Crunchy Cow Beef Jerky - Peppered Teriyaki

Crunchy Cow Beef Jerky is a brand owned by Elemental Edibles, LC based out of St. Louis, MO. It was started by Brian Gilbert in 2015, who describes himself as a life-long cook and aspiring entrepreneur.

Brian had worked for several talented chefs and business owners, honing his skills in culinary arts and business. It was during his stint as a B2B salesman, that he started making jerky as a hobby, and finally, the idea for this new company clicked. Crunchy Cow Beef Jerky focuses on using high quality ingredients, natural grass-fed, pasture-raised beef, with no artificial ingredients, preservatives, nitrates, additives, steroids, antibiotics, or added hormones. Brian makes all the jerky himself from a USDA inspected kitchen at Saint Louis University's Fresh Gatherings Cafe.

This "Peppered Teriyaki" is described by Brian as offering the "full rich flavor of our family secret Teriyaki marinade with a finish of blended peppercorn, pepper flake, and sesame seeds".


Ingredients

Grass-fed beef, soy sauce, dark brown sugar, honey, garlic, ginger, vodka, pepper, red pepper flake, sesame seeds

Review

The first flavor that hits the palate is a peppery spiciness followed by some noticeable heat. There's a light sweetness that comes on. The chewing brings on a soy sauce flavor, along with more black pepper, and a light natural meat flavor.

For being labeled, "Peppered Teriyaki", it holds up somewhat. I get a lot of peppery flavors, namely the pungent black pepper and the fiery red pepper. The teriyaki part is not the traditional Japanese-style where you have a thick sweet and the tangy-salty combo of mirin wine and soy, but more of a sweetened soy sauce, bolstered with ginger and vodka. However, the ginger and vodka components don't seem to add much to the final product.

Otherwise, the primary taste profile remains as a lot of black pepper and red pepper, mixed with a sweetened soy sauce, with overtones of sesame seed. The natural meat flavors are noticeable, but not as well defined as with the company's "Sweet Southern BBQ" I reviewed earlier.

The level of heat in this rates as "medium" on my personal heat scale (level 3 out of 5).

The meat consistency is excellent. Thick, meaty strips and chunks create a sense of excitement like cavemen thumping their chests. I found only light streaks of fat, and very little stringiness. It's overall, chewy, like you'd expect jerky to be, and generally chews dry, though not tough. The chewing texture is much like real chunks of steak, which creates the idea that it's fresh, natural, honest-to-God, beef.

Verdict

This Peppered Teriyaki from Crunchy Cow Beef Jerky delivers well on the "Peppered" part, but introduces a teriyaki quite unlike the usual. It's not the traditional Japanese-style you expect when you think of teriyaki, but something more off-shoot. It effectively replaces the traditional mirin wine with vodka, which itself sounds really cool, except I wasn't able to identify any of the vodka's flavor enhancement, nor any of the ginger either. It ended up tasting like sweetened soy sauce, with a lot black and red pepper.

But on it's own merits, it's still a very tasty jerky. If you like spicy jerky, this is certainly spicy. If you love thick, meaty strips of beef with little fat, no stringiness and chews like real pieces of steak, this is it.

Rating: Good (4/5)