Thursday, July 26, 2012

Blue Ox Jerky - Smoked Buffalo

blue ox jerky
Next in the series on Blue Ox Jerky is this Smoked Buffalo Jerky. See my previous reviews of their Peppercorn Smoked Beef and their Cherry Maple Smoked Turkey.

Blue Ox Jerky Co is based out of Troy, MI, having launched in January of 2011. Legend has it that the company was started by Saul Bunyan, lesser known brother of the famous Paul Bunyan. Saul had accidentally set fire to Paul's bovine companion, Babe the Blue Ox, and opted to douse the fire with teriyaki sauce. And hence, a business was born selling jerky.

According to the company, this Smoked Buffalo Jerky is among the company's top three best sellers.


Ingredients

Buffalo, water, dry honey, brown sugar, beef, salt, spices, onion, garlic, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a smokiness and an oily flavor. A light touch of saltiness comes in next, colored by a bit of onion and garlic.

The chewing flavor starts with an increased saltiness, a light natural meat flavor, and a light black pepper flavor. There's also a slightly sweetness noticeable.

For being marketed as "Smoked Buffalo", it seems to hold up well. I get a well-noticeable smokiness initially, and then a light flavor of buffalo meat.

The flavors that seem to define this jerky, however, is the initial smokiness, and then the combination of light salty, light peppery, and light natural meat flavors. The onion, garlic, and faint sweetness are barely noticeable.

Overall, this jerky seems to generate most of its snackability through that smoky introduction, and then clears the air with its light salty seasoning. The light natural meat flavor keeps some resemblance to eating real meat. There's just enough sweetness to give the overall flavor some body.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be chunks of whole meat, cut into bite sized pieces, as well as good deal of small bits.

This has a dry chew, but with a moist, oily surface feel. Chewing seems fairly easy to do.

The chewing texture starts out with a stiff, rubbery feel, requiring a light amount of effort to chew down. Once into the chewing, it feels like broken bits of rubbery meat, but once it's chewed all the way down to a soft mass, it takes on a meaty, steak-like feel, similar to once cooked medium.

I don't see any bits of fat on these chunks of meat, nor any streaks of gristle or tendon. However, I do feel a fair amount of chewy, rubbery, stringy tissues in the chewing.

In terms of clean eating, my fingers pick up enough oily residue requiring a licking and wiping before touching my keyboard.

smoked buffalo jerky
buffalo jerky
Snack Value

Blue Ox sells this Smoked Buffalo from its website at a price of $10.15 for a 3oz package. If you bought five packages, shipping is approximately $8.00 according to the company. That works out to a price of $3.92 per ounce.

For general buffalo jerky snacking purposes, at the $3.92 per ounce price, it's a weak value. While I'm getting a good flavor overall, decent meat consistency and fair chewing texture, I just didn't think it makes up for the high price, particularly the stringy, rubbery chew. Albeit buffalo jerky is already higher in price than beef, that price is still quite higher than other buffalo jerky brands.

Rating

blue ox jerky nutrition
I'm giving this an average rating.

This Smoked Buffalo from Blue Ox Jerky gives off a good overall flavor marked by an initial smoky introduction, followed by a light touch of salt, pepper, garlic, and onion, and light bit of natural meat flavor.

While it seemed snackable eat with its bite-sized chunks and fairly easy chewing, I found a somewhat rubbery chew with enough stringy, chewy tissues that detracted from my overall meat chewing enjoyment.

Otherwise, I thought the flavor was good, enough to generate some good snackability, though I would have liked to get more of the natural meat flavors. I just wasn't impressed with the chewing texture.

My recommended beer pairing, go with a lighter colored lager, such as the Kona Longboard Lager or the Trumer Pils.

Rating: Average

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