Riley's Jerky - Teriyaki

Last in the series on Riley's Jerky is this Teriyaki beef jerky. Read my reviews of other flavors from Riley's Jerky.

Riley's Jerky is based out of Greenville, CA founded in 1980 by Riley Burkholder. Today it's run by Britt Burkholder and Bradley Bentz. Up until now, Riley's Jerky was only available in local stores throughout Northern California. But recently they launched a website and now have online ordering installed.

All their jerky is hand cut into chunks and contains no added preservatives.

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Riley's Jerky - Peppered

Next in the series on Riley's Jerky is this Peppered Beef Jerky. See my previous reviews of their Cajun, Jalapeno, and Original varieties.

Riley's Jerky is based out of Greenville, CA founded in 1980 by Riley Burkholder. Today it's run by Britt Burkholder and Bradley Bentz. Up until now, Riley's Jerky was only available in local stores throughout Northern California. But recently they launched a website and are working on getting online ordering installed.

All their jerky is hand cut into chunks and contains no added preservatives.

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Riley's Jerky - Cajun

To this day the two reviews I wrote for Riley's Jerky back in November of 2008 continue to be among the most widely read here on Best Beef Jerky, which suggests that the brand enjoy's something of a cult status.

For one, Riley's Jerky is difficult to find in stores unless you live in Northern California. Travelers who stop at a gas station and discover it, later try to find it in their hometown, only to discover it's not around. They therefore run a Google search and find this website instead.

So to that effect, Britt Burkholder, the guy who took over when Riley himself passed away, sent me samples of their other flavors to take additional advantage. And the company has launched a website of their own, and hope to soon get online ordering in place.

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Riley's Jerky - Jalapeno

About a week-and-a-half ago I did a review of Riley's Jerky - Original. In the days since then, it's become the most popular review, consistently getting read more than the others. I still have this Jalapeno variety...

As I said earlier, I discovered this jerky while driving through Northern California on my way up to Washington State at the beginning of this month. I stopped in at a Mobil Station in Yreka, CA, and picked up a bag of this Jalapeno. I ended up eating it all during my drive, and liked it so much, that I made a point to buy some more on my way back home.

Riley's Jerky is based out of Greenville, CA. It's been in operation since 1980, and from what I've been able to gather, is still a small family run business. They claim to make all their jerky by hand in their own facility, and advise that while their jerky is a little bit tougher to eat, it has a taste and texture that's superior to most others. Their jerky is largely sold in stores throughout southern Oregon and northern California. They also sell to directly to individuals over the phone.

Ingredients

Beef, soy sauce, jalapeno peppers (jalapeno peppers, water, carrots, cottonseed oil, salt, vinegar, onions, garlic, bay leaves, oregano), water, garlic salt.

Taste

The taste I pick up from the surface is the jalapeno flavoring, with a decent amount of jalapeno flavor and salt, as well as some garlic. In the chewing, I get a higher degree of that jalapeno seasoning, a higher degree of salt, some vinegar taste, more garlic, and some natural meat flavors.

The jalapeno flavoring is quite strong in this, and is what I'd consider to be the dominant flavor of this jerky. It's not necessarily hot, however. I'd rate the hotness as a mild-medium.

Also strong, is the salt. This is quite salty and is at the upper limits of what I might tolerate. It's not bad in a few pieces, but over the whole bag, it leaves my mouth somewhat scorched, and yearning for something to drink. This is more salty than Riley's original variety.

The natural meat flavors can be identified, but are not well defined. I think the stronger jalapeno and salt flavors have masked much of it. Contrast that to the company's original variety which has a strong natural meat flavor.

Also, the original variety I reviewed earlier consisted of very thick chunks of meat, almost like beef stew meat. The heavy thickness seemed to have left a layer of inner meat with some slight moisture providing a concentrated meat flavor. In this jalapeno sample, the pieces are not as thick, and as such is completely dry all the way through. My guess is that it's all hit or miss as to what your bag of Riley's may contain.

Overall, it's a great tasting jerky, mostly as the jalapeno flavoring, with the saltiness as a close second dominant flavor, followed by the natural meat flavors. I can also sense the garlic and vinegar.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be cuts of whole meat, sliced into thick strips, ranging from 1-3 inches in length.

This is dry jerky, very dry. Combine that with its thick cut, and it makes this very tough to tear apart, and very tough to chew. However, I find a good deal of surface taste that I tend to suck on a piece first, which helps to soften the meat.

And once I'm able to soften up a piece, it has a steak-like chewing character.

It's a pretty clean jerky, leaving no residue on my fingers or pieces on my lap. It's also very lean, I found no pieces of fat, tendon, or gristle.




Snack Value

I paid $5.99 for this 3 ounce bag at a Mobil Station in Yreka, CA. That works out to a price of $2.00 per ounce, putting this on the border between average and expensive.

For general jerky snacking purposes, it provides a decent value. It's got a great taste in its jalapeno flavoring, though the tough meat consistency can present a challenge. I guess it might be like sunflower seeds, where half the enjoyment is sucking off the salt and cracking open the shell. In this case you're sucking off the jalapeno flavoring, and softening up the meat.

As a jalapeno variety, it presents a good value at this higher price, because I do get plenty of jalapeno flavoring, though not necessarily hot.

