- 2 days ago
Today on Epicurious, we’ve asked meat experts Charlie Marshall, Jake Dickson, and John Ratliff to give us their unfiltered, honest reviews of some prominent beef jerky brands found on supermarket shelves. Which beef jerky packs the most bang for your buck, and which should you avoid at all costs?
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00We've gathered three butchers and meat purveyors
00:03to blind taste test every type of beef jerky
00:06we could get our hands on
00:07to see which ones meet bare standards.
00:13Old Trapper, old-fashioned beef jerky.
00:16It's really red.
00:18Most likely coming from the addition of nitrites
00:20reacting with the hemoglobin.
00:22It's not too tough, not too dry.
00:24It's also kind of like flaking.
00:26Probably that's the nature of the cut that was used.
00:28It looks like it's from a bottom round.
00:30But it's also cut directly across the grain.
00:33It makes it more tender
00:34because you've basically shortened the muscle fiber.
00:36It's got a glaze to it.
00:38Definitely gonna be on the sweeter side.
00:41I definitely smell smoke there.
00:43When you're naturally smoking,
00:44the phenols in the smoke actually help preserve the meat.
00:48There are all these antioxidants in smoke.
00:49Beef jerky is often smoked.
00:51I think smoke is mainly about getting you to wanna eat it.
00:54For beef jerky, I'm gonna be looking
00:55for a few different things today.
00:56Beef jerky ideally tastes like beef.
00:59It shouldn't be just a marinade flavor.
01:01It shouldn't be just sweetness.
01:03I actually wanna taste the meat.
01:04It should also have a really nice chew to it,
01:06like a nice texture and doesn't have like a weird softness.
01:09I want to feel like I'm eating dried beef.
01:11And finally, I'm looking for a balanced seasoning.
01:13Salt and sugar have to be in the perfect ratio
01:18so that neither of them are dominant.
01:20All right, let's dive in.
01:22In terms of beef flavor, there's not a lot there.
01:26It's a lean cut of meat,
01:27so this doesn't have any real fat to it all
01:29that's gonna coat my tongue.
01:30I'm gonna deliver that beef flavor.
01:32Most jerkies are made with eye of the round
01:35or top round or bottom round,
01:37and they're really lean cuts.
01:38And you don't want that fat.
01:40It goes rancid.
01:41Texture's actually really good.
01:43It's not too chewy.
01:44It's not too soft.
01:45It doesn't get caught in your teeth.
01:46A couple things will make beef jerky more or less tender.
01:51How the animal was raised, how the mussel was cut,
01:54how was it marinated, and how was it cooked and dried?
01:58Sugar reduces the water availability for bacteria,
02:01so you can create a moister jerky
02:04and still keep it safe to eat.
02:05In commercial beef jerky, you're getting a softness
02:08because first they're cooking the meat
02:09before dehydrating it.
02:11And that's what kind of gives this generic texture
02:14that you get for most, let's say, we'll call it
02:17gas station beef jerky.
02:18The seasoning is pretty balanced.
02:19I would guess this is one of our market leaders.
02:22Right?
02:22Old Trapper, old fashioned beef jerky, naturally smoked.
02:27I've seen it on shelves.
02:28Well, it's good that beef is the first ingredient,
02:30always important on a beef jerky.
02:32They're adding beef stock.
02:33And for me, that's an acknowledgement
02:34that their beef doesn't have a lot of flavor.
02:36So what they're doing is they're marinating
02:38or adding beef stock to the product
02:40to make it taste more beefy.
02:41Sodium nitrite.
02:42Nitrites stabilize the globulin in the meat
02:45and that keeps the red color.
02:47They're a preservative.
02:48We're probably going to see a lot of sodium nitrite today.
02:50Jerky is probably one of the oldest methods
02:54of meat preservation.
02:55Just air drying was probably one of the first methods
02:59and then salting and air drying
03:01and then eventually smoking and salting and air drying.
03:04The more of those layers you add on,
03:06the more longevity you're getting from that animal.
03:09It's fine.
03:10It's not gross.
03:10It's not like, I want more of this.
03:13If I saw this on a shelf at a gas station on a road trip,
03:15I'd totally take it and eat it.
03:19People's Choice Original Beef Jerky.
03:21That's a big piece of beef jerky.
03:23Very thin, translucent.
03:24I'm going to assume that this does have nitrites.
03:27It has got a nice pliability.
03:29It's not overly dried.
03:30So you can see they've cut it thinner.
03:32If they cut as thick as the other one,
03:33it would be inevitably tough.
03:36Oh, geez-o-luizo.
03:38Beef was not the first flavor here.
