I’ve been hitting the jerky hard lately, as you might have noticed. The reason why is because I have a sack of jerky packages and meat sticks from a recent food show that I attended. All these companies were giving out samples, and I grabbed as many as I could carry without ripping the ligaments from my arms. Slowly but surely I am getting through them all, one by one.
This is a unique meat protein: alpaca. It tastes like any other beef, chicken or pork stick. A little less greasy than some. Not grainy, good smoke flavor without too much casing skin. I liked it. It’s similar to some of the ones I tried from “Buffalo Bob’s” – unique proteins like gator, kangaroo, etc.
Anyway this one is pretty good. I still like the flat sticks from Buffalo Bob’s better, in terms of exotic protein snack sticks and jerkies. I think this was 50 calories based on an online search (nutritional info was not printed on the individual wrapper – likely on the multi-pack box though).
I’ve come across Superior Farms lamb products a few times at Foodservice shows and conventions. One time, I tried their lamb bacon, and I was completely blown away. I liked it better than pork bacon! I reached out to them recently, to see if they’d be okay with sending me some of their lamb bacon so that I could properly feature it in a post for you guys, to expose you to this delicious protein. I was very happy to hear back that they were interested! And I was blown away when I received this massive hunk of lamb belly in the mail one day:
Not only was I excited, but I was also scared, for with great pounds of bacon comes great responsibility. This thing weighed as much as my leg, so I had to make sure I gave it the proper respect it deserved. I figured that the best way to do this was to prepare it in several ways. I channeled my inner butcher, the part of me that still recalls my profession from a past life in the late 1800’s.
I made five different cuts: (1) thick chunks for stewing and braising; (2) thick slab strips for steakhouse style grilled bacon; (3) medium thickness slices for lettuce wraps, candying and baking flat; (4) thin slices for breakfast, sandwiches and burgers; and (5) diced into pancetta, or “lambcetta.” See below (thin slices not featured here):
I kept some cuts aside for immediate use. That night, my wife made a really amazing bucatini carbonara with some of the lamb pancetta. The mild game flavor of the lamb bacon was the perfect pairing for the earthy flavors of the aged cheese and egg yolk used in the carbonara. And the soft, creamy rendered fat from the lamb belly was pure gold. Here’s what the dish looked like:
The next dish my wife made was a lamb bacon, egg and cheese sandwich on a Trufflist-infused everything biscuit. She used the thinly sliced lamb bacon for this one. Awesome!
Next: Thick cut, steakhouse style bacon, made of lamb…
Oh yeah baby. That shit was delicious.
I actually prepared this two ways: one slow roasted on a hibachi, and one on a cast iron grill pan.
Both had their benefits. The roasted style was more evenly cooked, with nicely rendered and crisp fat. The grill pan left the meat more juicy with a harder crisp and softer, more gelatinous inside.
For the final preparation, we braised some with boiled eggs and molasses; a traditional clay pot vessel Vietnamese dish. Typically made with pork, we swapped it for lamb.
Needless to say, I’m really happy with this product. I hope to push it in MY BUTCHER SHOP someday, or at least keep buying it for home use.
I took this bag of jerky down at the airport while my wife and I were waiting for a delayed flight.
It was a bit tough, unfortunately. I think much of the meat was flank or skirt, which is fine, but it just wasn’t very tender and the fat didn’t soften up too much. It was kinda dry too, and made my jaw muscles hurt to tear and chew at it so much.
Anyway, I’ll carry the rest of this over from my Biltong USA review as well, just so you can see the pics and get the full context:
When my wife and I went to Savannah, we saw this sign and absolutely had to investigate.
It turns out they were selling a lot of Buffalo Bob’s products, and I’ve pretty much tried every single one of them already.
I was somewhat bummed until I saw two other meat snack brands that I hadn’t tried yet. The first was Biltong USA, and the second was this brand, Horton’s, which was local out of Georgia.
When my wife and I went to Savannah, we saw this sign and absolutely had to investigate.
It turns out they were selling a lot of Buffalo Bob’s products, and I’ve pretty much tried every single one of them already.
I was somewhat bummed until I saw two other meat snack brands that I hadn’t tried yet. The first was Biltong USA, and the second was Horton’s, a local brand out of Georgia.
I had always been curious about Biltong, a popular African meat snack that is similar to beef jerky, only sliced differently. As you can see it is lived in such a way that makes for a more tender eating experience than many styles of jerky.
I really liked this product, and will definitely be buying it again in any flavors I can find. This one was garlic flavored. Delicious.
My wife and I stopped in this nice Italian joint for a quick meal. We kept it light here, and shared a meat and cheese board, along with a pasta dish.
Finocchiona, mortadella, cooked prosciutto, taleggio and another kind of cheese that I currently can’t remember. All were great, though I expected the finocchiona to be more like a roasted pork roll as opposed to a salami. Five items for $25.
The pasta was awesome. It was pricey at $36, but there was enough to share. Squid ink linguini with Maryland lump crab.
Before cheese:
After cheese:
This reminded me of Christmas Eve dinner with my family. Mom always made bucatini pasta with blue claw crabs that we caught ourselves at the docks along the Great South Bay. Ours was usually spicy as fuck though. This one did have a slight kick with some jalapeños, so cheers to that. I’d eat this dish every day if I could.
The reason I also have this marked off as a product review is because you can buy their uncooked pasta to go from a counter up front. My wife brought home some squid ink pappardelle once and it was incredible. Really nicely made, not too fishy, and great texture when cooked to al dente. She made it with prawns in a lobster sauce.
GIOVANNI RANA PASTIFICIO & CUCINA
Chelsea Market
75 9th Ave
New York, NY 10011
I found Duke’s Meats at a food show/convention and I was blown away by the flavor and quality of these beef snacks.
These are their “shorty sausages,” and they may look like standard jerky sticks but they’re 1000x better. No oily, waxy, greasy, skin-wrapped feel. No overly salted taste. No over the top spices to mask the terrible quality of the meat inside. This is all delicious!
The original has a mild spice to it, and the hatch green chili has a slight kick of bright, fresh green that will wake up your taste buds and have you craving more. I highly recommend these babies. In fact I think I’ll be getting some more very soon.
I came across Think Jerky at a food convention. They sent me a package of five flavors to sample. Sriracha Honey (turkey), Ginger Orange (beef), Sweet Chipotle (beef), Thanksgiving (turkey) and Classic (beef).
I was really impressed with the texture and quality of the meat in these babies. Very tender.
Sriracha Honey tastes exactly how it sounds – a punch of heat, tempered back by some sweet. Very nice. It’s no wonder that is their best seller.
My favorite, though, was the ginger orange. It was such a nice divergence from common jerky flavors. A slight hint of citrus and the bright bite of ginger – I really loved it.
Another uncommon jerky was the Thanksgiving pack. And yes, it’s turkey jerky. You really get a full helping of those classic Thanksgiving herbs and flavors like thyme, sage and garlic. Lots of times turkey jerky doesn’t actually TASTE like turkey. It just tastes like “substance.” But Think Jerky’s turkey jerky actually tastes like poultry. It’s really nice.
Outer Limits sent me an awesome four pack of their hot sauces to try out: Habanero, Jalapeño Habanero, Jalapeño Lime and Serrano Cilantro.
My favorite is the Habenero sauce. It’s really great for things like tacos or for spicing up pasta dishes. The heat is a nice up-front pop that doesn’t linger or kill your taste buds.
If heat isn’t your thing, then go with the Serrano Cilantro sauce. It delivers a nice, fresh, herby green kick without any of the sweat that you normally get from a hot sauce.
