People's Choice Beef Jerky - Old Fashioned

People's Choice Beef Jerky is a brand of Peoples Sausage Company, Inc. based out of Los Angeles, CA. It's a family-run business that's been around since 1929. See our previous reviews of their jerky.

Recently the company relaunched its Old Fashioned line of jerky using an old recipe that hadn't been packaged before, and based on our previous reviews, it looks to be a different cut of meat as well. The relaunched Old Fashioned line is meant to be simple, preservative free, gluten-free, and to highlight the natural meat flavor.

The two varieties in this line are Original and Hot & Spicy.

Original

Ingredients: Beef, water, sea salt, natural spices, cane sugar, garlic powder.

The first flavor to the palate is a light saltiness and touches of garlic. The chewing brings on the natural meat flavors, while the saltiness picks up a bit more. I can taste faint bits of black pepper.

Compared to the company's description of this new line of Old Fashioned jerky, it certainly holds up. I get an old fashioned style flavor, more of a simple beef jerky, where the natural meat flavors take the center spotlight. It has a flavor of prime rib, with a bit of the seasoned outer portion mixed in with the meaty inner.

As for what flavors define this jerky, it's again the natural meat flavors, but lightly seasoned with salt, garlic, and black pepper. I can also pick up a touch of fatty taste too, much like what you'd taste in the outer portion of prime rib.

This Original variety is purely a mild jerky, suitable for the tamest of tongues.

The meat consistency looks great. I see small bits of fat here and there, and find only minimal stringiness. It has an old fashioned jerky chewiness, not tough, but not tender. It starts out chewing with a meaty feel, and ends up getting a little bit of a steak-like texture.

Hot & Spicy

Ingredients: Beef, water, sea salt, natural spices, cane sugar, garlic powder, cracked red pepper.

The first flavors I pick up is a light saltiness, a touch of garlic, and faint notes of chile pepper flakes. The chewing brings on the natural meat flavors, along with a bit more saltiness.

For being advertised as "Hot & Spicy", it holds up somewhat. It's not exactly "HOT", only touches of heat. On my personal heat scale, it registers as "Mild Medium" (level 2 out of 5). But I'd agree it's spicy in that the chile pepper flakes do add a little bit of heat and flavor. For people who don't buy hot foods, I'm sure they'll consider this as "hot". But for people who do,, this under-achieves.

Otherwise, the flavors that define this jerky is largely the natural meat flavors, with the seasonings of light salt, garlic, and red pepper flakes adding some nice savor and spice. The natural meat flavors taste just like that in the Original variety.

The meat consistency is just like with the Original as well. Light bits of fat that add to the natural meat flavor, with minimal stringiness, and a meaty chewiness, not tough, but not tender.

Verdict

Overall, this Original and Hot & Spicy varieties from People's Choice Beef Jerky does an excellent job of packing in a lot of taste with its simple ingredients, delivering a great natural meat flavor that reminds me of a seasoned prime rib. I love how the company was able to accomplish this without the use of soy sauce, worcestershire, MSG or other savory flavor components. I also like the old fashioned character, the balance between toughness and tenderness, the natural ingredients, and even being gluten-free. At at time when jerky brands are packing in a lot of ingredients, and creating gummy, rubbery jerky, I love the simple, natural feel of this jerky.

Between these two varieties, I think I actually prefer the Original, even though I love hot and spicy beef jerky, mostly because of the natural meat flavor with its touches of fatty flavor, and light seasonings.

Rating: Best (5/5)

Original beef jerky

Hot & Spicy beef jerky