Tomahawk Jerky - Pepper Cured

Last in the series on Tomahawk Jerky is this Pepper Cured turkey jerky. See my previous review of their Spicy Turkey.

The company was started by Steve Swift who was introduced to jerky as a kid in the late 1960s. He and his dad used to make sun dried venison by hanging them on racks and setting them on the roof of their house.

Today, he uses a dehydrator, and chose to focus on turkey jerky because he likes the flavor and texture. Tomahawk Jerky is sold at shows and expos around the Boise, ID area, and online through its website.

Ingredients

All natural turkey breast, teriyaki sauce, smoke flavoring, brown sugar, black pepper.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a light smokiness, with a light black pepper flavor coming in soon after. There's a light bit of the teriyaki sauce noticeable.

The chewing flavor starts with an increased teriyaki sauce, and a light bit of the natural turkey meat flavor. The black pepper flavor continues to increase slowly.

For being labeled as "Pepper Cured", this does have a lot of black pepper flavor noticeable. The jerky is well covered in cracked black pepper bits, and the flavor comes in quickly from the first piece, and builds up a strong aftertaste in the back of my mouth.

But it's the teriyaki sauce that seems to generate much of the flavor in this jerky. The black pepper only provides that spicy punch to balance out the heavier sweetness of the teriyaki. Tomahawk Jerky doesn't yet offer a teriyaki variety, but this could easily suffice provided that you like a good deal of black pepper on your teriyaki.

The natural meat flavor in this is light, with a touch of smokiness, similar to what I found in the company's Spicy Turkey.

The level of saltiness in this feels to be at a low to moderate degree.

Overall, what you're going to notice in this is primarily a teriyaki sauce flavor, with a good deal of black pepper spiciness, and then a light natural turkey meat flavor with a touch of smokiness.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole turkey meat, cut into medium to thick slices, and in small to medium sized pieces.

This is a dry jerky with a dry surface feel. The pieces feel stiff with little flexibility. Tearing pieces apart seems very easy with the grain, while chewing seems rather chewy.

The chewing texture starts out feeling stiff, with a little chewing resistance. I don't find these pieces too laborious to chew, but some initial effort is needed to get these pieces to break down, and then it becomes easy to chew. Once chewed down to a soft mass, it doesn't much feel like turkey meat at all, more crumbly, and slightly rubbery.

These pieces all appear to be meaty, with no signs of fat, tendon or gristle. I didn't find any stringiness or encountered any unchewable tissues.

In terms of clean eating, it's very clean. I found no residue on my fingertips, and very little black pepper bits falling off on my lap.




Snack Value

Tomahawk Jerky sells this Pepper Cured Turkey from its website at a price of $17.00 for an 8oz package. Shipping is flat rate at $4.95 per order. If you bought two packages it would work out to a price of $2.43 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $2.43 per ounce price, it's a decent value. I'm getting a good overall flavor, good meat consistency, and decent chewing texture. That price is considerably higher than what you'd pay for major brands of turkey jerky at the grocery store, but I think offers better overall snackability.

As a black peppered turkey jerky, at the same $2.43 per ounce price, it's also a decent value. I do get a good deal of black pepper flavor, with plenty of black pepper bits, and an overall fresh tasting pepper flavor.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Pepper Cured turkey jerky from Tomahawk Jerky has a savory flavor pitting the the sweet teriyaki sauce against the spicy black pepper. It's largely a teriyaki turkey jerky, but with a good deal of black pepper to give this a good punch. It's not heavily salty at all, and generates a good snackability.

Even though it has a light natural turkey meat flavor, with a bit of smokiness, I wanted to get more of that meat flavor to balance out the teriyaki and black pepper. Without more of the natural meat flavor, this jerky has only the teriyaki and black pepper to generate flavor, and even though it's proven to be a great combination, it's still a very common duo used in many other jerky brands.

But it seems to have a good meat consistency, being overall easy to chew, though requiring some effort initially to break down. And I like the use of teriyaki sauce in this over the soy sauce used in Tomahawk's Spicy variety. Folks who enjoy turkey jerky should definitely appreciate Tomahawk Jerky over the larger brands.

Rating: Good

Buy this online:

• http://www.tomahawkjerky.com/