House of Jerky - Elk Snack Sticks

House of Jerky became one of my early favorites for beef jerky. Having tried all of their jerky varieties, I found their flavor outstanding.

I didn't realize they offered meat sticks until Janie, the president of the company, sent me some sample sticks. I held on to them for quite some time, until I got around to creating a special website just for meat sticks.

These "Elk Snack Sticks", are of course made from elk, but they also contain beef.

The flavor is quite unlike meat sticks from other brands, but I'm not sure if that's due to the Elk meat, or just something unique with House of Jerky.

It's a very smooth flavor, not very spicy, though I do pick up a light spicy bite. I can detect some garlic, and a black pepper aftertaste. They're salty, just like most meat sticks, but not too terribly so.




For the most part, it has a very meaty texture. The skin does have a tougher papery chew, but it doesn't really get in the way. Overall, the chewing is about similar to dry salami, though flavorwise, I think I prefer the dry salami.

But if you're curious about elk-based meat sticks, these are certainly a worthy buy.

Interestingly, House of Jerky doesn't sell these Elk Snack Sticks by themselves. It seems you have to buy them through one of their exotic meats "Jerky Variety Packs".

Visit House of Jerky online...
http://www.houseofjerky.net/

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by Steve Johnson ~ Monday, June 22, 2009 1 comments

Buffalo Bills - Extra Smokey Beef Sticks

If you haven't already tried these Extra Smokey Beef Sticks from Buffalo Bills, you might wanna. They're are indeed "extra" smokey.

They have a great smokey flavor to them, and a somewhat spicy flavor as well, though I don't see anything in the ingredients list suggesting anything spicy. This even has some slight chocolatey notes to it, perhaps indicating something roasted, I dunno.

Unlike other meat sticks, these are very meaty. I mean, it's almost like eating a stick of salami, where you can see the meat fibers pulling away as you bite off a piece. In fact, this has a rather dry taste to it, kinda like salami.


My only "beef" with these beef sticks is they're rather salty. They're not too bad in the first several bites, but when you towards the end, the salt wears me down. I need some swigs of drink, and about 10 minutes of rest, before attacking another stick.

But mind you, these are beef sticks for real beef stick lovers. They're extra thick, the same width as a wine bottle cork, and about five inches in length. They might actually make a great cure for a hangover.

Comparison

I brought a bag of these beef sticks to a get-together that my friends and I attended last weekend. It was at the Long Shadow Ranch Winery in Temecula, where they have a "bonfire" every Saturday night. Another friend brought several sticks of Slim Jims in a variety of flavors.

I handed out these Buffalo Bills, and people thought they were pretty good.

But when they sampled the Slim Jims, they about ralphed. No one else could finish their Slim Jim samples. One guy said it was eating "meat flavored toilet paper". I mean, it actually did feel as if you were eating a chunk of toilet paper (not that I know from experience, mind you).

After the Slim Jims, my friends really loved the Buffalo Bills.

Funny how the best things in life are not readily available. The worst stuff is always easily found at a convenience store, but the better stuff you have to order online. It's just one of those things.

Get your Buffalo Bills Extra Smokeys here...

http://www.choochoorsnacks.com/

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by Steve Johnson ~ Tuesday, June 9, 2009 0 comments

Buffalo Bills - Long Shots

Meat snacks have been my favorite snack food for a long time, as evidenced by my Beef Jerky review blog. So as I've been writing that blog, beef jerky companies have sent me lots of free jerky to write about, and in addition, beef sticks.

I never created a blog just for beef sticks, and didn't really want to mix them into my beef jerky blog, so I've been writing about them here on Junk Food Blog.

These "Long Shots" are from Buffalo Bills, a meat snack brand based out of Lebanon, PA.

Beef sticks seem to take up the "dark side" of meat snacks compared to beef jerky, which the industry has managed to paint in a healthier light as being low fat, and low carb. But beef sticks are like sausage, where you love to eat them, but don't want to know what goes in 'em.

Part of the bad rap that beef sticks, in my opinion, comes from the God-awful Slim Jims. How that brand ever got to be #1 in the beef stick market is beyond me. Honestly, they're like chewing wads of toilet paper, but with a meaty flavor.

These "Long Shots" from Buffalo Bills are perhaps the closest thing they have to a Slim Jim in that they're a the same thin and long shape, and they seem to have a similar "toilet paper" chewing texture, except I think Buffalo Bills has managed to shred the toilet paper into a finer pulp for easier chewing.

And these are beef sticks, not meat sticks, in that they only use cattle carcass.


Buffalo Bills offers several varieties of beef sticks, in fact I reviewed their "Extra Smokies" on this blog, and found those to be very good. Very meaty, very smoky, with some slight chocolatey notes, and chews very similarly to hard salami. If you're looking for a good beef stick, try those.

But if you're someone who just really likes Slim Jims, then you might want to check out these Long Shots, I think they're a tad better than Slim Jims.

Otherwise, get those Extra Smokies instead.

Visit Buffalo Bills online at: http://www.choochoorsnacks.com/

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by Steve Johnson ~ Monday, June 8, 2009 0 comments

Contact Me

If you'd like submit a meat snack for review, or just contact me for some reason...

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by Steve Johnson ~ Sunday, June 7, 2009 4 comments

Riteway Meat Company - Pepperoni Tid-Bits

The cool thing about the Internet is that it lets us city-slicker geek types gain access to junk food found exclusively in the rural areas of America's back country.

That is, if someone in the rural area of America's back country is set up for e-commerce.

Riteway Meat Company is one such entity. Basically a butcher shop serving local ranchers and hunters in the small town of Dundee, OR. They sell beef jerky and other meat snacks though their website. Junk foodies like me living in the suburbia of Southern California can now enjoy processed meat munchies the way real, honest-to-God, down to earth folks make it, without having to drive a thousand miles to get there.

Actually, I didn't buy these Pepperoni Tid-Bits. They sent it to me for free, after I ordered a few packages of their beef jerky. I didn't tell them that I publish food blogs, so maybe they're just really hospitable, friendly, country folks. Anyways, I figured I had to return the favor by giving them some free pub here on JFB.

These do have the flavor of pepperoni, but a little more mild than what I'm accustomed to getting from atop of pizza or italian sub sandwich. They're quite flavorful, rather salty, and smoky. They don't have any of the papery chewing texture that a Slim Jim has, but rather quite sausage-like.




These "tid-bits" are named such because Riteway sells a longer variety, at 5 feet in length. You actually buy it that long.

So I'm guessing these tid-bits are like the ends they chop off after measuring out 5 feet of meat rope.

The size and shape of these Pepperoni Tid-Bits are quite comparable to a package of Little Smokies, except these are a little more stiff. I think they'd still do quite well simmering in a Crock Pot of BBQ sauce, or cooking in a pan of beans.

Riteway prices a package of tid-bits at $8.99 a pound. The package depicted above weighed 0.68 pounds, for a price of $6.11.

I recommend a lightly flavored pale ale, or a cream ale, to go with these.

Visit Riteway Meat Company online...

http://ritewaymeat.com

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by Steve Johnson ~ 0 comments