03:40It was definitely sugar.
03:41The chew and the texture are terrible.
03:42It's super chewy.
03:43With such a thin jerky, I would expect it to be a little crunchier.
03:46But it's like tearing cardboard, man.
03:48And that's because it's cut with the grain.
03:50If you cut it the other way against the grain,
03:52you're going to get a much less toothy consistency.
03:55It's like string cheese.
03:56So much sugar.
03:58It's like crystallized.
03:58It was a little too sweet, but I did like the black pepper.
04:01Big bag of beef jerky.
04:03Oh my god.
04:03People's choice.
04:05And they're supposed to be all natural.
04:06Look at this bag.
04:07This is a dog food bag.
04:09Celery powder is full of nitrates.
04:11And nitrates can be converted by our body or by bacteria cultured into nitrites.
04:18But because it's a natural source of nitrates,
04:20they don't have to say that includes nitrates.
04:22Cultured celery powder is identical to chemically produced or lab produced nitrites.
04:28I think brands use celery powder because it sounds more clean label.
04:32It sounds like something you want to put in your body,
04:34but people should be aware that you're getting the same nitrites
04:37that you would get from a product that just says it contains nitrites.
04:41Your body does not know the difference.
04:43I like its style.
04:44I don't love its flavor.
04:49I don't really want to eat this.
04:51These little lines, I can tell it stuck to the racks where it was laid on.
04:55Like somebody was lifting it and it broke
04:57because it was stuck.
04:59This one is cut kind of across the grain,
05:01but I think also still using bottom round.
05:03I feel like got a little more moisture to it.
05:06Look how easily it comes apart.
05:07Watch this.
05:09It's not super beef-forward.
05:11What I really hate about this, it's soft.
05:14That is straight mush.
05:15A lot of sugar or at least something that makes it taste sweet.
05:18Definitely has soy sauce.
05:20The black pepper that I'm seeing on it, I'm not really tasting.
05:23They're balancing the pepper with sugar.
05:25I think it has too much sugar for this one.
05:28It just doesn't really have a good meat flavor.
05:29This is gross.
05:30Why am I eating it?
05:31It tastes just like all the other generic beef jerkies.
05:33No guess.
05:34None whatsoever.
05:35A sugar factory domino.
05:36It's one of the big ones would be my guess.
05:38There we go.
05:39You can't go into a gas station or a grocery store without seeing jacklings.
05:43This is gas station jerky in like New Jersey.
05:46I can say that because my wife's from New Jersey.
05:48When you have that kind of production,
05:50you're naturally going to be able to offer a better price point.
05:52Now, I think there is something nice and snackable about it.
05:55I mean, you could chew this with false teeth.
05:57Right.
05:57So you're just kind of like popping it like popcorn.
05:59Beef, the first ingredient, who would know?
06:01Yeast extract on top of the soy sauce.
06:03Now that's why it tastes so soy because both of those ingredients add a lot of umami.
06:08They really accentuate the flavor in the soy sauce.
06:10And then there's pineapple powder.
06:12And that's why this is nice and soft.
06:14Pineapple contains something called bromelain.
06:15Bromelain.
06:16It's like a crew of college dudes.
06:18That is a meat tenderizer.
06:20It's used commercially.
06:21It breaks down the connective tissue between the protein structure.
06:24Chewing this, I think that's what it's used for.
06:26It's what you'd expect.
06:27It is the large commercially available.
06:29Dialistically, I personally do not like it.
06:32Jack Links would not be my first choice.
06:34But if it was the only choice in the gas station and I was on a road trip, I would
06:38buy it.
06:40Brooklyn Biltong, original air dried beef.
06:43I like that it's not red.
06:44I'm gonna bet there are no nitrites or cultured celery powder in this jerky.
06:51It doesn't have the color.
06:52It's a nice change of pace.
06:54It's a little bit strange.
06:55It's so shreddy.
06:57You actually taste kind of beefy.
06:59Very gamey.
06:59One of the key signifiers of grass-fed beef is the color of the fat and the amount of intermuscular
07:05fat.
07:06This is a little bit fattier than the other ones.
07:08It's got a greasy flavor to it.
07:09This might be something real.
07:11Fat's not common in gas station jerky.
07:13The texture is good.
07:14It's kind of shreddy.
07:15Chewier than I thought it was going to be, which I don't mind.
07:18Zero sweetness.
07:19And it's not overly salty.
07:21The seasoning they're keeping pretty basic.
07:23Not much salt.
07:24Technically it's balanced, but there's nothing to balance.
07:27This might have went through a little bit of fermentation.
07:30Even though I think it's a little under seasoned.
