Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Appalachian Jerky - Dopey Doug's Garlic Teriyaki

appalachian jerky company
Next in the series on Appalachian Jerky Company is this Garlic Teriyaki beef jerky. Read our reviews of their Dopey Doug's Hickory Smoked and their Raging Ron's Hot.

Appalachian Jerky Company is a relatively new player in the meat snacks industry based out of Brighton, MA. The creation of two college buddies, Ron Myrick and Doug Labb, the boys had been making their own jerky for camping trips and parties. When they decided to take their seasoned meat delicacies to market, they tweaked their original recipe and developed a few more.

This Garlic Teriyaki variety is described as being made with a teriyaki brine and a kick of garlic heat plus other spices.

Ingredients

Beef, pineapple juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, garlic pepper sauce, ginger, garlic.

Taste

The first thing I taste from the surface of these pieces is a light sweetness and saltiness. There's just a tiny bit of seasoning.

The chewing flavor brings in a well-defined garlic flavor. There are faint glimmers of ginger in the background, while the pineapple juice and garlic pepper sauce seem to add a touch of tanginess. The soy sauce marinade is detectable towards the latter part of chewing, and there's a light bit of heat noticeable.

For being marketed as "Garlic Teriyaki", it's holds up somewhat. I do get a lot of garlic flavor in the chewing, but I don't quite identify the teriyaki to any significant amount. Instead, I do pick up a soy sauce half-way into the chewing, and I do get a light to moderate sweetness, along with a faint touch of ginger, but they don't really gel together into what I consider teriyaki.

But considering this is supposed to be garlic teriyaki, I would presume the garlic is the key flavor, and this jerky certainly does deliver on that. The soy sauce, brown sugar, and ginger ingredients are just enough to give off a taste loosely resembling teriyaki.

Otherwise, the flavors that seem to define this jerky is the brown sugar and garlic, both in equal amounts, while the soy sauce comes in lightly mid-way into chewing. The light tanginess in the chewing adds a bit of snackability. Influences of ginger and pineapple juice are faintly noticeable.

I don't really pick up much of the natural meat flavors. But there seems to be some meat flavor noticeable rising up through the heavier sweet and garlic.

As for that light bit of heat, it's just a tiny bit. On my personal heat scale, it still rates as mild, but I think others could see it as mild-medium (level 2 out of 5).

The level of saltiness in this feels to be moderate.

Meat Consistency

These are slices of whole meat, sliced thin, and in small bite sized pieces. There's a fair amount of smaller bits of meat.

This is a dry jerky with a dry surface feel. They have a pliable, soft plastic-like flexibility. Chewing seems to be chewy, but not tough, still somewhat easy.

The chewing texture starts out feeling like soft, pliable plastic with a fair amount of chewing resistance. A few chews into it, and it just starts to break down, and takes on a more meaty resemblance. Once it chews down to a soft mass, it feel much more like a piece of steak cooked well-done.

I don't find any bits or streaks of fat on this jerky, not did I find any gristle or tendon. Because these pieces are cut into small and very small pieces, I don't really pick up any stringiness and found no unchewable wads of tissue.

In terms of clean eating, it's mostly clean with a light bit sticky-oily residue on my fingertips, not enough to require a licking and wiping before touching the keyboard.


garlic teriyaki jerkygarlic teriyaki beef jerky
Snack Value

Appalachian Jerky sells this Dopey Doug's Garlic Teriyaki at a price of $18.00 for six (6) 1.75 ounce packages. Shipping is free for orders of $70.00 or more. If you bought four of those six-packs, it works out to a price of $1.71 per ounce.

For general jerky snacking purposes, at the $1.71 per ounce price, this jerky offers a good value. I'm getting a good deal of snackability from the flavor with a good meat consistency and decent chewing texture. That price is comparable to what you'd pay for major brands of jerky at the grocery store, and seems to offer better snackability.

As a Garlic Teriyaki beef jerky, at the same $1.71 per ounce price, it's a decent value. It's more valuable as a garlic beef jerky than a teriyaki, with a strong garlic flavor and a weaker teriyaki.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This Dopey Doug's Garlic Teriyaki beef jerky from Appalachian Jerky Company delivers a good deal of garlic flavor against a satisfactory-at-best teriyaki marinade. But I really like the addition of garlic pepper sauce and pineapple, giving this a nice bit of tanginess and touch of chile pepper in the chewing.

The meat consistency seems good, being mostly all meat, while the chewing seems average to good, feeling a lightly rubbery at first but graduating into a steak-like chewing.

I don't really pick up much of the natural meat flavors, maybe just a tad. That, combined with the unremarkable teriyaki, brought it down a notch. Otherwise, the level of garlic, and the addition of pepper sauce and pineapple makes this jerky worth trying.

My recommended beer pairing for this, go with a lighter ale, like a blonde or golden ale, such as the Big Wave Golden Ale from Kona Brewing or the Hoptober Golden Ale from New Belgium.

Rating: Good (4/5)

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