Fatman's Beef Jerky - Barbecue

The next of the newest flavors from Fatman's Beef Jerky is this Barbecue variety. See my reviews of their other flavors.

Fatman's Beef Jerky is a brand of Red Meat Foods, LLC, based out of Roswell, NM, and run by a guy named Rick Robey. Prior to launching Fatman's, Rick owned and operated a holstein calf raising business for 30 years as well as a USDA inspected packing plant.

All of Fatman's jerky is made from inside rounds of American-raised beef, marinated for 24 hours in Robey's own homemade recipes. He makes all his jerky in his own USDA inspected facility.

Ingredients

Beef, water, soy sauce, horseradish, brown sugar, garlic, salt, flavorings.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a light saltiness followed by a light meaty flavor.

The chewing flavor starts with a slightly increased saltiness, and more natural meat flavors.

For being advertised as a "Barbecue" beef jerky, I don't really taste anything that gives me a barbecue-like flavor. There's no barbecue sauce flavor, no barbecue seasoning flavor, no barbecue anything flavor.

What I taste instead is a natural meat flavor, the same flavor that seems to be in all of Fatman's beef jerky varieties, comparable to the center portion of prime rib, but cooked more thoroughly.

And actually, considering horseradish is listed as an ingredient, that flavor would probably work well with the natural meat flavors. Except, I don't even taste the horseradish at all. There's isn't any kind of pungent, sharp flavor to this one bit.

The soy sauce is just barely noticeable.

The level of saltiness in this seems low to moderate.

Overall, what you're going to taste in this jerky is a light saltiness with a good deal of natural meat flavors. No barbecue flavor whatsoever.

Meat Consistency

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

This is a dry jerky, with a dry surface feel. They don't have much flexibility, cracking open with just a light amount bending. The pieces are easy to tear apart with my fingers, and chewing is slightly labored.

The chewing texture starts out feeling dry and brittle. There's a bit of crunchiness in the initial chewing. The jerky seems to chew down to a soft mass relatively easily, with maybe a touch of chewiness. By that time, some pieces have a steak-like feel, comparable to one cooked well-done. But others are rather crumbly.

I don't see any visible signs of fat, nor any streaks of gristle or tendon. There's also a small amount of stringiness noticeable when I tear pieces apart, but they don't show up much in the chewing due to thin sliced nature.

In terms of clean eating, it's clean. My fingers pick up no residue, and only a small amount of meat fragments noted flying off as I tore pieces apart.




Snack Value

Fatman's sells this Barbecue Beef Jerky from its website at a price of $28.00 for a 1 pound package. Add to that shipping fees of $5.15 (if shipping to Southern California), for a total of $33.15. That works out to a price of $2.07 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.07 price per ounce, it's a weak value. I'm getting a low level of snackability due to a lackluster flavor, though good chewing texture and meat consistency. Compared to major brands of jerky found in grocery stores, it's priced slightly higher, but seems to have similar or less snackability.

As a Barbecue beef jerky, at the same $2.07 price per ounce, it's a poor value. I'm not picking up any kind of barbecue flavor or barbecue quality.

Rating

I'm giving this a fair rating.

This Barbecue variety from Fatman's Beef Jerky just doesn't provide me with any barbecue flavor at all. I don't find any barbecue sauce flavor, or barbecue seasoning flavor, nothing tangy, nothing sweet, not even anything smoky.

What I taste is just a low to medium level of saltiness, and some natural meat flavors, and that's it. The overall flavor is actually quite simple, but uninteresting. It's certainly a tolerable flavor, just nothing that makes me want to eat more.

It's biggest positive is it's meat consistency, being easy to tear apart, and mostly easy to chew but just a bit labored. Some of the pieces have a steak-like chewing texture, while others were rather crumbly.

My recommended beer pairing for this, go with lighter bodied smoked porter, the smokiness of the malt should help bring out the bring out more flavor in the meat. Try the Stone Smoked Porter, or the Sierra Nevada Porter.

Rating: Fair

Buy this online:

• http://www.fatmansbeefjerky.com/