Gentlemen's Beef Jerky - Lemon & Herb

Gentlemen's Beef Jerky is a new brand launched by Chef Shehu Fitzgerald, based out of Staten Island, NY. Chef Shehu gained famed after winning it all on Season Seven of Food Network, "Chopped". He went on to compete on "Chopped Champs" and on ABC's, "The Taste".

The celebrated culinary master spent over 20 years at high profile restaurants including the Ritz Carlton, the Marriott Marquis and Essex House. He is currently banquet chef at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua in Hawaii. He earned a culinary degree at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island, and received certifications from The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, Calif. and Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies, United Kingdom.

This new line of jerky is an extension of his line of spice blends he started in 2014.

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4 Seasons Jerky - Lemon Pepper

4 Seasons Jerky is a new brand that hit the market last month. Launched by a guy named, "Thom", short for Thomas, the company is based out of Highland, CA. Thom is an avid outdoorsman, and is outside all year-round, hiking, boating, snowboarding, to name a few.

4 Seasons Jerky uses lean round or flank cuts of meat, marinated for 24 hours.

This Lemon Pepper is described by the company as, "Combined with crushed black pepper and lemons, Lemon Pepper is a great choice who wants both a spicy and tangy taste. "

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Country Butcher Beef Jerky - Lemon Pepper

Country Butcher is a brand that's been around since 2001 (based on our research). The company itself did not send us samples for review; we were provided samples by one of their online retailers. Country Butcher was started by Ken Croucher, based out of Placentia, CA.

Croucher has been making jerky since 1974, and perfected his recipe while working at a grocery store where he could offer samples to customers and gather feedback. He's been relying on the same recipe ever since. According to online documents, Croucher developed a beef jerky recipe for Perky Jerky. Perky Jerky grew to fame by offering the world's first energy-infused jerky, using Croucher's recipe, and today they're one of the biggest jerky brands on the market. Country Butcher currently sells online through Amazon and eBay, and a variety of other outlets.

This Lemon Pepper variety is marked as, "Original" indicating it's the company's flagship flavor. It's also marked, "Gluten Free" and "All Natural".

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Jedidiah's Jerky - Lemon Peppered Beef Brisket

This "Lemon Peppered" is a new flavor from Jedidiah's Jerky. It's part of their revamped line up of beef brisket jerky.

Jedidiah's Jerky is a brand that we reviewed before (read the reviews here). Some time ago, they reintroduced their line of jerky with new recipes and new branding, and moved their headquarters to Laughlin, NV to Beatty, NV. Jedidiah's Jerky also has since opened up a chain of beef jerky stores called, "Jed's Jerky" throughout Nevada and California.

This "Lemon Peppered" jerky doesn't come with any additional description or claims.

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Jeff's Famous Jerky - Sweet Lemon Pepper Bacon

Jeff's Famous Jerky recently launched a line of Bacon Jerky, with their latest flavor being this Sweet Lemon Pepper. See the previous review of his Honey Jalapeno Bacon Jerky.

Jeff's Famous Jerky is led by Jeff Richards of Mission Viejo, CA. Jeff has been making beef jerky since the 1970s. His love for cooking took him into the restaurant business for over 20 years. In 2006 he started working on creating his own beef jerky brand, and just last year saw the launch of his new company.

This Sweet Lemon Pepper Bacon Jerky is described as having been 5-years in the making, said to be crisp like real bacon but without all the grease.

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Mike's Jerky - Lemon Pepper

Next up in the series on Mike's Jerky is this Lemon Pepper variety. See my previous reviews of Mike's Santa Fe and Black Pepper varieties.

Mike's Jerky is a brand of Old World Beef Company based out of Albuquerque, NM. The company was started by Mike and Brenda Grier in 2008. The couple had been making jerky for many years and were always told that they ought to go into business selling it, except they were already busy running an RV dealership. But when the bad economy hit, their dealership went out of business, and that cleared the way for them to start Old World Beef Company.

This Lemon Pepper variety is described by the company as having "...just the right amount of citrus lemon to compliment the pepper."

