This stuff was sent to me by a friend from down south.
I really loved the peppery flavor it had. Good salt levels as well. The jerky itself was cut into long skinny strips, which made it easy to handle and eat. The meat was just a little brittle and hard to chew. Not that it wasn’t tender – it was just very hard/dried. Over all I enjoyed it though.
This product is pretty cool.
Spray on heat!
One or two squirts adds a nice, neutrals-flavored spice to any dish. I used it on leftover lasagna, pasta, pork tenderloin, and even in cocktails. I love it!
I highly recommend.
Chomps brand beef sticks are similar in size and style to Slim Jim brand jerky sticks, but they are a bite more tender and less grainy. A nicer quality. My wife picked these up for me as a gift, and I liked them.
“Cracked Pepper & Sea Salt” (venison) and “Hoppin Jalepeno” (grass fed beef) were my favorite flavors.
Worth a shot!
I’m not a huge coffee drinker. I prefer espresso when I look for my coffee fix – typically in the morning after a run. Death Wish, claiming to be the strongest whole bean coffee on the market, seemed like a natural segway for me from the strength of espresso.
I liked it. My wife’s uncle made it for me in a French press, and it was nice. Not over-the-top strong just for the sake of caffeine, not bitter, and it had a nice flavor that wasn’t overwhelming. I’d love to try it in a ristretto form as a shot of thick, potent espresso.
Not too bad for a store brand jerky. I tried the teriyaki turkey flavor.
Predictably, it was a little brittle and dry, but once you got going, it became tender.
I would buy it again.
I recently got paid $500 to try out this new protein and meal delivery service called Karv Meals. My duties were to (1) post an unboxing video on Instagram with some messaging and tags; (2) post a photo on Instagram with the same; and (3) provide the company with four high rez photos of the products for them to use as they see fit. How could I say no? I’m still going to be honest, so why not?
Anyway, they sent me a SHIT TON of food. Here’s the unboxing video:
“I couldn’t believe how much meat they fit into my little tiny box!” Take that line however you want…
But here is the listing of what they sent, in case you didn’t catch it all in the video:
A few of my favorites from the pics I took are below: pork chops, as well as beef pinwheels.
My wife cooked up the pork chops in a classic lemongrass flavored Vietnamese preparation, with sliced veggies, herbs and pickled items on a bed of vermicelli noodles.
I defrosted the shaved steak and made steak sandwiches out of them, with American cheese, onions and poblano peppers on onion rolls…
Overall I am very happy with this experience. It was easy money, and an honest review is that I liked the quality of the meats I tried so far. Give this service a shot if you are on the lookout for something new.
Misen sent me this really beautiful three blade set to try out here at the food lab.
Here’s a short video of me using each one. I was particularly impressed with the bread knife. It went through the baguette on one pass – no sawing back and forth!
The blades are comfortable in my hands, and they have a nice weight to them. The handle colors are also available in grey and blue. Check them out HERE.
I definitely recommend there for the home cook. They are a great quality for a very fair price.
COUPON CODE ALERT!
Use code FIRST10 for 10% off your first order at Monnier Woodcraft!
I stumbled upon Monnier Woodcraft when I was poking around Instagram.
I was really blown away by some of the designs Clint was making. There are some really intricate patterns and genuine artistry in these beautiful cutting boards and chopping blocks.
I followed him and soon enough I found myself liking and commending on almost every post he made.
It turns out that we have a lot in common, especially our love of STEAK!
A few weeks later, he messaged me and asked if I would like one. FUCK YES I WOULD! I love how Instagram brings people together.
He made me one of his really amazing brick designs that made my jaw drop, and shipped it out to me.
Each block comes ready to rock, and with a nice letter from Clint and simple instructions for how to care of the piece.
I love the metal emblem of his brand on the side too. Really classy, nice looking stuff.
I was so excited to tell you guys about this gorgeous craftsmanship that I haven’t even used it yet. I can’t wait. I’m sure you’ll be seeing it in tons of my home cooked steak pics in the future.
I discovered Perdinci Meats at a food show in the Javitz center. I contacted their representative because I was really blown away by the quality of their meats, especially the dried, cured pork loin, or lonza. They sent me a variety pack of sample meats, including salami, guanciale (pork cheek), pork belly, that delicious lonza, and some softer spreadables like nduja and finocchiola.
These babies were tucked away in my fridge for quite a while, and I was happy to see that they held up just fine and didn’t spoil with proper storage.
The lonza is still my favorite, but all of the other products are excellent. I highly recommend this stuff.
GIVEAWAY ALERT!!! Read on to get all the details!
Grass Roots represents a nice, new and refreshing take on custom delivery meat boxes. They’re a farmers cooperative – meaning they’re a group of small, local, family-run farms who have pooled their products together in a sort of “virtual farmers market,” so to speak, where they sell their proteins. I know, I know… My more avid and beef-educated readers are pounding their fists into their desks in protest, shouting “but Johnny, you told us already that 97% of the 619,000 beef farms in this country are small, family owned operations with an average of 50 head of cattle!” True!
But here’s how Grass Roots is different: They’ve set themselves up as a very niche virtual farmers market, catering to the increasing market demand for grass-fed beef, pastured chicken and turkey, and forested pork. I only tried their beef (with the exception of the jowl bacon and deli ham), so I’ll speak directly to that for a moment.
While all beef is technically “grass-fed” (which can be a confusing turn of phrase), all of Grass Roots’ beef is 100% grass-FINISHED as well. That means no grains are in their diet. They also state on their website that their beef is GMO free, which would make sense, since no grass contains GMO that I know of. Grass Roots cattle are also never given antibiotics or growth hormones. One interesting thing I noticed is that when you order their ground beef, it is sourced from a single animal.
So Grass Roots contacted me and asked if I’d feature their products in exchange for a $100 credit to make my own box. I accepted! Here’s what I ordered:
Everything arrived vacuum sealed and frozen, packed in a really nice box that even contained a tote bag and some dry ice.
Here’s everything nicely labeled for you:
My order went over the $100 credit by about $12 or so, but I figured it was worth it to try everything that looked interesting to me. The first thing I cooked was their jowl bacon.
I loved it. It had a nice texture and a great flavor. Naturally, it went well with a cheeseburger.
But I did preserve the jowl fat for a later date, and even used some to fry up the onions for the top of the burger.
Waste nothing!
I threw the jowl bacon on some hot dogs too. Amazing. I split griddled them in some of that jowl fat first, as you might’ve imagined.
“Garnished with jowl bacon.”
I used some of that jowl fat to cook up a pair of their steaks too – a strip and a rib eye. I have to say, I was really impressed with the quality. If healthy, grass-finished lean beef is what you’re after, then this is definitely the place to get it.
I simply seasoned with salt and pepper, and seared these babies off in a pan with fresh garlic and rosemary.
Since the beef is lean and grass-finished, it cooks faster than usual, and you can go safely under, to somewhere between rare and medium rare.
I ate this with some wasabi, and it was perfect. I’m really looking forward to trying their sirloin, roasts, ribs, skirt and shanks. It’ll give me good reason to use my new Instant Pot.
Okay so the GIVEAWAY! Well, the giveaway is over now, but you can use code NEWYOU50 to get $50 off your first box!!!
And feel free to jump out to my Instagram post, like the photo, tag a friend in the comments, and follow both me and @GrassRootsCoop on Instagram!
