Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Mountain Man Kippered Beef Steak - Peppered

mountain man kippered beef steak
Mountain Man is a brand of Old Trapper Smoked Products, Inc., based out of Forest Grove, OR. The brand has been around since 1986.

I found this package at a Grocery Outlet in San Diego, CA. Grocery Outlet is primarily a liquidator that buys up overstock and unsold inventory. This particular package still has another 13 months to go before it's "Sell by" date.

Otherwise, the parent company, doesn't really have a website for its Mountain Man line of meat snacks, and the label itself doesn't make any marketing claims aside from being, "Peppered".


Ingredients

Beef, brown sugar, water, salt, flavorings, hydrolyzed corn protein, vinegar, monosodium glutamate, citric acid, sodium nitrite.

Review

The first flavors I pick up are the black pepper and brown sugar. The saltiness comes in soon. The chewing brings on increased black pepper, with a touch more sweet, and a bit more salt. There's a faint beefy taste in the background.

For being marketed as, "Peppered" it definitely holds up. It's a strong flavor that overpowers everything else. It actually gets rather spicy. That along with the moderate salt, and I find myself wanting a drink of water right away. The black pepper tastes freshly cracked; it has that sharp, pungent spice you expect to get from a pepper grinder.

Otherwise, the primary taste profile is that of a spicy, black pepper against a base of sweet and salt, which is laid over a "beef" flavor that I can't really call "natural", but definitely is reminiscent of meat. The spiciness rates as "medium" on my heat scale (level 3 out of 5).

This is a chopped and formed product, which for me is not what I think of as "kippered". This is certainly more thick than most brands of chopped and formed jerky, and is more easy to chew, which is what kippered meat snacks tend to be, but I'm used to seeing whole muscle in a kippered product. It tends to feel dry and somewhat crumbly, and when chewed down doesn't resemble anything like real beef.

Verdict

This Peppered variety from Mountain Man Kippered Beef Steak really delivers on the black pepper, doling out a medium level of burn and a freshly cracked flavor to lovers of the woody-vined spice. Otherwise, the jerky itself is rather ordinary, and doesn't really offer any kind of taste interest. It reminds me of the cheaply-produced jerky sold in cans when I was a kid in the 1970s. It even chews like the cheap stuff, rather dry and crumbly, and not at all the whole-muscle, moist, meaty product that other brands of "kippered" beef snacks tend to offer.

Overall, it's only redeeming qualities are the thick pieces of easy chewing and the generous black pepper flavor, but otherwise, it's rather lackluster jerky in both flavor and texture.

Rating: Average (3/5)

kippered beef steak

kippered beef steak




7 comments:

  1. Must have been the bag that you had... The one I bought was fantastic! It was moist. meaty and with just the right amount of pepper for me.

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  2. I got one too, and i loved it. Probably my favorite beef jerky i have tried!

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  3. Just tried my first bag and I love it! I have to say it's better than the Name Brand stuff in the stores

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  4. I bought one and really liked it. I'm not always a fan of the "muscle" beef jerky where you end up having to floss you teeth to get it out.
    This style is chewy and peppered well. Also can't beat $4.99/8oz. Most beef jerky here in Washington State runs close to $7/4oz. If I can find beef jerky for less than $1 per ounce then i'm a fan. Only downside in my mind is the MSG content. They could use something else, a few people I know get headaches when they eat MSG.

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  5. I found Mountain Man Old Fashioned Kippered Beef Steak at Grocery Outlet in Fresno, CA. I like it so much, I have gone back to buy four more pkgs. It tastes beefy, salt, sweet, with less pepper than what others have described in this post. I don't want pepper to overwhelm other flavors. It is the best jerky I have ever found, and plan to buy more.

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  6. I liked the c*** out of it and so did my son, You will know it when you taste it.
    Enjoyed it!

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  7. I too just stumbled on this brand a grocery outlet store and grabbed a bag. Just had two pieces and like it very much. Not overly chewy and tough at all - very tender and flavorful with excellent after taste.
    I do not agree with the review. I will go back and grab a few more bags for sure. 5-stars.

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