Homegrown Meats - Joel's Traditional

Homegrown Meats is a brand that launched in 2011, owned by a group of ranchers who've farmed the Palomar Mountain area of Southern California going back into the mid-1800s. They began marketing their steaks and cuts of beef to Whole Foods Markets shortly thereafter.

In 2016, they launched a line of jerky, and Whole Foods Market picked it up only for their Southern California market. However, in October 2018, Whole Foods announced it would begin selling Homegrown Meats Jerky nationwide, with a four of the company's specialized flavors, "Joel's Traditional", "Cracked Black Pepper", "Western Mesquite Barbecue", and "Paleo". The jerky is marked as, "gluten free" and "certified grass fed".

This "Joel's Traditional", according to Homegrown Meats, is described as, "a classic recipe named in honor of one of our original founders, Joel Mendenhall, who's family has been raising cattle on San Diego's Palomar Mountain since the 1800s", it goes on to say that it has a "traditional taste of the west".

Read More

The Patriot Brands Beef Jerky - Outlaw Western

The Patriot Brands Beef Jerky is a new brand that launched in February of 2018 by James Napier of Cuba, MO. The company also markets a line of hot sauces under the same brand.

Napier seems well-known and well-liked by many as a patriot with his beard dyed red, white, and blue. The name "Patriot Brands" stems from his overwhelming support of the United States and the people who have fought for it. He's associated with "The Patriot Church", a congregation also based out of Cuba, MO.

This "Outlaw Western" flavor is described by the company as, "...a great smoke filled flavor that is nearly perfect", going on to say that it's "blended with a touch of Chipotle", and that it will steal your memories of other Western flavors.

Read More

Snatch Beef Jerky - Traditional Western

Snatch Jerky is a new brand of jerky based out of Show Low, AZ. It was started in February 2013 by a guy named Ron Pro.

Snatch markets itself with the tagline "The Healthy Beef Jerky" because it uses only natural ingredients, no MSG, no nitrates, and no preservatives. They also claim their jerky to be low sodium with varieties ranging from 50mg per serving up to 270mg per serving.

This "Traditional Western" is described by the company's as, "the original beef jerky flavor", referring to what cowboys enjoyed while driving cattle across the range. Claiming to have, "the traditional flavor of beef jerky", it's low sodium listing 270 mg of sodium per serving.

Read More

Mahogany Smoked Meats - Beef Jerky Western Strips

Mahogany Smoked Meats is a brand name of Meadow Farms Country Smokehouse, based in Bishop, CA.

The "Mahogany Smoked Meats" brand apparently goes back to 1922 when the original founder of Meadow Farms, a guy named "Wally", introduced the locals of Bishop to the goodness of smoking meats with Mountain Mahogany wood. Today, the same store is still there, and they're still selling smoked meats of all kinds.

Meadow Farms is also well known for its jerky, receiving praises from its customers, as evidenced by all the forum and blog posts. The best I can tell, Meadow Farms doesn't make their own jerky, rather it's made by Glenoaks Foods, Inc. of Sun Valley, CA, the same company that makes the J.C. Rivers brand.

Read More

Big Bird Jerky - Ostrich Biltong - Western

There's an ostrich farm just on the outskirts of Escondido, CA, south of where I live, and there's also a number of roadside stands around there selling this brand of Big Bird Jerky. I don't know if the farm is behind the Big Bird brand, however.

The brand is apparently owned by Stehly Ranch and Feeding Co., based out of Chowchilla, CA. A lookup of the company shows that it's a one-man operation. I tried to call him up, but got no answer. The jerky itself is manufactured by Glenoaks Foods, Inc., based out of Sun Valley, CA. Glenoaks owns the J.C. Rivers brand of jerky, and they also make the Ring of Fire brand of jerky that I reviewed earlier.