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Wild Joe's Beef Jerky - Lemon Pepper

Lemon pepper is one of those flavors that works really well with meat, but for some reason you don't seem to find much of it in jerky. That tangy citrus flavor mixing with the spicy bite of black pepper is one of my favorite seasonings on a grilled rib eye steak.

This variety of Lemon Pepper beef jerky is from Wild Joe's Beef Jerky, a brand produced by the company of the same name, based out of Cincinnati, OH. It's a family-run business that's been around since 1990, focusing on thin sliced jerky, free of preservatives.

Recently, the company took on a new business partner, freeing up Joe Lachenman, the founder, to spend more time on marketing. Maybe in the next few years, we're going to see a cartoon-like image of Joe himself battling out with Sasquatch and some dorky "alpha male" for store shelf space.

Ingredients

Beef, water, soy sauce, smoke flavoring, garlic powder, black pepper, coated with lemon pepper seasonings.

Taste

The tastes I pick up from the surface of these pieces is a strong salty soy sauce flavor, and a decent amount of smoky aroma. Moving into the chewing, I get some natural meat flavors, more saltiness, faint traces of garlic, and some black pepper aftertaste.

For being labeled a "lemon pepper" variety, I'm trying to find something that resembles lemon, be it a tangy flavor, or a citrus flavor, or even a fruity flavor. I'm not sure I really taste it here at all.

What I do get instead is a strong soy sauce flavor. In fact, I'd call that the primary flavor of this jerky. And with the soy sauce flavor, there's also a good deal of salty flavor.

The meat flavors seem to have the second most dominant taste, but still not a strong taste, but enough there to be enjoyed. And the meat seems to have a fresh taste, despite this jerky having no other preservatives, aside from that in the soy sauce.

I'd throw it to a combination of the black pepper and garlic providing the third most noticeable flavor. Both have tastes that sit in the background.

Overall, it's a jerky packed with heavy flavor, but mostly as a salty soy sauce flavor, and some meat flavors. I don't really see this at all as "lemon pepper", or even as a peppered variety, it's light on peppery taste, though I guess technically you could still say it's peppered.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, sliced thin to average, and in small to average sized pieces.

It's dry jerky, very dry, but still retains a bit of flexibility. It will, however, crack if bent far enough, and for that matter it's easy to tear off a bite-sized piece, and moderately easy to chew.

It provides a chewing experience that seems to resemble a real steak, once it hydrates in your mouth.

It's also a clean jerky, leaving no residue on my fingers and nothing falling onto my lap. It's also very lean, finding no sigificant pieces of fat, tendon, or gristle, though one piece has some good marbilization going.




Snacking Value

Wild Joe's sells this lemon pepper variety from its website at a price of $9.00 for a 3.5 ounce bag, which works out to a price of $2.57 per ounce, putting it in the expensive price range. You can also buy it in an 8 ounce bag for $1.88 per ounce, which gets it down into the average price range.

I'd say it offers a good snacking experience with its strong flavor and meat-like chewing satisfaction. For myself, it gets to be too salty over several bites and because of that this loses some snackability. If you can buy it at the $1.88 per ounce price, I think you're getting some snacking for your dollar, provided the saltiness doesn't bother you.

As a lemon peppered jerky, I don't think you're going to find any value beyond the soy sauce and meat flavors. I'm not finding any kind of tangy/citrus/fruity flavor that gives me that lemony joy. Though, I do get a fair amount of black pepper taste.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

Overall, it's still a jerky loaded with flavor, if a strong soy sauce taste is what you're after. Though, this jerky does provide some natural meat flavors as well, but it's just not strong enough to be the primary flavor. For the most part, I see this lemon pepper variety as being similar to the brand's original variety.

It doesn't rank higher with me mainly because I find it rather salty for my personal preference, and it doesn't stand up to its advertised flavor.

But it's still not a bad jerky, providing a great steak-like chewing experience, and some meat flavors.

For my beer recommendation, I'd go with a honey blonde ale to help counter the saltiness.

