Pork Palace is a family run farm and butcher shop, best known locally as Santa Barbara Meat Company at Pork Palace. The business focuses on raising heritage bred pigs (such as Berkshire, Tamworth, and Duroc breeds) outdoors on natural diets without added hormones or unnecessary antibiotics and selling a range of meats and specialty products directly to customers and at regional farmers’ markets.
While Pork Palace itself isn’t a traditional national jerky brand in the way many shelf brands are, its jerky and meat snack offerings are part of the Santa Barbara Meat Co at Pork Palace online store and product lineup. The brand emphasizes locally sourced, high-quality ingredients and traditional butchery practices, appealing to customers who favor artisan, small batch meats over mass produced snacks. In addition to jerky, Pork Palace/Santa Barbara Meat Co offers a broader range of products, including beef, pork, bison, goat, lamb, and roasting pigs, reflecting its identity as a comprehensive farm butcher rather than a single product jerky company.
This Pork Palace jerky brand is distributed under the same name Pork Palace, located in Gaviota, California. The jerky is manufactured by Boyd Specialties, located in Colton, California.
The first review on Pork Palace will focus on their Sriracha Style bacon jerky. This flavor is described as being crafted from premium cuts of uncured bacon, each strip is glazed with a bold Sriracha inspired blend that delivers the perfect balance of sweet, smoky, and spicy. This 2 ounce/56 gram bag was purchased online.
Ingredients: Uncured Bacon – No Nitrites or Nitrates Except Those Naturally Occurring In Cultured Celery Powder and Sea Salt (Pork, Water, Salt, Turbinado Sugar, Cultured Celery Powder, Sea Salt), Sriracha Style Sauce (Chili, Sugar, Salt, Garlic, Acetic Acid, Ground Garlic, Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Bilsulfite as Preservatives, Xanthan Gum), Teriyaki Sauce (Soy Sauce (Water, Wheat, Soybeans, Salt), Wine (Contains Sulfites), Sugar, Water, Vinegar, Salt, Onion Powder, Spice Extractives, Succinic Acid, Garlic Powder), Ground Pepper, Granulated Garlic, Cayenne, Ginger. Allergen Warnings: Soy, Wheat
The pork is not guaranteed to have at least partial free range access to roam about outside. Uncured bacon is used, meaning the bacon was not preserved with nitrates or nitrites. As a result, the highest ingredient rating that can be awarded is a Very Good (9/10) rating.
The liquid marinade used here is comprised of an average brand of Sriracha style sauce and a decent brand of teriyaki sauce.
There are some healthy ingredients added, such as cayenne pepper, granulated garlic, black pepper, and ginger.
The sugar level is extremely high at 12 grams of sugar per 28 grams of jerky to lose a rating. Our preference is 4 grams of sugar per 28 grams of jerky for a hot based flavor. The salt level is high at 600 grams of salt per 28 grams of jerky. However, the salt level is ignored because minimally processed sea salt is added.
This jerky qualifies to have no sodium nitrite, or any other similar unhealthy preservative. Instead, salt is the main preservative used, and cultured celery powder with its naturally occurring nitrates. With more kudos to Pork Palace, this jerky has no MSG added.
Good (8/10) – Ingredient Rating
Taste Review
PORK PALACE – SRIRACHA STYLE BACON JERKY
Written by guest jerky reviewer Paul Rekker
When I open the bag I smell both sweet and sour, almost like a briny smell. The jerky strips are medium to large, and anything but rigid. The jerky is quite moist and leaves a significant amount of oily substance on your fingers.
When I bite into the jerky, I am immediately hit with high levels of both salt and sweet. I also pick up on pepper, also at a decent level, along with garlic and possibly light onion. I am definitely picking up on the sriracha flavor, it is coming through in spades. I also detect the pork flavor, I am obviously not eating beef. I also detect that briny smell, it comes through in the taste of the strips as well.
Quite honestly, I love this particular flavor. Aside from a lack of rigidity and so much moisture, the flavor is outstanding. Not too sweet, not too anything, except great taste. Flavor wise it’s a 10, but I am going to deduct a point for the two aforementioned qualms, settling for a 9/10. Gentlemen?
Here is what Mark had to say about this Sriracha Style bacon jerky from Slim Jim: “Thanks Paul for the positive taste review. I generally agree with everything stated. Regarding the texture not being rigid/tough enough and being too greasy are not legitimate complaints to deduct a taste rating. Those are biases on personal preferences. Bacon by nature is greasy and bacon jerky is even less greasy.”
“It is true that this jerky is sweet tasting with a candied texture. Normally, I am put off with jerky that contains lots of sugar, but bacon jerky seems to be an exception. The heat from the Sriracha sauce does not disappoint. The heat level would rate a 2 out of 4, or for some a 3 out of 5 on the heat scale.
The natural flavor of bacon does not disappoint, where it does look and taste like real bacon, which it is. This Sriracha taste profile is unmatched, where I could eat this jerky every day. With Paul at a 9 rating and myself at a solid 10 rating, an Excellent (10/10) taste rating will be awarded. A very enthusiastic two thumbs up!!👍👍”
This 2 ounce/56 gram bag costs $13.00, which works out to $6.50 an ounce. That rates as an expensive price.
Excellent (10/10) – Taste Rating
Bag Review
This resealable plastic bag has a label affixed to the front and nothing on the back. The Pork Palace logo depicts a palace with a pig’s head on the top.
There are no slogans printed. Some facts printed on this bag are “Gourmet Uncured”, “No Added MSG”, and “Made in U.S.A.”.
The only missing bag category is a blurb about this jerky or flavor.
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