Interestingly, this package of Big Bird Jerky has the words "Ostrich Biltong" on it. If you read my previous review of Big Bird's teriyaki variety of the same, you'll know that I really didn't find anything about this resembling true biltong, though I'll condition that by saying the lines separating biltong from jerky are blurred. I think however, ostrich is perhaps more associated with biltong than it is with jerky.

Ingredients

Ostrich, water, soy sauce, brown sugar, pineapple juice, black pepper, liquid smoke, garlic powder, white pepper.

Taste

The taste I get from the surface of these pieces starts with a slight sweetness, followed by a faint bit of the soy sauce. Moving into the chew, the black pepper comes through first, with some natural meat flavors coming next. Sucking out some of the juices, I can get more soy sauce flavor.

Overall, it's a tasty jerky, with a good concentration of flavor. But I'm not sure I'd call this biltong. This has a very classic jerky taste, nothing that resembles biltong.

Being that this is advertised as a "Western" variety of jerky, it's difficult to determine what exactly it ought to taste like. But as with the "cowboy style" of jerky, it should have an intense flavor, lots of salt, smoke, garlic, pepper, and natural meat flavors. You gotta figure the cowboys and lawmen of the old west era had burnt out their tastebuds from too much tobacco and whiskey. So they need a jerky that offers a ton of taste.

While this jerky is indeed peppery, and has a good deal of soy sauce flavor, it's light on everything else. I'd say the soy sauce is the primary flavor of this jerky, followed by the pepper, and then I'd give the surface sweetness the third most prominent taste.

The natural meat flavors are slight, and being preservative free, it's still a fresh taste. Ostrich tastes pretty much like beef, it's just lower in fat. But still, considering it's ostrich, you'd expect to get a lot of natural meat flavors just so that you can enjoy ostrich. Otherwise, why would anyone buy it? It is indeed lower in fat, but in this 1 ounce package you won't realize much health advantages.

The saltiness is moderate at best. The garlic powder mentioned in the ingredients list is also very slight, I don't really taste much of it, except maybe as part of the soy sauce. I don't even get much smokiness.

Overall, it's another good tasting jerky, nothing bad to report here. But it's another jerky that doesn't really come out and grab my attention. It's mostly a novelty jerky for being ostrich and being labeled as "biltong".

Meat Consistency

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

This is a dry jerky, but one that retains a lot of flexibility. It also requires a bit of effort to tear off a strip, and is somewhat on the chewy side.

It doesn't quite provide a chewing experience like a real steak, but it's not mushy at all. Instead, it gets slightly gummy.

It's for the most part a clean jerky, leaving no residue on my fingers, but it does drop a fair amount of black pepper resulting from the effort exerted in tearing off a strip.

I found no amounts of fat, tendon, or gristle on these pieces.




Product Value

I paid $3.49 for this 1 ounce package at a roadside stand located between Valley Center and Escondido, CA, along Valley Center Pkwy. That makes this a very expensive jerky.

For general jerky snacking purposes, it's a poor value. And that's largely due to its high price. Otherwise, it provides a good taste, and I actually do find it snackable. The meat consistency is ok, though somewhat tough, and somewhat gummy.

For being advertised as biltong, it's a poor value. I don't really see this as biltong, everything here suggests it as classic jerky in both taste and consistency.

Even as a western style of jerky, it's a poor value because I don't quite see this having the "western" or "cowboy style" characteristics that other similarly named jerkies have.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

I actually rated this one notch higher than the brand's teriyaki variety, and that's only because this provides more taste with the black pepper and soy sauce. Aside from that, I think this jerky really misses the mark for being advertised as biltong, and doesn't quite live up to my expectations as a "western style" of jerky. The meat consistency is also not that great.

I could have given it a good rating if it only had more natural meat flavor.

But it's still a tasty jerky for its black pepper and soy sauce, and it's also preservative free if that's important to you. But unless you can find this priced in the low $1.00 range, I wouldn't buy it again.

But if you happen to have some of this jerky, my beer recommendation is a brown ale.

