Pecos Bill Beef Steak Nuggets - Original

Pecos Bill is a brand owned by Marfood USA. Marfood USA is the new name of Mirab USA, which is the largest private labeler of beef jerky. Marfood USA is owned by Marfrig Group, a Brazilian-based food manufacturer.

Marfood USA also owns the Pemmican brand of beef jerky. From my observations, both brands of jerky offer the same exact recipe and cuts of meat.

These "Beef Steak Nuggets" from the Pecos Bill brand appears to be an answer to the nuggets that Jack Link's produced with much success. I found them at The Beef Jerky Store in Las Vegas, NV.

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Uncle Buck's Beef Jerky - Original

Uncle Buck's is the store brand of Bass Pro Shops, the famous supplier of fishing gear that has exploded onto the American retail scene with super-sized stores dubbed "Outdoor World" looking like a log cabin big enough to house Paul Bunyan.

The name "Uncle Buck" refers to the uncle of Johnny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops, who introduced him to fishing when he was a child. All of Bass Pro Shops store-branded items honor his name.

Bass Pro Shops doesn't make their own jerky. This stuff is manufactured by Monogram Meat Snacks of Chandler, MN, who makes jerky for several other brands, including Jeff Foxworthy, NASCAR, Winchester Rifles, Stubb's BBQ, Jim Beam, etc.

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Jack Link's Beef Steak - Teriyaki

I've seen this line of "Beef Steak" offered by Jack Link's, but have never tried them before. I finally broke down and bought this Teriyaki variety a couple of days ago.

Best I can tell, this is not a whole muscle meat snack, but more like a chunked-formed concoction. It has a rather appetizing aroma, similar to a nacho cheese & jalapeno flavored beef stick.

I can see how these things would market well to truckers and convenience store addicts. They're very easy to open, just peel away the top layers of plastic. They're very thick, very meaty looking, and moist. The visual presentation alone is something that would appeal to manly snackers.

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Winchester Jerky - Spicy Ham

Winchester Jerky is a licensed product distributed by Bric-A-Brac, Inc., out of Las Vegas, NV.

The name "Winchester" is meant to be the same name as the brand of gun. This package of jerky uses the same trademarks and images of the famous rifle that "won the west". The Olin Corporation, which owns Winchester, licenses its brand out to several consumer product manufacturers for a wide array of stuff.

Winchester Jerky is not typically found in the United States, with the exception of asian food stores found in various asian communities. Rather, it's largely sold overseas in Japan, and in airports around the world where asian travellers tend to make stops.

Bric-A-Brac knows that the Japanese have a love affair with America's "old west", and beef jerky has gained cult following there as a snack, and thus a product named after the rifle that became synonymous with the old west is a way to boost marketability.

This jerky is actually manufactured by Monogram Meat Snacks, LLC, the same company behind the Jeff Foxworthy Jerky, Trails Best Jerky, and the NASCAR branded hot dogs and meats. Winchester Jerky includes several varieties of beef jerky and ham jerky.

Ingredients

Pork (ham), brown sugar, water, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, spices, hydrolized soy protein, dextrose, soy sauce, hydrolized soy and corn protein, autolyzed yeast extract, sugar, maltodextrin, flavoring, natural flavors, sodium nitrite.

Taste

There's a sweet initial taste upon putting a piece into my mouth, and that sweetness morphs into a "ham" taste. The saltiness comes on pretty strong, along with its associated soy sauce flavoring, and then I can feel the "tingle" of spiciness in the back of my mouth. As I start the chewing, I can taste more of the ham flavor.

The ham flavors in this are pronounced, though I can't say it's a strong ham taste. Most of the ham taste comes from the surface of these pieces, perhaps in the sugar. I can continue getting that ham taste during the chew, but it's not a strong one.

I'd say that the "spicy" advertisement on the package is warranted, because I do sense some spiciness in this. I'd rate it as mild-medium, or maybe just medium at best. I can taste the chili pepper seasoning in this, and I get it even more when I bite into a chili pepper seed.

The soy sauce flavor that I described above only seems to be detectable when I let a piece soak in my mouth for several seconds, and then I extract the juices. It tastes more like the chinese style soy sauce rather than the japanese.

The saltiness is heavy. It wears me out after pieces, and detracts from this jerky's snackability.

Overall, this spicy ham jerky is very flavorful, with plenty of taste throughout the chew. The flavors that dominate this is the saltiness, the medium-level spiciness, soy sauce, and ham flavors. The sweetness is only dominant in the first few seconds.

Meat Consistency

This is a chopped & formed jerky, with medium to thick thickness, and in small to medium sized pieces.

The pieces are dry, and are somewhat on the tough side. They tear apart with some ease, perhaps due to the chopped & formed consistency, but require some effort in chewing. It's better to eat this slowly, allowing the pieces to soften up in your mouth.

I don't find any tiny bits of "hard stuff", like bone or cartilage in this jerky, considering it's chopped & formed, and nor does it have an oily texture which many such jerkies have.

Overall, this has a good meat consistency, if it was easier to chew, I might call it a great consistency.




Product Value

I paid $6.99 for this 5oz bag at a Mitsuwa Market in San Diego, CA. That works out to a price of $1.40 per ounce, making this average priced.

For general purpose jerky snacking, I'd say that this offers a good value. You're getting a jerky with lots of flavor that lasts throughout the chew, with a good meat consistency, and decent amount of snackability. The high level of saltiness, for my own purposes, make it hard for me to snack on. But perhaps it's ok for others.

