About Us

Jerky Reviews Published To Date: 939

My name is Mark Jurrius, where I have been making homemade beef jerky since 2007. For a couple of years around 2011, my cousin Paul Rekker and I spent over $5,000 researching opening up a jerky company. Neither of us was willing to quit our full time job, so I finally officially started this jerky review web site in January 2014. Plus our Filipino wives were totally against the idea of launching a new jerky brand. Paul joined the jerky taste reviews in June 2014.

Jerky is not nearly as popular in Canada compared to the United States of America. As a general rule, the further South and West you go in the USA, the more popular jerky becomes. California easily leads all USA states.

Jerky Ingredients

For ideas on what ingredients to use in my homemade jerky, a jerky bag collection began in 2007. That more became an exercise of what ingredients not to use in jerky. We now have 1492 jerky bags collected. Jerky ingredient lists in general have improved appreciably since 2007, which is a continuing positive trend in the jerky industry.

Jerky Ingredients reviewed: 846

Jerky sales in North America have likely exceeded 3 billion dollars in 2019.

Taste Reviews

Our taste reviews have evolved over time, and continue to do so. In 2016, Stéphane Leclerc joined Paul and I in the taste reviews. Typically, in a review now, Paul will write his taste review. Stéphane either writes his own abbreviated taste review, or comment on Paul’s review. I then generally conclude the review with my comments on Paul’s and/or Stéphane’s taste reviews, my opinion on the jerky, and the official taste rating.

Paul Rekker Taste Review Counter: 203

Stéphane Leclerc Taste Review Counter: 216

Group of Seven

Starting in April 2019, a ‘Group of Seven’ was created to participate in the taste reviews. This includes (Mark J., Paul, Stéphane, Nolan, Mark M., Sid, and Ava; our only female representation). The Group of Seven is still a work in progress, where the Group of Seven now only participates in reviews when there is enough jerky to go around. Sampling a small piece of a jerky strip isn’t enough to get a true sense of the flavor.

JERKY SHRINE

Unplanned was the debut of the JERKY SHRINE in January 2019. Instead of letting all this jerky paraphernalia stay hidden in binders, I decided to put all of these jerky makers on display. The JERKY SHRINE has been very well received to date. Who in the world knew how much fun it is to be a curator.

www.jerkyingredients.com/tag/jerky-shrine

Jerky Shrine Bags: 1492

Jerky Shrine Brands: 347

Jerky Shrine Brands On Display: 86

History

I was a former web application developer for over 15 years. Each jerky review is written in HTML, utilizing a custom MySQL database. I taught myself how to add the programming language php into the jerky reviews and web site. This gives me a great deal of flexibility, with for example the Jerky Counters and Jerky Tags/Categories pages. Operating a jerky review web site has been a fun, ongoing educational experience that is surprisingly time consuming.

Jerky Brands

Working with individual jerky makers is the most worthwhile, rewarding experience. Jerky makers tend to be hard working, innovative, and perfectionists.

Jerky Brands reviewed: 271

Starting A Jerky Business

By far and away, the single most popular page on this Jerky Review web site is Starting A Jerky Business according to Google Analytics. New jerky makers are popping up all the time. There is some great information in the Comments section.

www.jerkyingredients.com/starting-a-business

Jerky Prices

Our second most viewed page at Jerky Ingredients is our inaugural first annual post on various jerky price ranges. We seemed to have set the standard for jerky prices.

http://jerkyingredients.com/2017/07/23/jerky-ingredients-prices-update

http://jerkyingredients.com/buying

Us

Contact jerkyingredients@gmail.com if you have any questions, suggestions, or want to submit your jerky for review.

In the photograph below, Mark Jurrius is in the middle. Paul Rekker is on the left wearing the baseball cap, and Stéphane Leclerc is on the right.

The other photograph is the Jerky Ingredients mascot Lexi, who is a Whippet, and she has tried over 400 jerky flavors. Whippets are not to be trusted off leash. If I ever lose control off leash with Lexi, I yell ‘JERKY’ for her to come back. Lexi has metal plates in both her front legs after breaking both legs running into a busy street and being struck by a vehicle at age 2. She is 6 years old now.