Friday, May 29, 2009

Wild Times Buffalo Jerky

Wild Times Buffalo JerkyWild Times Buffalo Jerky is a product of Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Co., based out of Jackson, WY. Read my reviews of Jackson Hole's other jerky products.

Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Co. has been around since 1947 supplying buffalo and elk meat products to consumers and retailers. Today it has a shop in Jackson Hole, WY, and sells its meat products through its catalog and website.

This particular "Wild Times" product is marketed as an energy snack, claiming to include energy boosting ingredients, ginseng and vitamin B-12, and depicts an image of a mountain climber conquering a mountain peak.


Ingredients

Buffalo meat, salt, sugar, maple syrup, spices, black pepper, garlic powder, paprika, white ginseng, vitamin B-12, sodium nitrite.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a meaty flavor, followed by a faint black pepper flavor, and maybe a slight bit of garlic. A slight bit of saltiness with some sucking. Overall, it's a light tasting surface flavor.

In the chewing, the first thing I taste is a natural meat flavor, more saltiness, and a tad more garlic.

The flavor that seems to dominate this jerky is the natural meat flavor. It has a moderate level intensity, being strong enough to notice easily and enjoy, but not quite strong enough to drown everything else out.

In that meat flavor, I can pick up a light garlic flavor, and a saltiness. That saltiness seems to have moderate level intensity.

There's also a well noticed black pepper flavor, stronger in some pieces, and lesser in others. But after eating several pieces, it builds up a medium level aftertaste.

Overall, what you're going to taste in this is the natural meat flavors mostly, with a well noticed saltiness, a well noticed black pepper flavor, and a light bit of garlic.

Meat Consistency

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

This is a dry jerky, but some pieces seem to have a moist feel that they could be considered semi-moist. Tearing pieces apart with my fingers seems somewhat easy, and chewing also seems somewhat easy.

The chewing texture has a very steak-like feel, resembling something like a steak cooked medium-well once a bite is chewed down to a soft mass. Initially, a piece starts out feeling hard yet flexible, with a little bit of rubbery resistance, and seems to chew down after 20 seconds of sucking and light biting.

These pieces appear to be very lean, noting practically no streaks of fat. I didn't encounter any tendon or gristle, and very little in the way of stringy chewy sinews.

In terms of clean eating, it's mostly pretty clean. My fingers picked up scant bits of black pepper, but that's about it. Tearing pieces apart didn't seem to drop much in terms of meat fragments or pepper.




Snack Value

I bought this Wild Times Buffalo Jerky from Jackson Hole's website through a sampler package, consisting of 4oz each of their four jerky varieties. That's 16oz total, at a price of $46.00. When you add the $14.95 shipping, I paid a total of $60.95, or a per ounce price of $3.81.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at this $3.81 price per ounce, this jerky seems to provide a fair value. I actually get a lot of snackability from this based on its excellent flavor, highlighted by a well noticed natural meat flavor. It has an excellent meat consistency and chewing texture. The $3.81 price per ounce is very expensive as far as jerky goes, but I really do enjoy this jerky, though I'd still think twice about paying $60.95 for four packages of jerky.

As a buffalo jerky, at the same $3.81 price per ounce, it's perhaps a good value. First, buffalo meat is going to be more expensive than beef, so it's not fair to compare that price to beef jerky. But second, I'm actually getting a good deal of natural meat flavor from this, giving me a good reason to buy this buffalo jerky instead of beef jerky. In that sense, there's clearly a return on investment, and I think it's a good return.

Rating

I'm giving this a best rating.

This Wild Times Buffalo Jerky from Jackson Hole Buffalo Meat Co. gives out a good deal of natural meat flavors, giving it the center of attention, with a trio of salt, black pepper, and garlic seasonings to add some spicy interest.

I also found an excellent meat consistency, being somewhat easy to tear apart and chew, and seemingly being all meat, with no fat, tendon, gristle, or anything unchewable. The chewing texture seemed excellent, just like eating a piece of steak.

As for being an energy infused jerky, I guess only time will tell how much energy it gives me; it's hard to tell just sitting here at my computer.

For all intents and purposes, I believe this Wild Times Buffalo Jerky is actually the same exact product as the Old Trapper Style jerky that I reviewed from Jackson Hole earlier, but with the addition of those two energy ingredients.

For my recommended beer pairing, I'd go with a smoky porter.

Rating: Best

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