Saturday, May 16, 2009

Bulk Beef Jerky - Blazin' Hot Smoked Beef

Bulk Beef Jerky - Blazin' Hot Smoked BeefContinuing with the series on Bulk Beef Jerky is this Blazin' Hot variety. See my earlier reviews of their Honey Barbecue, and Teriyaki varieties.

Bulk Beef Jerky is a retailer of beef jerky, based in Troy, MI, selling a variety of brands, mostly through its website. But they also market their own brand as well which they call "Bulk".

Their jerky is manufactured by Michigan Brands, Inc., based out of Bay City, MI, a company that private labels jerky for several brands.

Ingredients

Beef, brown sugar, salt, spices, sugar, crushed red pepper, garlic, onion, sodium nitrite.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a sweet flavor, followed by a spicy burn building up quickly. I can taste some light chile pepper flavor as well, and some light saltiness. Overall, there's a lot of surface flavor here.

In the chewing, the first thing I taste is some natural meat flavors, followed by a stronger saltiness. The chile pepper flavors continue from the surface.

As for being dubbed "Blazin' Hot" I think this jerky holds up to that billing pretty well. I think the general populace would agree this is hot, and I'd rate it on my hot scale as "hot" as well. But I'm only getting a light moisture on my scalp, and just a light watering of the eyes, and slightly runny nose.

As with the other two varieties I reviewed for Bulk Beef Jerky, the primary flavor of this Blazin' Hot is salt. It's of a high intensity, and perhaps at the upper limits of what I'd normally tolerate.

The second strongest flavor seems to be the natural meat flavors. It actually seems to have a stronger flavor than the Honey Barbecue and Teriyaki varieties. It could be an illusion however, perhaps the Honey Barbecue and Teriyaki flavors were strong enough to mask over the meat flavors.

The chile pepper flavor is noticeable enough, but I don't think it's strong enough to warrant being called a dominant flavor. The chile pepper burn, however, is quite strong.

There are tiny black flecks all over these pieces, which I assume is black pepper, but I can't really taste any of it.

There seems to be a faint bit of garlic or onion that I can taste.

Overall, what you're going to get out of this jerky is a lot of saltiness, a decent amount of meat flavors, and light amount of chile pepper flavor, along with a strong chile pepper burn.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, cut into bite sized pieces, and sliced very thick.

This is a moist jerky, but having little flexibility. Some pieces are very easy to break apart with my fingers, while others require a bit more effort. The chewing seems slightly tough.

The chewing texture starts out feeling stiff and hard, but it breaks apart quite easily with just light biting. There's so much surface flavor, that it encourages me to suck on a piece for several seconds, which softens it up. Once it's chewed down to a soft mass, it has little bit of a steak-like chewing texture, but not totally. Unlike the Honey Barbecue and Teriyaki varieties I reviewed, this Blazin' Hot has a more crumbly texture, but still chewing a bit like steak.

Holding these pieces up to my desk lamp, I can see small streaks of fat, and I can even see a streak of gristle on one of them, that creates a crunchy-rubbery chew. I can also feel some chewy tissue inside some pieces, but I'm not sure what it is, could be tendon.

In terms of clean eating, these pieces leave quite a bit of oily peppery residue on my fingers, requiring a licking and wiping on my jeans.




Snack Value

Bulk Beef Jerky sells this Teriyaki variety at a price of $5.99 for a four ounce package. They also charge $5.95 for shipping out to Southern California, and will also apply sales tax. So if you bought three packages of this stuff, the total cost will be $25.40, or $2.12 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.12 price per ounce, this seems to provide a decent value. I'm getting a good deal of snackability for its high flavor intensity, it's mild meat flavors, light chile pepper flavor, and moist meat chew. But it's still a heavily salty jerky, and that's still largely what I'm tasting overall. The $2.12 price is high, but I think I'm still getting some decent snack value in return.

As a hot jerky, at the $2.12 price per ounce, it's an excellent value. If burning hot jerky is what you want, that's what you'll get with this, and plenty of it to make it worth the $2.12.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Blazin' Hot variety from Bulk Beef Jerky offers a strong flavor intensity, even with the surface flavors, allowing you to suck on a piece for several seconds before chewing. It offers a decent amount of natural meat flavors, and some light chile pepper flavor.

But it also offers a lot of saltiness, so much so that it's largely what I'm tasting in this. The meat flavors and chile pepper flavor seem to get lost in that saltiness.

The moist meat chewing is nice, but this Blazin' Hot variety seems to be filled with some chewy tissues that got in the way of my chewing pleasure, quite unlike the Honey Barbecue and Teriyaki varieties.

Of these three varieties I reviewed from Bulk Beef Jerky, I like the flavor of this Blazin' Hot better than the other two.

Even though this is definitely a burning hot jerky, it's not the hottest I've had. The "Ring of Fire" from Papa Dan's and Dad's Jerky is still the hottest thus far, followed by Damn Good Jerky's "Death by Jerky", and then I think this Blazin' Hot comes in next. Rounding that out, is Alien Fresh Jerky, "Colon Cleaner Hot", followed by "Ring of Fire" from Mike & Diane's Gourmet Kitchen.

For my beer recommendation, I'd go with a smooth, creamy stout.

Rating: Good

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