Rating: Average

Buy this online:

• http://www.wildjoesbeefjerky.com

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Fatman's Beef Jerky - Lemon Pepper

Lemon pepper is a flavor combination that seemed to hit a high point in popularity in the 1990's starting with chicken and then bleeding over into other meats. My curiosity was picqued when Fatman's sent me their lemon pepper variety of beef jerky because I hadn't yet tried this type of seasoning on jerky.

Fatman's Beef Jerky is a brand produced by Red Meat Foods, LLC, based in Roswell, NM. The same town that earned a reputation for little green men may very well earn a reputation for its beef jerky someday. The Fatman's brand seems to be building up a following because I see it mentioned on several websites across the Internet.

The company was started by the husband and wife team of Rick and Ellen Robey. For 30 years, Rick owned and operated a holstein calf raising business and a USDA inspected packing plant, which perhaps gave him a good head start into the jerky biz. All of their jerky is made from inside rounds of American-raised beef, marinated for 24 hours in Robey's own homemade recipes. It's processed and packed in their own facility.

Ingredients

Beef, water, soy sauce, lemon juice, lemon pepper, black pepper, salt.

Taste

I get a good dose of the natural meat flavors immediately from the surface of these pieces. With some time, the black pepper starts making a showing. Moving into the chew, the black pepper comes out more, followed by some salt, and more of the natural meat flavors.

For being advertised as a lemon pepper variety, I'm having trouble identifying the lemon. I tried several pieces to see if some had more lemon flavor, but it just wasn't there. If I analyze closely what I'm tasting, I can sense a tangy, or citrus taste, but it's faint.

If you were to put a piece into your mouth without carefully analyzing what you're tasting, what you'll taste is a dominant meat flavor, plus pepper and salt, but no lemon.

That dominant meat flavor has a fresh taste, a very lean taste, similar to that of the center portion of prime rib. From what I've found from the Fatman's brand, it's the meat flavors that get highlighted in much of their varieties.

In terms of the salt and pepper, I don't really find this to be "too salty" at all, it's probably just right for my liking. The pepper does make a good showing in this. I can taste its presence on each piece, and I'm getting a good black pepper aftertaste in the back of my mouth.

Overall, this lemon pepper variety has a great taste that emphasizes the natural meat flavors, decorated with some pepper and salt. But I don't find much lemon flavor in this.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be slices of whole meat, sliced thin, and in small to medium sized pieces.

This is a thin dry jerky that easily cracks and breaks with some bending. There's even some crunchiness in this. It's very easy to bite a piece off, and moderately easy to chew. The chewing is like what you'd get with steak cooked well done.

There's also a great deal of "cleanliness" to this jerky in that it doesn't leave your fingers with any sticky, oily, or powdery residue.

I found no pieces of fat, tendon, gristle, or other chewy tissue.




Product Value

Fatman's sells all of their jerky varieties at a price of $7.99 for a four ounce package. That works out to $2.00 per ounce, putting this into the expensive price range.

For general jerky snacking purposes, it's a decent value. You'll get a great taste of real meat, highlighted with some pepper and salt, and a great consistency with a bit of crunchiness to boot. It costs a lot more than what you'll find in the grocery stores, but you are definitely getting a better jerky.

As a lemon pepper variety, it's a poor value because I can't seem to identify any of the lemon. I keep wanting to find that lemony flavor, or even a citrus or tangy flavor, and it isn't there. It might be worth taking a spray bottle, filling it with lemon juice, and dousing it before eating.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

While the lemon taste is absent in this lemon pepper variety, it's still a pretty good jerky on its own merits. You're getting a great natural meat flavor, with some pepper and salt seasoning, along with an easy-to-eat consistency. Even the bit of crunchiness adds to the overall snacking fun.

In fact, it's that strong meat flavor that gets this jerky up to a "good" rating. For being free of preservatives, it has a fresh taste, and gave me the sense that I was eating "minimally processed" meat. The fact that it's free of added sugar will please a lot of die-hard jerky eaters as well.

I just would like to get good dose of lemon taste to back up the lemon pepper advertisement.

I think an IPA would make a great companion beer for this.

Rating: Good

Buy this online:

• http://www.fatmansbeefjerky.com

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