Favorite Beef Jerky Comparison - Best range trip snack

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LiveLife

LiveLife

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My typical range trip sessions last for several hours and while I try to have a hefty breakfast, I get hungry/munchy before I could return back to town for lunch/dinner and usually pack some kind of snacks and fluids but beef jerky tops my list for somewhat substantial source of energy.

Last year, wife and I made 30,000 mile coast-to-coast round trips for retirement and had a chance to taste test variety of meat snacks including beef/pork jerkies, beef sticks, and others that ranged from "Meh, don't buy that again" to "Wow, that's really good!".

For many recent years, Tillamook Teriyaki beef jerky was our primary beef jerky we kept around the house along with Golden Island Korean BBQ pork jerky our kids liked both from Costco but these are wife and my current favorites.

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Old Trapper Old Fashioned, Old Trapper Hot & Spicy, Kirkland Steak Strips, Lorissa's Organic Original

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Old Trapper Old Fashioned - This jerky has the best "traditional" beef jerky flavor with smokiness that immediately hits your nose with dry yet nice "chewy" texture and flavor that is very satisfying.

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Old Trapper Hot & Spicy - For some reason one by one, manufacturers stopped making hot and spicy jerky. After the initial smokiness, this jerky provides expected hot and spicy flavor that fills your mouth and warms the stomach. Hot & Spicy makes your mouth water, which enhances the flavor that much more.

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Kirkland Steak Strips - Although "Hickory Smoke Flavor" is listed in the ingredients, compared to Old Trapper, is almost non-existent. The strips are double the thickness of Old Trapper and has tender texture. After a few chews, has more "steak" flavor than "beef jerky". If you are hiking/camping, these "Steak Strips" could easily become meal replacement along with some potato snacks.

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Lorissa's Organic Original - I bought this for wife with some reservations but other than lack of smokiness, surprisingly has very clean beefy flavor that is solid. Premium beef jerky that is just that, dried beef. Although it contains soy sauce and pineapple powder, they did not present themselves.

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I prefer to make my own but it's really addictive and it gets expensive buying all those eye of round roasts just for snacks. I use a variation of this recipe. I skip the paprika and add red pepper flakes and 1 level tsp of pink curing salt per 5 lbs of meat and then dehydrate it at 165° until it passes the rip test. It's pretty delicious.
 
Old trapper is the best around here. Spendy, though. I also buy Jack Link's Original or Peppered, but prefer Old Trapper. There are some boutique brands around here for $$$$$$$$$$ but I'm too poor to eat those.
 
1KPerDay said:
Old trapper is the best around here. Spendy, though. I also buy Jack Link's Original or Peppered, but prefer Old Trapper.
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I agree that Old Trapper is better than Jack Link's, Tillamook, Oberto and others.

Costco carries the 18 oz package for as I recall around $18.
 
Ah, I wish I had hours to spare on any given range day to the point where I would need a snack!

Store bought it’s usually Jack Links here, just because that’s what my wife buys and it’s soft enough for my kids to eat too.

But my favorite is home made, using grandpas recipe. Bonus if it’s venison.

Speaking of, I have some beef that I need to cut up and jerkify in the freezer.
 
Walkalong said:
I love beef/deer/etc jerky, but my old teeth do not, sigh, so I rarely buy it anymore.
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I got a jerky blaster for Christmas. I haven't used it yet but I have eaten jerky that was made with one and, because it uses ground beef, it's much easier on the teeth. My step father had the same dental issue so he resorted to the jerky blaster and it was pretty good. You can control the thickness of the strips better too so it all gets done at the same time. It's way cheaper than buying it.
 
Jack links or other gas station jerky will work, but I prefer good homemade jerky. I need to make a batch or two while beef is somewhat affordable. My M-I-L bought me a smoker for Christmas and I have not used it for that yet, it does do good ribs and pulled pork though.
 
I make my own using eye of round and a marinate I created trying to mimic Tillamook Teriyaki Jerky. It is Pineapple juice, lemon and lime juice and a bit of Worcestershire to avoid the traditional salt based marinates. I use a Masterbilt Smoker and Hickory chips to dry it. If you have the time to invest a smoker is a good investment.
 
I make my own. Some of the store-bought ones are pretty good, but very expensive, especially if you have two teenagers who love it. The yield is just about exactly 50%, and it's plenty simple to make if you have a dehydrator, so not too bad of a deal. London broil/top round works well, and that's usually about $7 or $8 pound at my main store these days.
 
Lorissas Korean bbq is pretty good. Jack link original or peppered is good. I can usually tell by the color how it'll be, I don't like the very fibrous dried up type, prefer it a little softer and red looking. I'm no jerky expert and I'm not a jerky snob but I know a good one when I bite it. I can say I'm not a fan of slim Jim's or any oberto jerky I've tried. Had some turkey jerky once...:barf:
 
troy fairweather said:
My favorite is the wild Bill's, Of course it's some of the most expensive commonly found jerky. Really wish I could find a similar recipe, tried a bunch but nothing comes close. I'd like to find a good Cajun recipe to. I'll eat all jerky tho lol.

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Beat me to it. The best jerky I've ever had. Most of the convenience stores in the NJ area growing up had a big jar on the counter and you could grab big sticks of this for about a buck a piece back in the 80s and 90s.

Mingua (Original) from KY is really good jerky. It's sliced super thin, but really good. The company says crumble up and put on pizza and salads.https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geKePdolFiTQMA8ENXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZANBMDYzNF8xBHNlYwNzcg--/RV=2/RE=1649546077/RO=10/RU=https://www.minguabeefjerky.com//RK=2/RS=LLlnbefT8Jt74pfQwB.gi15gAI4-

Striplings from middle GA is a good one too. It's second in line for best jerky ever. https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geK.D6olFijIoAoUtXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZANBMDYzNF8xBHNlYwNzcg--/RV=2/RE=1649546107/RO=10/RU=https://striplings.com//RK=2/RS=w4UVDkxymwoeJ1XbhjS3GxcP1oE-
 
LiveLife said:
My typical range trip sessions last for several hours and while I try to have a hefty breakfast, I get hungry/munchy before I could return back to town for lunch/dinner and usually pack some kind of snacks and fluids but beef jerky tops my list for somewhat substantial source of energy.
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While Jerky is a good snack food for range trips, the beef sticks can be used for lubrication in a pinch.........:rofl:
 
As long as we are waayyy off topic for THR , I offer this amusing story---

A long time ago I had a friend who ran a small butcher shop. He also worked as a fleet sales truck dealer and had lots of connections. This friend learned of an opportunity to make a quick and legitimate profit by drop shipping a large
quantity of Slim Jims to Japan. When the Slim Jim container arrived in Japan it ran afoul (pun coming...) of Japanese customs/food/agricultural regulations. This resulted in the container sitting in a quarantine area , unrefrigerated , for several months in the Japanese summer. By the time the issue was resolved the once valuable cargo had to be removed by a hazmat team.

The profit was not realized.
 
Waveski said:
Enough sodium to kill a horse.
Not for me , not any more …
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4-6g of added sugar, too--not exactly a healthy choice for many of us.

Home/self made is probably far, far better for us all around. But, the effort required cuts into the time we have for shooting, reloading and the like.

I will admit to having shifted towards making carne seca, which is good for a snack as well as for breakfast. I've taken to using Smoked paprika and ground dried Ancho pepper in mine. But, i may have a passing addiction to the food of Sonora, too--if with a Texas twist.

Mind, such things give me an urge to carry a .38super and have a Pocket 1903 near to hand--so use caution, as your mileage may vary.
 
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