Rating: Average

Where to buy:

• Good luck finding it!

Read More

Old West Beef Jerky - Western Style

Old West is a brand of beef jerky manufactured by Peoples Sausage Company, based in Los Angeles, CA. Peoples Sausage has been in business since 1929, making sausage, bologna, hot dogs, and beef jerky. It's a 3rd generation family-run business, now run by the grandson.

In addition to this "Old West" brand, the company also produces another brand called, "People's Choice", which is apparently their flagship beef jerky brand.

The company also makes another line of beef jerky they describe as the "really, really old style" beef jerky that distribute to specialty stores and mexicantessens, featuring ethnic flavors not normally seen in traditional beef jerky.

This particular package of Old West doesn't advertise a particular flavor variety, aside from "Western Style".

Ingredients

Beef, soy sauce, sugar, worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, sodium nitrite.

Taste

When I take a bite out of a piece, a slight sweetness is what I taste on the surface of these pieces, followed by a soy sauce taste. Upon chewing, the natural meat flavors come out. A black pepper taste comes later, and eventually dominates the aftertaste.

I'd say the flavor that sits at the forefront of this jerky is the soy sauce and its saltiness. The black pepper is well defined in this also. The soy sauce flavors lasts through the chew, but then the natural meat flavors come on a lot stronger by that time.

This is a salty jerky. Even though the nutrition label shows something of a moderate amount of sodium, it's well defined in this variety because it's largely the soy sauce that dominates the flavor.

Overall, this jerky has a good taste, mostly as soy sauce and black pepper, which is an all-too-familiar combination, along with a good natural meat flavor. The saltiness makes it somewhat of a challenge for me, since I don't really care much for strong salty taste in jerky.

Meat Consistency

These pieces appear to be cut from real slices of meat, sliced thin to medium thickness, and in medium sized pieces.

This is a dry jerky, with almost no flexibility if bent with the grain, or against. I found it easy to tear apart if I tear it along with the grain. Against the grain, it's very difficult. It's moderately easy to eat.

I found some streaks of gristle in most of these pieces, but they were thin enough and dry enough that they broke apart and chewed without much notice. However, one piece had a thicker piece of gristle that did offer a jaw exercise, but still chewed ok. Otherwise, no chewy tendon, and no fat, except for one piece that had some good marbilization.

Overall, the meat consistency is ok. I like dry jerky, but this is so dry that pieces of it break off and fall into my lap as I tear a piece off. If it didn't crumble like this, I'd overlook it. There's also a good amount of gristle in this, though most of it was chewable and didn't present too much of a problem.




Product Value

I paid $2.99 for this 1.8oz package at Pine Mountain General Store in Pine Mountain Club, CA. That works out to $1.66 per oz, making this an average priced jerky. If the company offers a larger package, I'm guessing it'll be priced cheaper per oz.

For an average priced jerky, this appears to be an average value. If you like the dry, thin cut jerky, this may give you what you're looking for. While it has a good taste, it's not a taste that's going to win you over as a favorite. It's kinda salty, actually.

For its natural meat flavor, it's a good buy. As a peppered variety, it's also a good buy.

As a "Western Style" jerky, which the package advertises, I'm guessing that it fits the bill. I suppose something like "western style" is open to interpretation. My guess is that it's something dry, thin cut, and largely salty as its dominant flavor. That's what this is. For that matter, it's a good buy.

Rating

I'm giving this an average rating.

While it's flavorful, it's largely a soy sauce variety that I found to be too salty for my preference. I do enjoy black peppered jerky, and this jerky is also that. It also retains plenty of its natural meat flavors. And it's still relatively easy to eat. All that makes this snackable, and deserving of an average rating.

Aside from offering some good natural meat flavors, I couldn't find anything else that stood out enough to warrant a higher rating.

Rating: Average

Where to buy:

• In stores across California, and western states

Read More