Timberline Smokehouse - Mountain Man Timber Sticks

Timberline Smokehouse is a relatively new brand of meat snacks, appearing on the market first in August of 2008. The brand is owned by Timberline Smokehouse, Inc., based out of Johnstown, PA.

Adam Thomas, who runs the company, also runs another business called "Thomas Smoked Meats", a smokehouse and store located in the same town, which he's been running since 1998. He's been offering meat sticks and jerky under that brand, and still does today, but only locally since that business only has state inspection approval.

He wanted to go national with his meat snacks, and so created this new business Timberline Smokehouse. Timberline's products are manufactured by other meat processors that have USDA inspection approval, but using the same recipes that Thomas uses for his Thomas Smoked Meats brand.

These "Mountain Man Timber Sticks" are marketed as beef sticks, but are actually a combination of beef and pork.




They have a strong tangy flavor, very much like vinegar. There's no vinegar mentioned in the ingredients, but I think it's from the lactic acid starter culture, commonly used in many sausages.

It's quite mild, I don't sense anything spicy.

The saltiness is well noticed, but not overpowering.

It doesn't really have much of a meat flavor, likely due to the stronger vinegar flavor and saltiness.

They're slightly chewy, with a meaty texture. I find them moist, comparable to salami. The skin is a little chewy.

And they're not very greasy like other sticks can be.

Overall, I really like the flavor of these sticks, noted by that tangy, vinegar-like flavor. They have a meaty chewing texture, not too soft, not too hard. Good sticks!

Buy these online from Timberline Smokehouse:
http://www.timberlinesmokehouse.com/

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by Steve Johnson ~ Thursday, July 23, 2009 0 comments

Buffalo Bills Ole Smokies - Big Buffalo

Buffalo Bills has been a favorite brand of mine, mostly due to their wide varieties of meat snacks, including at least four lines of jerky, and several lines of meat sticks.

When I wrote reviews of their jerky, the company sent me samples of their meat sticks, but I wasn't able to review them right away, since I was still planning to build a separate website to review meat sticks. It took me several months to build this site, but now that I'm here, on with the reviews...

These "Big Buffalo" sticks are thicker than most meat sticks, about the thickness of a cigar, and about a foot long.

The package is stamped with a date "Jul 2009", so it seems I'm at the tail end of freshness here.

These sticks have a very soft feel. In fact, they feel rather mushy.

Taking a bite from one of these sticks reveals the same, it's very mushy. It's almost like eating a clump of split pea soup paste straight from the can. Or perhaps, it's comparable to what "buffalo pâté" might be like. It's a very smooth texture, almost as smooth as a meat version of Gerber baby food. The only thing that allows me to handle this Big Buffalo stick is the skin, which keeps that pasty meat from my fingers.

These sticks also contain a good deal of fat, because the roof of my mouth is getting coated with fat, or lard, or whatever it is.

Again, I'll condition that review with the fact that these sticks have reached their "best by" date, so perhaps a fresh stick is much more like a true meat stick.




These sticks don't really taste like meat. They're salty, they have some spiciness to it, a bit of smokiness, and that's about it. The taste is comparable to most meat sticks, but just very mushy and pasty.

On the plus side, they don't leave my fingers oily or wet. They're very clean handling.

If you'd like to try one of these Ole Smokies Big Buffalo, visit Buffalo Bills at...

http://www.bbjerky.com/

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by Steve Johnson ~ Wednesday, July 8, 2009 0 comments

House of Jerky - Buffalo Snack Sticks

Janie at House of Jerky sent me this package of Buffalo Snack Sticks just last week, after writing a review of her Elk Snack Sticks based on a really old package.

So thankfully for her, I can write a review of these sticks based on what you'd actually get. But I also happen to have package of Buffalo Snack Sticks from several months ago as well. So, I can actually compare a new package with an old package.

Not being a true connoiseur of meat sticks, I never expected to taste the full flavor of beef, buffalo, elk, or any other meat, in a meat stick. For me, meat sticks are purely about snacking. Beef jerky, on other hand, is where you enjoy the flavor of meat, the chewing texture meat, along with the spices and marinades.

But like beef jerky, I know there are really good meat sticks, and really bad ones.

Having a couple sticks of House of Jerky's Buffalo Snack Sticks, these are definitely good meat sticks.

I tend to use Slim Jim as the base line of what a poor meat stick is like. Slim Jims are very oily, kinda bland in taste, and have a papery chewing texture.

By contrast, House of Jerky's Buffalo Snack Sticks are not really oily, but rather moist. They have a meaty flavor, though not necessarily resembling natural buffalo meat flavor. It's more similar to what you'd expect from a summer sausage, with a saltiness, and some spices, but still a "meaty" flavor.

In terms of meat consistency, these sticks are also comparable to summer sausage, having a soft, moist inside. They don't coat my mouth with a greasy film like Slim Jims and other brands often do, they don't have that "papery texture" like Slim Jims seem to have.




But going back to the flavor, I find these Buffalo Snack Sticks having a light spiciness, and with a bit of tanginess, as if some kind of vinegar was used (though vinegar is not mentioned in the ingredients).

The skin on these sticks seem thicker than other brands I've had, and are rather chewy.

I was about to say that I didn't find any crunchy hard bits of animal material, when I bit into a small piece of bone. But having eating four of the newer sticks, and three of the old, that was the first chunk of bone I encountered.

Overall, it's a better meat stick than the mass-market brands you'll find at the grocery store.

So, how does the newer package of these Buffalo Snack Sticks compare to the several-months-old package? The newer package is more soft and moist, just a little bit easier to chew. But they both have the same chewy skin, the same spiciness, the same tanginess. The older package seems to have a more stale flavor, but not necessarily a bad flavor. If all you had were old sticks, you'd still think they tasted good. But compared to the newer sticks, the newer sticks are definitely better.

BTW, the photos you see above are the newer sticks.

Buy these Buffalo Snack Sticks online at House of Jerky...
http://www.houseofjerky.net/

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by Steve Johnson ~ Monday, July 6, 2009 0 comments