Pemmican – Original Beef Jerky (Recipe #2)

The next review on the Pemmican brand of jerky will focus on a 12 ounce/340 gram bag of their original flavored beef jerky. This bag was purchased at a discount store named Ollie’s located in Niagara Falls, New York.

The Pemmican jerky brand name is manufactured and distributed by The Classic Jerky Company, located in Taylor, Michigan. Traditionally, pemmican is a style of dried beef created by Native American Indians, and was known to last over a year. It is a mixture of cooked, dried, and a shredded type of meat, combined with melted fat.

Ingredient Review

Ingredients: Beef, Water, Sugar, Salt, Less Than 2% Of: Flavors, Yeast Extract.

The beef used is not guaranteed to be free of growth hormones or additional antibiotics. Also, the beef is not guaranteed to have at least partial free range access to graze on grass. As a result, the highest ingredient rating that can be awarded is a Good (8/10) rating.

The only liquid marinade used here is water.

Normally this is where we would list off the healthy ingredients added. There are none, unless the annoyingly vague term flavors contains some spices.

The sugar level is a little high at 5 grams of sugar per 28 grams of jerky to lose a rating. Our preference is 3 grams of sugar or less per 28 grams of jerky. The salt level is quite high at 610mg of salt per 28 grams of jerky to lose two ratings. Our preference is 350mg of salt or less per 28 grams of jerky.

To the best of our knowledge, this jerky does qualify to have no sodium nitrite added. Instead, salt is the main preservative used. Also to the best of our knowledge, this jerky does qualify to have no MSG added.

Average (5/10) – Ingredient Rating

Taste Review

These strips of jerky are mainly medium in size, and they are sliced to a medium thickness. The texture is more so on the dry side, requiring a reasonable amount of effort to chew. This texture has a plastic type of feel, which translates to a slight processed beef flavor. There is not much of any aroma with these strips of jerky.

The first taste detected is a moderate level of salt, and a light smoked flavor. Perhaps added in is a light level of black pepper, a mild soy flavor. The sweetness is at mild level.

As mentioned earlier, the beef does have a slightly processed flavor. This jerky does not remind you much of eating homemade jerky. Paul summed up this flavor with this to say: “I can’t say it tastes bad, but it does have some of that processed taste emanating from it, so I cannot fully endorse it. The taste is decent, and this taste review is coming across as ‘decent’, so, I will give this jerky a ‘decent’ score, which I believe to be a 7/10, yet I am open to higher if prodded.”

With this being a rather large back (1 1/2 pounds), I managed to share this flavor with a large audience. The overall consensus was a Decent (7/10) taste rating.

This 12 ounce/340 gram bag cost $9.99. That works out to $1.20 an ounce, which rates as a dirt cheap price.

Decent (7/10) – Taste Rating

Bag Review

This resealable plastic bag has everything imprinted on the bag itself, both on the front and back. On the front there is a picture of an Indian chief.

A slogan printed on this bag is “Premium Cut Beef Jerky.” The only fact printed on this bag is “12 OZ Bonus Size”.

All bag categories are covered with this bag. A decent blurb is printed on the back about this flavor.

Very Good (9/10) – Bag Rating