Old Trapper Beef Jerky - Chipotle Carne Seca

Next in the series on Old Trapper Beef Jerky is this Chipotle Carne Seca variety. See my review of their Old Fashioned beef jerky.

Old Trapper is a brand of Old Trapper Smoked Products, Inc., based out of Forest Grove, OR. The company has been making beef jerky since 1969 in their own USDA inspected facility. They claim to smoke their jerky over real hardwood.

I found this particular brand at the The Beef Jerky Store in Las Vegas, NV, otherwise I haven't run across it here in Southern California.

Ingredients

Beef, brown sugar, water, salt, soy sauce, hydrolyzed corn protein, vinegar, monosodium glutamate, onion powder, jalapeno powder, citric acid, sodium nitrite.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is an onion seasoning flavor with an associated saltiness. I can also pick up a light sweetness soon afterwards.

The chewing flavor starts with some tanginess, almost a citrus-like flavor. There's a bit more seasoning and saltiness, and now some light oregano flavor. I can also pick up a light amount of heat.

For being billed as "Chipotle Carne Seca", this jerky seems to hold up to that description somewhat. That is, I don't really get a clear chipotle flavor. I'm not really finding that unique smoked chile flavor that you expect with chipotle. I do get a little bit of a chile pepper flavor, just not that smoky chile flavor.

But as for the "Carne Seca" part, yeah it does have that unique flavor of carne seca. Carne seca is basically mexican style beef jerky, it's marinated in lemon/lime juice and smoked and dried over an open flame. The fact that I can taste a tangy citrus flavor in the chewing, along with some seasoning and a light bit of heat, does give me the sense of eating carne seca, albeit in an American style beef jerky.

The dominant flavor in this jerky seems to be that onion seasoning however. I can taste that flavor immediately upon putting a piece into my mouth, and it continues well through the chewing. And in the chewing, I can pick up some oregano, and in fact I can see quite a bit of it on the surface of these pieces.

I'm not tasting any meat flavor in this, unlike what I was able to find in the company's Old Fashioned variety. I think the additional flavorings make it harder to find.

The level of saltiness in this seems moderate, despite the nutrition label showing a light sodium content.

Overall, it's still a dominant onion seasoning flavor, with a tangy/citrus chewing, a moderate saltiness, a touch of chile pepper flavor, and a light bit of heat that I taste.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced to a medium thickness, and in small to medium sized slabs.

This is a semi-moist jerky with a semi-moist surface feel. These pieces are very flexible, bending all the way around with cracking open. Tearing pieces apart with my fingers requires some effort due to some stringiness and rubbery consistency. Chewing effort seems the same, moderate but with some resistance.

The chewing texture starts out feeling soft, semi-moist, but with a good deal of rubbery chewing resistance. This jerky seems to chew down to a soft mass fairly easily once you get past that initial rubbery chew. By that time it seems to have a steak-like chewing, though not as mushy as I found in the company's Old Fashioned variety.

I didn't find any fat in this jerky, and nor do I see any gristle or tendon, but I can certainly feel a lot of stringiness and but not quite as many unchewable wads of tissue as in the Old Fashioned variety.

In terms of clean eating, I'm not getting the light oily film on my fingerstips that I got with the Old Fashioned variety, but I'm getting a good deal of meat and spice fragments falling off as I handle these pieces.




Snack Value

Old Trapper sells this Old Fashioned beef jerky from their website at a price of $6.00 for a 3.65oz package. If you bought four packages, they'll tack on shipping of $7.00 (if shipped to Southern California). That works out to a price of $2.12 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.12 price per ounce, it seems to offer a good value. I'm getting a good deal of snackability due to a good overall flavor, somewhat easy eating, and a better chewing texture than the company's Old Fashioned variety.

As a "Chipotle Carne Seca" beef jerky, at the same $2.12 per ounce price, it's a decent value. It does give out a sense of eating carne seca with its smokiness and tangy citrus flavor, but I'm not really finding an easily identifiable chipotle flavor.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Chipotle Carne Seca variety from Old Trapper Beef Jerky provided a good deal of snackability for me, and offered an enjoyable, spicy flavor. I found mostly a dominant onion seasoning flavor, colored with some tangy citrus chewing, a splash of oregano, followed by Old Trapper's signature hardwood smoked flavor.

I expected to get an easily noticeable chipotle flavor considering that's the word emblazoned in big black letters on this package. But I just didn't find any. There is, however, a light chile pepper flavor that I can detect, but not the smoked chile flavor that chipotle is known for. Maybe I'm just pulling hairs, but that's the feeling that I got.

But you still get that semi-moist, soft consistency that seems to be popular with most jerky snackers, though I found the meat to be rather stringy, and lightly mushy. Though, it's not quite as mushy as I found with the company's Old Fashioned variety.

In comparison to Jack Link's Carne Seca variety, I seem to prefer this Old Trapper. It has more flavor complexity than Jack Link's, though Jack Link's has a bit more heat.

For my recommended beer pairing, try the Negra Modelo, which will give you something lighter and refreshing, but offering more of a malt flavor.

Rating: Good

Buy this online:

• http://www.oldtrapper.com/