07:32As you chew it, that fat is delivering the salt to your tongue and making it work.
07:37My guess is it's going to be a smaller producer, especially because of the fat content.
07:41Biltong.
07:41It's Brooklyn Biltong.
07:43I was right.
07:43This does go through some fermentation.
07:46Biltong is a South African product.
07:48It is a type of jerky, but it's made completely differently.
07:51They cut it in these like strips that are like yay big from top to bottom.
07:56And then they season those strips.
07:58It's rubbed with the spices on the outside.
08:01You're not getting as much spice unless you're really caking it on there.
08:04Instead of fully cooking the beef in order to kill all the bacteria in Biltong, they pickle the beef in
08:12vinegar and that makes it sterile or kills all the bacteria that could reproduce in the beef.
08:18So essentially it's dehydrating and then cutting instead of cutting and then dehydrating.
08:24They then can dry the beef at a much lower temperature, which is safe to do now because it's got
08:31no bacteria.
08:32And that's how you end up with a softer product that isn't as dried.
08:36Whatever it is, I like it.
08:38I think it's pretty good.
08:39I think it's delicious.
08:39People should eat the out of this.
08:43Tillamook, zero sugar, original beef jerky.
08:46This is cool.
08:46This has fat.
08:47It's cut on the thicker side.
08:49This is a low moisture recipe.
08:51It's also cut with the grain.
08:53So we're going to have a really nice tear on this jerky.
08:55It's got a little bit of redness to it.
08:57Pretty sure this has nitrites.
08:58And some visible spice on the exterior.
09:03Tastes like beef.
09:04It's got a little bit of heat on the back end, but not a lot.
09:06There's the right amount of chew.
09:07It doesn't need overly dry.
09:09It's not too hard.
09:10Not overly dehydrated or soft.
09:12And the more I chew on it, it gets very beefy.
09:15Good balance of salt and sugar.
09:17Spices don't overtake the beef.
09:18Kind of a nice acid profile.
09:20Really, the flavor on this one is all about the beef.
09:22So far, consistency-wise, this is my favorite.
09:25I don't think this is gas station jerky.
09:27I think this is a little step up.
09:29Country smoker.
09:30Made with 100% premium beef.
09:33I don't know what that means.
09:35Zero sugar.
09:35Part of the reason that we're getting the dryness here and less moisture.
09:40That sugar will hold onto water once you have it in the jerky.
09:43Slow smoked over real hardwood.
09:45I don't taste a lot of smoke in this.
09:47Smoke dissipates in packaging so quick.
09:49Smoking is really about preservation.
09:52If they're really going to the trouble of smoking this over hardwood, it's partially to preserve the meat, not just
09:59for the flavor.
10:00Some smokes are more bitter than others, but there's also a lot of variables, right?
10:04The amount of time the smoke is applied, how aggressively the smoke is applied, what the humidity level is in
10:10the smoker.
10:10I like the consistency a lot.
10:12It's pretty good beef jerky.
10:13That just blew my mind.
10:15Very good.
10:17Think Jerky.
10:18Classic beef jerky.
10:20I already don't like it.
10:21So this one's a little bit glossy.
10:22Back to Sugarville.
10:24Some is cut with the grain and some is cut against it, so it's not consistent.
10:28This is gas station stuff.
10:31Oh, God.
10:32I do not like it.
10:33Lots of sugar.
10:34Where's the beef?
10:35That's a fruit snack.
10:36So there are two reasons to use a lot of sugar.
10:39One, to make it sweet and make people eat a ton of it like it's meat candy.
10:44And then the other reason is for water availability.
10:47This is going to have very low water availability with that amount of sugar in it.
10:50And it's got a fair amount of salt as well.
10:52When you use that much sugar and that much salt, you end up with a really kind of soft, pliable,
10:58chewable jerky.
11:00And it is a trade-off because without massive amounts of preservatives, there's no way to
11:05create a soft, pliable, moist jerky that's shelf-stable unless you use a lot of sugar.
11:11It's like some weird avant-garde dessert.
11:14It has like a really plasticky texture to it and kind of artificial flavor.
11:20The sugar hits you, then the acid, then this like black pepper thing.
11:24All these garbage jerkies use the same black pepper.
11:27It's like a little stale.
11:30I don't know.
11:31Think.
11:32Think not.
11:33Not my favorite.
11:35It's so crazy.
11:36They have a pepper mill on the cupboard.
11:40Oh, this is garbage.
11:42Package tells me it's premium.
11:44I don't think it tastes premium at all.
11:45So the signaling of the package does not align with the end product.
11:49Most beef, even grass-fed, is grain-finished.