This is actually a good value as a dieting snack, being extremely low in fat and carbs, with no preservatives, a great taste, and eating so slow enough that it'll take you 2-3 hours to eat it all.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

I like the taste of this jerky, with its strong jalapeno flavor, notes of garlic and vinegar, and light natural meat flavor. It also provides a steak-like chewing satisfaction. But it's very tough. It's tough enough that you might become frustrated wanting to chew into that great taste, but not being able to. The toughness is largely what keeps me from giving it a better rating.

But it still seems to work well as a jerky because it does have plenty of surface flavor that you can get a good deal of snack value sucking on this as it softens up.

The high degree of saltiness is also an issue with me, and also prevents me from assigning this a higher rating. But the overall flavor of this jerky is still good enough to mitigate the saltiness.

My beer recommendation with this is a wheat beer (hefeweizen).

Rating: Good

Where to buy:

• Call Riley's Jerky direct, (530) 284-6313

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Riley's Jerky - Original

While driving north along Interstate 5 through Northern California, I stopped at a gas station in the town of Yreka. I found this brand of jerky called "Riley's Jerky", and picked up their jalapeno variety. I opened the package, and found it to be rather good. I decided a week later, while driving back home, to stop in at the same station, and pick up a couple more bags to write this review.

Riley's Jerky is based out of Greenville, CA. It's been in operation since 1980, and from what I've been able to gather, is still a small family run business. They claim to make all their jerky by hand in their own facility, and advise that while their jerky is a little bit tougher to eat, it has a taste and texture that's superior to most others.

Their jerky is largely sold in stores throughout southern Oregon and northern California. They also sell to directly to individuals over the phone.

That's kinda what I sensed when I ate that jalapeno variety of theirs. However, I've not tried this original variety yet, so I'm wondering if it'll be any different.

Ingredients

Beef, water, soy sauce, garlic salt.

Taste

The first tastes I get from the surface of these pieces is a salty flavor, that manifests itself into a soy sauce flavor. It's not overly salty, at least not on the surface anyways. I think I can pick up hints of that garlic. Moving into the chewing, the natural meat flavors radiate out in copius amounts. I also get more salty taste.

The natural meat flavors in this are well presented, I'd say they make up the dominant taste of this jerky. Those flavors are best enjoyed after letting a piece moisten in your mouth for 15-20 seconds, and then chewing down. It's flavor reminds me of beef stew meat, probably because these pieces are so thick that it looks just like beef stew meat. And for being preservative free (except for that in the soy sauce), it retains a fair amount of freshness.

As you'll read below, these pieces are rather dry, but because they are so thick, there's an inner layer of meat that still has some moisture to it. This layer presents a wonderful beef flavor unlike that of the outer layers, and provides this jerky with a great, overall flavor.

The second most dominant taste is the soy sauce. I can taste it on the surface, and continue tasting it in the chewing. But even though it's well defined in this jerky, I don't see this jerky as being "too salty", it's just right for my tastes.

The garlic seasoning I also mentioned takes the third most dominant taste, but only because there are no other tastes to mention. I don't really taste a whole lot of the garlic, but I can sense it back there as an aftertaste.

This is actually a very tasty jerky mostly for its strong natural meat flavors. The soy sauce and slight bit of garlic does well to add some extra level of taste enjoyment.

Meat Consistency

These appear to be chunks of whole meat, cut into very thick pieces, more like large beef stew chunks.

It's actually a very dry jerky, even though the photos below make it appear to be moist. The surface of these pieces have a thin layer of oil that glistens in the light. In fact, being these pieces are so thick, and so dry, it's tough to tear apart. It takes a good amount of effort to tear a piece with your fingers. I actually found it better to use my fingers only, and not my teeth.

Chewing is not as tough as long as you allow a piece to rehydrate in your mouth. Once it does, it chews just like a real steak. If you were to chew immediately upon putting a piece into your mouth, it'd be like eating wood.

It's a very clean jerky, despite that thin layer of oil I talked about. I don't really pick up any residue on my fingers.

It's also very lean. I find no pieces of fat, tendon, or gristle.




Product Value

I paid $5.99 for this 3 ounce package at a Mobil Station in Yreka, CA. That works out to a price of $2.00 per ounce, putting this on the border between expensive and average.

For general jerky snacking purposes, it's a decent buy. You'll get a good deal of snackability with its strong natural meat flavors and soy sauce taste. You might even feel more manly shoving these thick chunky cuts of beef into your mouth. If you can find this closer to the $1.50 per ounce price, I'd consider this a bargain.

Rating

I'm giving this a good rating.

It's largely the strong natural meat flavors that gets it up to a "good" rating. I actually found myself on the line between "best" and "good". I mentioned above that because these pieces are so thick cut, there's an inner layer of meat that still has some moisture to it, and provides a very wonderful beef flavor unlike that of the outer layers.

But it's still rather tough to eat, and is why I chose to err on the side of "good" instead of "best". If the seasonings and marinade were any more complex, aside from just soy sauce, I might have assigned a best rating despite the tough consistency.

I'd consider this a "meat lovers" jerky, it's got a lot of natural meat flavors, and its thick and chunky size makes an impressionable showing. It also provides that steak-like chewing satisfaction. Everything about this jerky cries out "BEEF!"

I think a good beer to have with this is a brown ale.

Rating: Good

Where to buy:

• Call Riley's Jerky direct, (530) 284-6313

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