Back in 2010, I made an online purchase of Jeff’s Famous beef jerky. This review will focus on their 3 ounce/85 gram bag of the Cajun Style flavor.
Jeff’s Famous Jerky was founded by Jeff Richards, and he started this business in 2010, based out of Mission Veijo, California. Jeff began experimenting with jerky recipes in the early seventies, having 20 years of experience in the food industry. By 2006, there was considerable interest in his beef jerky, where he teamed up with his close friend Mike Aggarwal, and founded Jeff’s Famous Jerky a few years later.
Ingredient Review
Ingredients: Beef, Soy Sauce (Water, Wheat, Soybeans, Salt), Worchestershire Sauce (Vinegar, Molasses, Corn Syrup, Water, Salt, Caramel Color, Garlic Powder, Sugar, Spices, Anchovies, Tamarind Natural Flavor), Vinegar, Chili Sauce (White Sugar, Water, Corn Syrup Powder, Garlic, Salted Chili Pepper, Rice Vinegar, Salt, Modified Corn Starch, Concentrated Pineapple Juice, Shallots, Garlic Powder, Acetic Acid, Citric Acid, Xanthan Gum, Paprika Oleoresin), Spices, Black Pepper, Natural Smoke Flavoring, Paprika, Garlic and Onion Allergen Warnings: Anchovies, Soy, Wheat
The beef used has no growth hormones or additional antibiotics administered, making the beef ethically raised.
The liquid marinade consists of an alright soy sauce, an average Worcestershire sauce, healthy vinegar, and an average chili sauce. This flavor is advertised as medium hot, which would come from the chili sauce. Both the chili sauce and Worcestershire sauce have corn based ingredients, where corn based ingredients have no business being in jerky.
The owner, Jeff Richards, confirmed that traditional Cajun spices were used to give the Cajun Style flavor. Other healthy ingredients used are spices, black pepper, paprika, garlic and onion.
The sugar level is slightly on the high side at 4 grams of sugar per 28 grams of jerky. Our preference is 3 grams of sugar or less. The salt level is quite high at 450mg of salt per 28 grams of jerky. Our preference is 350mg of salt or less.
This jerky does qualify to have no sodium nitrite, or any similar unhealthy preservatives. Instead, salt is the main preservative used, and vinegar to a lesser extent. Not explicitly advertised anywhere, this jerky has no MSG added.
Good (8/10) – Ingredient Rating
Taste Review
While I did not keep detailed taste notes in 2010, I remember all of the Jeff’s Famous Jerky flavors tasting good, and not lasting long.
I paid $6.50 for this 3 ounce/85 gram bag of Cajun Style jerky. That works out to $2.17 an ounce. Today in 2014, it costs $13.95 for two 3 ounce/85 gram bags. That works out to $2.32 an ounce using today’s prices, which rates as a borderline average price. Given that a decent ingredient list is used, and that this jerky tastes good, this jerky is recommended as worth your money.
Bag Review
This gold colored, relatively large, resealable bag is common among jerky makers. One label is attached to the front, and only what seems to be a batch number of the back. The company logo is interesting with a cowboy on a horse rounding up some cattle at dusk.
This bag has no clearly defined slogans. There are facts printed such as “Real Steak”, “Intense Flavor”, and “Best Five Star Rating”.
The majority of bag categories are covered. Missing is a blurb about Jeff’s Famous Jerky, but there is no room. To their credit, a toll free phone numbers is provided for customer inquiries.
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