11:52And if you look at the back here, it says 100% grass-fed beef.
11:56That's important.
11:56I mean, it's only had grass through its entire life cycle, from birth through slaughter,
12:01not counting milk.
12:02You're going to end up with a leaner animal.
12:04So I guess more of the animal could be made into jerky, because you're going to have more
12:07areas that have less marbling that are more suitable for jerky.
12:10In terms of flavor, I don't think that grass-fed, for me, is going to come through in jerky.
12:15It has over a year until the sell-by date.
12:18That's a pretty significant shelf life for something that has no nitrites.
12:22I'm going to throw this in the garbage.
12:24Snake River Farms American Wagyu beef jerky.
12:28I can, like, mash this beef jerky in my fingers by squeezing.
12:31Beef jerky shouldn't be mushy like that.
12:33This one is glossy.
12:34It's really reflecting light.
12:35It's a little curled up.
12:36It almost looks like bulgogi to me.
12:39Chunky, chunky black pepper.
12:40Look at this black pepper.
12:41I love that.
12:44I don't taste an ounce of beef in that.
12:46It has that really generic flavor to it.
12:48All that sugar in there, it's got a pretty high moisture content.
12:51The texture of this is what people want out at Jerky.
12:54It's not crispy, it's not crunchy, it's not soft.
12:56Like, right in the middle, it's great.
12:58The balance is pretty good between the salt and the sugar.
13:01The flavor to me is good.
13:02This tastes like an attempt at a premium brand.
13:05Oh, Snake River Farms!
13:07I expected more of Snake River Farms.
13:09Snake River Farms is a premium American Wagyu beef brand.
13:13You're probably not buying this in a gas station.
13:15They're raising wagyu and ragu crosses for mostly restaurant consumption.
13:20Wagyu is a breed of beef that is known for its high marbling.
13:25It's intermuscular fat.
13:26It shouldn't matter if something is wagyu or not when you get to Jerky.
13:31So when we make beef jerky, we want to use cuts that have very little fat.
13:34And here they're trying to kind of tout that they're using a breed that has a lot of fat.
13:39So it's a little bit counterproductive and counterintuitive.
13:41I don't see an ounce of fat on this product, or flavor for that matter.
13:45So I feel like it's kind of a waste.
13:47If I were guessing, I would say that there's a bunch of lean wagyu beef that can't be sold
13:53as wagyu because it's not heavily marbled.
13:55Because those are the naturally less fatty cuts in the wagyu cattle.
14:00And so those are made into jerky.
14:03If you're going to eat beef jerky, don't pay for wagyu.
14:06Because you're not getting the part of the wagyu that's the reason that we eat wagyu.
14:11It's a marketing thing, right?
14:13People associate wagyu with quality.
14:16It eats to me like a commercially made beef jerky.
14:18This is literally the consistency of a Swedish fish.
14:22Good and Gather original beef jerky.
14:25It's on the thicker side.
14:27Cut with the grain so we get this really nice pull.
14:30It smells super smoky.
14:33So I'm not getting a lot of beef flavor on this.
14:35The texture is mush.
14:37Jerky should be a little drier, a little chewier.
14:39I like the texture of it.
14:41I think by cutting the piece to like a reasonable size,
14:44they're keeping the muscle fibers short.
14:46That is so sweet.
14:48It's got like a brown sugar thing going on, but not a lot of other flavor aside from that.
14:53I'm not really sensing any smoke flavor on this at all.
14:56Yes, it's a very basic jerky in terms of seasoning.
14:59A mush city.
15:02Good and Gather.
15:03You're feeding me target turkey.
15:05It kind of lines up with what I would have expected.
15:07There's a lot of sugar in this.
15:08The second and third ingredient of this one is sugar,
15:12which kind of lines up with my experience of it.
15:14That tasted pretty sweet.
15:15This has brown sugar and regular sugar.
15:18I think brown sugar gives it caramel flavors that regular white sugar just doesn't.
15:23I don't know why you'd use both.
15:25They're like, all right, cool.
15:26We got the color we want.
15:27We got the molasses, but we still want it to be sweeter.
15:30It's like a quarter sugar.
15:31Natural smoke flavor, because it's an ingredient,
15:34it probably means it's liquid smoke.
15:36Smoke extract is what they call it.
15:38Most liquid smoke is actually produced by smoking a liquid.
15:42So if you have a very large production facility and you're trying to create,
15:46you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds of beef jerky
15:51and you're faced with the choice.
15:52Oh, well, do we, you know, hold this slowly over a raging fire of expensive hardwood
15:56or do we buy this extract and add a few drops to the marinade?