As a "spicy ham" variety, I'd say it also offers a great value. It tastes exactly that, offering a noticeable ham flavor that has been spiced up with a noticeable chili pepper seasoning.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

This spicy ham variety from Winchester Jerky offers a sweet ham flavor with a medium-level chili pepper seasoning in a good meat consistency.

It's largely the heavy salt flavor that prevents me from giving this a higher rating, with it's tough chewing to back that up. Otherwise, I actually like the flavor of this, with the ham, the sweetness, and the chili pepper seasoning. Just tone down the saltiness please!

As for those Japanese business travellers, who find this package of jerky at an airport terminal shop, go ahead and pick it up. It'll make a great snack on your trip over the Pacific. As you look out the window at 30,000 feet, you'll imagine how the gun-slingers back in the old west used to grind up pieces of leftover ham, marinate them in soy sauce and hydrolized corn proteins, and form them into pieces that look like meat.

Rating: Good

Visit online:

• http://www.winchesterjerky.com

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Jeff Foxworthy Beef Jerky - Peppered

Jeff Foxworthy Beef Jerky is yet another entry into the foray of packaged foods where celebrities past their prime try to milk whatever name recognition they still have left. It's right up there with the Newman's Own brand salad dressings and Dick Van Patten's brand of dog food. Foxworthy also has a line of BBQ sauces.

Jeff Foxworthy doesn't make his own beef jerky, rather it only carries his name. It's actually a product of Monogram Food Solutions, LLC of Memphis, TN. They also own the Trails Best brand of beef jerky, and they also produce the NASCAR branded sausages and meats. Monogram got its start in 2004, when it purchased the King Cotton and Circle B brands of lunch meats from Sara Lee.

Monogram Food Solutions pays a licensing fee to Foxworthy, and it turns out that the comedian himself is an investor in this jerky product. Monogram makes this jerky at its meat processing plant in Chandler, MN.

The package also includes a statement from Foxworthy himself, claiming that this is the best jerky he has ever had, and that his name would not be on it if weren't the case. I certainly don't doubt him, presuming he doesn't eat much beef jerky.

Ingredients

Beef, water, brown sugar, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, hydrolized soy protein, dextrose, spices, soy sauce, natural smoke flavor, sodium erythorbate, flavorings, sodium nitrite.

Taste

There is a peppery aroma that I get immediately upon putting a piece into my mouth. I can kinda sense a tad bit of sweetness, and a significant amount of saltiness. With some chewing, I can get the soy sauce taste, which tastes kinda like the chinese style soy sauce, and then the natural beef flavors.

This has a good peppery flavor to it. It's not too strong, but enough to warrant the "Peppered" label on the package.

The saltiness is rather dominant in this. While I can taste the soy sauce back there, it's largely the salt that dominates the flavor of this jerky. If you have high blood pressure, you might want to consult your physician before eating this.

There's also a substantial amount of natural beef taste that comes out in this.

Overall, it has a decent taste, though quite salty. It continues to provide a combination of salt, pepper, and natural beef flavors all throughout the chew.

Meat Consistency

This is a chopped & formed jerky, served up in small to medium sized pieces, and in thick slices. Even though the package says that it's, "Made From Solid Slices of Beef Steak", that doesn't necessarily mean it remains in that state. All chopped & formed jerky started out as solid pieces of animal at one time.

This is a dry jerky, but does not retain much flexibility. As soon as I try to bend a piece, it snaps in two. It's easier to break a piece apart by bending it, rather than tearing a piece off. It's also on the chewy side. I think this is just fine for guys watching football, sitting around a campfire. But I don't see yuppie chicks trying to eat this stuff after working out at the gym.

The black pepper is embedded inside the pieces, being part of the chopped beef meal.

And while a lot of chopped & formed jerkies have bits of hard pieces, like bone or cartilage, I do not find anything like that here.

Overall, this has an "ok" meat consistency. Mainly, it's rather tough. To enjoy this, you'll have to let it sit in your mouth for several seconds to soften up.




Product Value

I paid $4.99 for this 4oz package at a Mitsuwa Market in San Diego, CA. That works out to a price of $1.25 per oz, making this an average priced buy.

I'd say that makes this an "ok" buy. For general purpose snacking, it's ok as long as you love lots of salt. For me, the saltiness wears me down and I don't find this very enjoyable after several pieces. It's also rather tough to eat.

As a peppered jerky, it's a good buy because there is a good amount of peppery taste in this, not a boat load of pepper, but enough to make itself known right away.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

This peppered variety of Jeff Foxworthy Beef Jerky gives out a good peppery flavor combined with a strong beef taste, in a chopped & formed meat consistency.

But while it does have a snackability, it's not a strong one. You might find this more snackable in the first few pieces. After that, the strong saltiness will tire you out. But if the saltiness doesn't get to you, the tough meat consistency will.

Lastly, there is also a lack of flavor complexity. For the most part, this is just salt and pepper on smoky meat. I'd like to get some other taste dimension to this, perhaps more sweetness, or more garlic, just so that my brain can have some fun disecting the flavors.

Having eaten this jerky, I think I understand why Jeff Foxworthy Beef Jerky never really caught on. If I were him I'd invest in a beef jerky product with a different company, and put some better jokes on the package.

Rating: Average

Buy this online:

• Amazon.com

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