistency is actually pretty good, and it has a good chewing texture.

I'd recommend a brown ale to pair up with this.

Rating: Average

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