16:00It's a pretty easy choice for the manufacturers.
16:02Too sweet for my liking?
16:04Not my favorite.
16:05Garbage.
16:05Garbage.
16:08Archer, original grass-fed beef jerky.
16:10Very soft.
16:11This has got a lot of water in it.
16:12It's like damp.
16:13It's just going to be sweet because that's how you keep that water in there.
16:16I'm not excited to eat it.
16:19No beef in there whatsoever.
16:21It has no texture to it.
16:22It's mushy and unpleasant.
16:24And like super, super soft.
16:26Crushingly sweet.
16:27It all just has kind of like a synthetic thing going on in terms of the flavor.
16:32Maybe it has pineapple juice to tenderize it.
16:34Not my favorite.
16:36Archer grass-fed beef jerky.
16:38It's too bad I would have really liked to have liked Archer.
16:41I like what they stand for.
16:42They use clean ingredients.
16:44They don't use a bunch of preservatives.
16:46They try to make good food that is good for you.
16:50Long live real meat.
16:51They put a lot of thought into this package and I don't understand any of it.
16:55The marketing department got their hands on you, buddy.
16:58It's got a lot of ingredients on this back.
17:00But a lot of good ingredients.
17:02So I was right.
17:02There's pineapple juice in here to tenderize the meat.
17:05Which personally I don't think was necessary.
17:07It's really tender.
17:08Too tender.
17:09There's a lot going on here for a product that eats very simple and not that good.
17:12Whenever you see a brand that's no nitrites, no nitrates, no celery powder.
17:17Well, then they're going to have to do other things to keep that product fresh.
17:21In this case, beef jerky.
17:23Like add a lot of sugar, add a lot of salt.
17:25Then you really have to focus on packaging.
17:26And then once you open it, you've got to eat it pretty quick.
17:29It's pretty strange.
17:30They probably sell this at Target.
17:32Meat candy.
17:33That's not what I think of as beef jerky.
17:37365 by Whole Foods.
17:39Original organic grass-fed beef jerky.
17:42A very natural brown beef.
17:44No chemical preservatives.
17:45It's a little better in intermuscular fat.
17:47Fat can be great in terms of eating process.
17:50The only negative with fat can be the shelf life.
17:54I think the fat helps deliver that beefiness to it.
17:57I thought it was going to be mush, but it's actually not.
18:00Right, it's dry, but not tough.
18:03Very, very sweet.
18:04I can see the black pepper, but it barely comes through.
18:06The flavor is pretty good on this one.
18:07I'm getting notes of Tabasco or something, but I'm not sure what that is.
18:10Maybe it's a teriyaki flavor.
18:11Is that what they're going for here?
18:12It's like mezcal.
18:14I'm not saying this is good like mezcal.
18:15I'm just saying.
18:17Ah, it's Whole Foods.
18:19365.
18:20So is the first one and only one that we've had so far that is organic.
18:24Buying organic, you're being guaranteed that there are a whole list of chemicals
18:29that are not going to be present in your food.
18:31It says something because beef jerky is already expensive,
18:34and they are choosing to use organic beef, which will be significantly more expensive
18:39and grass-fed.
18:40That's kind of impressive.
18:41Just because it's organic doesn't mean it's going to taste great.
18:44To make beef jerky shelf stable, we have to get to a specific water activity level
18:49that will prevent bacterial growth.
18:51So it's all about balancing those three variables,
18:53which would be salt, nitrates, and water.
18:55Overall, I think they've done a good job here.
18:57They have reduced the water to a point where it's still pleasant to eat,
19:00but they haven't had to add any nitrates to it.
19:03It's pretty solid.
19:03This is not for me, but it's definitely for someone.
19:06Yeah, garbage.
19:07Garb.
19:08Field trip.
19:09Original grass-fed beef jerky.
19:11Thick, chunky pieces.
19:13There's a little bit of fat in this piece.
19:15Another natural jerky.
19:16This brown color is missing nitrites.
19:19This has a little more spice characteristic.
19:23No beef flavor whatsoever.
19:25This is sugar forward, some sort of fruit.
19:28The texture is pretty good.
19:29It's got some chew.
19:30It's got a little bit of fat.
19:31Still very tender in that kind of soft, sweet candy style.
19:35The spice comes through as a background note.
19:38I mean, black pepper forward.
19:39A lot of soy flavor.
19:41Kind of a lot of umami.
19:42Probably garlic, onion.
19:44Field trip.
19:45Never heard of them.
19:46My understanding, they were a small company.
19:47I believe out of Vermont.
19:49One of their missions is no nitrates or nitrates added.
