Knowing how to eat jerky may seem like an oxymoron, since afterall jerky is a snack food, and snack foods are meant to pop into your mouth like a conveyor belt as your mind is focusing on something else, be it a television show, or driving a car, or typing on a computer.
But when you have a package of really good jerky, something you paid a premium for, should you woof it down like a German Shepherd, or should you appreciate each bite like the Queen of England?
It’s good to start off with a clean palate. When I evaluate a new brand or flavor of jerky, I like to take a swig of lemon water. I’ll get a bottle of water, squirt some lemon juice into it (you can buy juice from the store in those yellow plastic lemon bottles). The lemon seems to help clean up palate a little. You can also use a dry red wine too.
Take a bite sized piece, but don’t chew it. First suck on it and try to identify the very first flavor. Often times it’ll be a sweet flavor. You might notice some other seasonings. Some jerky have very little surface flavor, while others have tons. If you were to chew right away, the surface flavors will mix into the chewing flavor, and you won’t know what flavor came from where.
Good jerky should have a good deal of surface flavor. If a jerky beckons you to enjoy its surface flavors first, you’ll have a jerky that you can enjoy one piece at a time, and appreciate for its complexity. It also helps to suck on a piece for first for 15 seconds or more just to soften it and make chewing easier. Thus, it helps to have a good deal of surface flavor.
Once you’ve sucked on a piece for about 15 seconds, go ahead and start chewing. Notice any change in flavor? Usually, the flavors inside the meat are different than what you tasted on the surface. By sucking on the surface flavors first for 15 seconds you’ve established something to compare the chewing flavors with.
In the middle of chewing, pause for a moment to suck out some of the juices and try to identify what you in there. Usually you’ll taste the salt, and some faint traces of garlic or onion, and the natural meat flavors.
Now while chewing down on the jerky, notice what flavors leach out as your teeth compresses the meat. This is the marinade. A lot of jerky brands use soy sauce, others use worcestershire, some use vinegar, and others just salt.
When I start chewing on a piece of jerky, I try to find the natural meat flavors. Sometimes the natural meat flavors are so strong it’s pretty obvious. But other times they are so faint, I have to do a taste comparison between the surface and the chewing in order to find them. Some brands of jerky simply offer no natural meat flavors.
Note that as you continue chewing a piece of jerky, some flavors will wear off. The sweet is often the first flavor to wear off. By the time you get to latter part of chewing, just before you’re ready to swallow, the saltiness is often all that remains. In fact, with jerky marinated in soy sauce, the soy sauce tends to become more defined in the latter part of chewing, and that’s only because the other flavors wore off.
Some flavors tends to build up intensity after eating several pieces. Garlic, salt, black pepper, and chile peppers are known to do this. Often times a jerky is labeled as a “Black Pepper” variety, but doesn’t really offer much black pepper flavor initially. However, after eating several pieces, you’ll notice a moderate to strong black pepper aftertaste.
It also helps to pause after eating several pieces, just to let the aftertaste wear off. Take another drink of water, and set the bag of jerky down, and let five to ten minutes pass by. Now, eat another piece. You’ll notice more flavors show up on your palate once the aftertastes have worn off. High amounts of salt or black pepper will actually numb the tongue to where you can’t taste much of anything else.
Also take note of the chewing texture. Good jerky should feel like a piece of real meat, albeit dry. But once you have a piece chewed down to a soft mass, it should chew and feel like a piece of steak, ranging anywhere from medium to well done. Often times the mass-market brands of jerky will feel crumbly, while others will feel gummy, like eating a piece of “fruit roll-up”. Some brands incorporate certain ingredients designed to make jerky very soft, and as a result makes the chewing texture feel mushy.
Finally, as you’ve gone through most of the bag decide if you feel as if you have to have more. Jerky is a snack food, and snack foods should satisfy your craving to eat. It’s similar to potato chips, where once you eat one you can’t help but to eat more. If you don’t feel inspired to keep reaching for another piece of jerky, it means that jerky didn’t really fulfill that urge.
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