19:52But maybe a bunch of these other things are trying to control for
19:55bacteria growth and water activity.
19:5725 ingredients in it.
19:58To me, it tasted like it's got four.
20:01There it is.
20:01Apple juice.
20:02That's what I'm getting.
20:03We haven't seen that yet.
20:04I believe it would be just for flavor and sweetness.
20:07Probably a tenderizer.
20:08They're also using pineapple juice.
20:10Another tenderizer.
20:12It's solid.
20:13A butter teriyaki beef jackie.
20:16There's a hole in that one, which maybe means it was hung on a hook.
20:19So it's dehydrated while hanging.
20:21It looks like it's on the softer side.
20:23Almost always coming from sugar.
20:25Because that's how you keep that moisture in there.
20:28It's almost a beef based flavor.
20:30It almost tastes concentrated.
20:31It also has kind of a soapy aftertaste that I don't like.
20:34Not a very satisfying chew to it.
20:35Very, very soft.
20:36Surprisingly mushy.
20:37It's pretty sweet.
20:39Hints of smoke in the back.
20:40It's hard to say if it has more sugar or just less salt in it.
20:43The same amount of salt tastes saltier or less salt based on how much sugar or spice are in it.
20:48So it's all about the balance of the ingredients.
20:50Soy or molasses.
20:53Choe as well.
20:53The real reason to add soy is for that umami flavor.
21:00Which helps bring out the flavor of the beef.
21:03Until you put too much in and then it just covers it up.
21:06I think this is probably one of the big companies.
21:09Alberto.
21:10Oh, this is one of the big ones.
21:11Alberto is like, I think it's been around forever.
21:14Teriyaki.
21:14This doesn't taste terribly teriyaki to me.
21:16It tastes like sweet soy, which is part of teriyaki.
21:19If you were to read this ingredient list and compare it to all the other ones, none of which were
21:22labeled as teriyaki,
21:23it's not really any different.
21:25Just maybe a little more soy.
21:26I like to put a little bit of sesame in mine and a little bit of spiciness.
21:31Most teriyaki flavors that American associate are like basically just a shocking amount of sugar and soy sauce.
21:37So it makes sense that teriyaki is a flavor profile that works for beef jerky.
21:42It's not for me.
21:43This is not my fave.
21:45Good and Gather, teriyaki beef jerky.
21:48Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a classic example of beef jerky from a gas station.
21:52A slightly firmer jerky, a nice tear.
21:55When you rub it, it starts to like kind of fold up and turn into this like caramelized sugar protein
22:01paste.
22:03In terms of beefiness, not that much going on.
22:06And I can chew it for more than three seconds before it's time to swallow, which was to me what
22:11jerky is all about.
22:12Tastes mostly like brown sugar.
22:13This definitely has some Asian flavors going on.
22:15Is this also a teriyaki?
22:17The soy is more prominent.
22:18A lot of umami.
22:19It's getting closer to what I look for in a jerky, but still not quite it.
22:24It's fine.
22:25Yay!
22:26This is Good and Gather, the target version.
22:29Tar-jay!
22:31This is their teriyaki.
22:32It's not as bad as the other tarjay one.
22:34They do have honey, which we haven't seen.
22:36It's a natural sweetener, but I'm actually gonna assume it's in their teriyaki mix.
22:42So here you've got the teriyaki on one side and you've got their original on this side.
22:47They look identical.
22:48This one has about a third of the ingredients as this one.
22:51And this one has so many obscure ingredients like multiple juice concentrates and honey versus sugar.
22:56At least you're seeing the things that you expect in teriyaki, right?
23:00Ginger juice, garlic powder.
23:03They are not wildly different products.
23:04Like I don't know what purpose all of these additional flavors and ingredients are adding.
23:09This is better than the Oberto's teriyaki, but still not my personal thing.
23:15Think Jerky, grass fed beef jerky, sesame teriyaki.
23:19I see sesame seeds, which is cool.
23:23So it's going for a different flavor profile than any of the other ones we've eaten today.
23:27No beef flavor.
23:29It has a bit of like a mealy characteristic when you actually eat it.
23:32Almost like it was over tenderized.
23:33I think flavor profile, the sesame is coming out.
23:36After I chew on it for a minute, there is a bit of bitterness.
23:38Like almost like an orange peel.
23:40It's possible they're trying to bring in like a third element that we haven't seen in any of the other
23:44ones.
23:44And balancing salty, sweet, and bitter.
23:47Here's another Think Jerky.
23:48This is their sesame teriyaki.
23:50Well, better job this time, Think.
23:52Cayenne pepper.
23:53You could have fooled me with the cayenne pepper.
23:54I didn't think this was particularly spicy.
23:56But it's nice.
23:57It kind of like helps round it out.
23:59This was the first of our jerkies today that used an actual chili pepper and not black pepper.
24:05Chili peppers use capsaicin as giving them their spice, which is much more like a burning heat.
24:10It is the last ingredient, so it might just be like a very small amount on the back end.
24:14Let's find out what this bitterness is.
24:16Ah, I was right.
24:17Orange peel.
24:18Yeah, of all the teriyakis we've tried, I like this one the best.
24:22They're making stuff the right way.
24:23This is a very clean product.
24:26Old Trapper Hot and Spicy Beef Jacky.
24:29Okay, this one's encouraging.
24:30Chili flakes and chili seeds.
24:32My guess is it will be quite spicy.
24:35Cross cut is nice.
24:36Fall apart texture.
24:39That's good.
24:40This has some really nice heat to it.
24:42If you're going to get any beefy, it's going to be in that very first bite before the heat takes
24:45over.
24:46I like that level of chew.
24:47The chewiness along with the heat is so much more what beef jerky to me is supposed to be.
24:53The spice definitely like gives it a different flavor profile than the rest.
24:57It's not over the top.
24:58I can taste the beef.
24:59It's got a nice saltiness.
25:01It has just enough sweetness to support the spice.
25:04Got a little bit of acid there.
25:06This is much more balanced.
25:07Chilis for me help accentuate the flavor, the natural flavor of most foods.
25:12I would buy this.
25:13I like this.
25:13Oh, Old Trapper, our friend.
25:16Okay.
25:16Well, if I'm going to buy Old Trapper, I'm going to buy the one covered in chili.
25:19Vinegar.
25:20There's that acid I was talking about.
25:21They don't even list chilis on here.
25:24It's all under flavorings.
25:26Ballsy.
25:26The flavorings, I think as long as there's no allergens, they don't have to list them.
25:30If they're a certain percentage or less.
25:32So this is naturally smoked.
25:33The smoke and the chili enhance each other.
25:36There's a lot of layers of flavor that make it really appealing on your palate.
25:39That's why, you know, chefs will often smoke their chilis.
25:42It's a pretty good product.
25:43I am a fan of this one, yeah.
25:45No man's land.
25:47Hot beef jerky.
25:48This looks like another spicy one.
25:50Look how dry that is.
25:51This is the driest that we've seen so far.
25:53It's probably also not going to be a sugar bomb.
25:57Pretty good beef flavor.
25:58It's not nearly as sweet as most of the ones we've eaten today.
26:01Texture has got some chew to it.
26:02This is very toothy.
26:03We've got to work for it a little bit, but it's not tough.
26:06This is an example of using less sugar and how it kind of crystallizes the protein differently.
26:12This has like no sugar, no moisture.
26:15I don't think there's any tenderizers in here.
26:17The exact opposite of the meat candy.
26:19Like a texture with a more natural product.
26:21I like the heat and the acid combination.
26:23The chili flake isn't prominent.
26:24It's just there.
26:25It's got a brightness to it that maybe comes from vinegar,
26:28which would give it that kind of like lighter brown color.
26:30The flavor is like 9 out of 10 for me.
26:32I like it.
26:33My guess is this is a small producer.
26:36No man's land.
26:38Slow dried old fashioned jerky.
26:41There are no preservatives, so they are drying it pretty far.
26:45I love how they come out with it right away.
26:47Liquid smoke added.
26:48They're not trying to bull anybody.
26:50The only sweetener outside what might be in the soy sauce is honey.
26:55I love that.
26:55It's got spice.
26:56It's got salt.
26:57It's not too sweet.
26:58I kind of like where it's at.
26:59When you can get 17 grams of protein out of a one ounce serving,
27:03that's concentrated beef.
27:05Most of the other ones have been like eight grams of protein.
27:08Does it look the best?
27:09No.
27:10Is it going to actually be decent for you?
27:12Yeah.
27:13Zero preservatives.
27:14It doesn't need it.
27:15It's got no water in it.
27:16Nothing can grow in this.
27:17It's literally just a hundred percent beef almost.
27:20I can get behind this.
27:23Jack Link's Peppered Beef Jerky.
27:26We're back to a high moisture, softer jerky here.
27:29Back to Thickville.
27:30Back to Sugar Station.
27:32I don't even know what I'm saying.
27:34It almost has like a waxy look to it.
27:36It also has that really commercial beef jerky smell.
27:40This is not something I would want to buy.
27:42You don't taste any beef whatsoever.
27:45I don't like the texture.
27:46It's both soft and a bit mealy.
27:48Waxy is definitely the way I would describe that.
27:51Back to that kind of like translucency.
27:53You can see through like the meat has been crystallized.
27:56Not as sweet as many of them.
27:58The aftertaste is kind of like generically sweet and like a little bit of black pepper, I would say.
28:04The black pepper heat is kind of good.
28:06I could eat this and be happy.
28:08Jack, word!
28:09Yeah, I mean, not surprising.
28:11It's fine.
28:12Again, best seller.
28:13I like this better than the other Jack Links.
28:15All the same as everything else, just with more black pepper.
28:18The fact that they're calling it a pepper jerky, it should be like powerful.
28:21I want to see like caked with fresh black pepper on there.
28:24This tastes like black pepper, kids.
28:26Black pepper is just another way to give you heat rather than to get it from chili pepper.
28:31It's going to be a bit of a bite, but not like fiery heat to it.
28:34I think this is popular for a reason.
28:36I think it's very good.
28:37Nothing special.
28:37I think this is something that most people would like.
28:42Crave Salt and Pepper Wagyu Beef Jacky.
28:45I actually really like the looks of this one.
28:47Very low moisture, but still soft.
28:50It also has like a lot of like aromatics you can see on the surface.
28:54Can't taste any beef.
28:56Lots of vinegar notes.
28:57This might be an uncured product.
28:59No fat at all.
29:00A little bit soft, but not mushy.
29:02Very chewable.
29:03Not brittle at all.
29:04It's sweeter than I want, but I don't hate it.
29:06It's got a bit of pepper and other aromatics on it.
29:08It's pretty balanced.
29:10Oh, this is the Crave.
29:11Grass-fed Wagyu beef.
29:13So we're going back to Wagyu beef, which is somewhat ironic because there's no fat in this product at all.
29:18This is not gas station.
29:19If you have to eat Wagyu jerky, have the Snake River Wagyu jerky.
29:24But if you don't, just have something else.
29:25I think it's fine.
29:26Yeah, it's fine.
29:27Now let's see which jerkies our experts liked the most and the least.
29:32That was a lot of jerky.
29:33Probably my favorite would be broken biltong.
29:35You could taste the beef.
29:36There was fat present.
29:37It was dry, but moist.
29:40I like it.
29:40It's kind of fun to eat and flavorful.
29:42And then spicy.
29:43I like the Old Trapper, hot and spicy.
29:45It had some good heat to it.
29:46The big chili flake evenly distributed on the jerky.
29:50Great balance of beef flavor with nice umami backing.
29:54The chew on it was perfect.
29:57Something I could definitely see myself snacking on on a road trip.
30:00I did like the No Man's Land.
30:01That is very toothy, a very traditional, very slow-dried jerky.
30:06It tasted exactly like the ingredients on the ingredients list were listed.
30:12And that makes me trust the product.
30:14There was a lot of not so good jerky we ate today.
30:17The least faves would be the Jack Link's ones.
30:20Very generic, kind of what you'd expect from a mass-produced jerky.
30:23Kind of soft and mealy.
30:25We tried two different versions and they kind of taste the same,
30:27even though they're supposed to be different products.
30:29I wasn't into the original Think Jerky grass-fed beef.
30:34All you tasted was sugar and sweetener and the spices were all kind of muddled.
30:39They were trying to project a healthfulness,
30:41but then there was just way too many ingredients,
30:43way too many claims on the back for me.
30:45I wasn't a big fan of the Archer jerky.
30:47Very mushy texture.
30:49Just wasn't as palatable.
30:51It was going for like a premium branding, but the flavor and texture weren't there.
30:55And there was a lot of strange ingredients in it.
30:57And then there's the Good & Gathered, the Target brand original beef jerky.
31:03If you're going to get the beef jerky from Target and you have to buy their brand,
31:07get the teriyaki, but stay away from the original.
31:10You know, over the last few years, we've seen explosion in beef jerky.
31:12Yes, jerky is a great source of protein compared to other snack foods,
31:17but it is also full of other ingredients.
31:20It should not be like something you're snacking on every day.
31:23So I'm buying things, I'm looking for good sourcing.
31:26So some sort of natural claim, no hormones, no antibiotics, organic when possible.
31:31The least amount of ingredients possible with the highest quality product you can get.
31:36The closer sugar is to the first ingredient, the softer that jerky is going to be.
31:41And the further down sugar is, the more toothy that jerky is going to be.
31:45And that way you can kind of tell what the consistency of that jerky is going to be
31:48without opening the bag.
31:49You could also buy a dehydrator, find a great recipe and make it very safely at home.
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