Tasting Notes: Gary West Smoked Meats

We’re lucky enough to have companies send us their products to try, and although we’ve gotten a few doozies, we share only the best with you guys.

If you’re the kind of person who occasionally snags a pack of jerky from the service station for a long road trip, you ought to keep moving now. There’s an art to reducing an animal to an easily chewed, tasty strip of deliciousness, and jerks know that a stale, bone dry, or sinewy piece of meat is truly an act of snacking terrorism.

Gary West is a straightforward jerky brand…

Gary West is a straightforward jerky brand that offers a basic set of flavors in a simple bit of packaging but that considers itself “World Famous” and has indeed been on national TV. So does the jerky hold up to Gary’s hype? Does it justify the smarmy look on the logo’s cow’s face? To find out, we took a look at the flavors we had on hand…

• Traditional
• Cajun
• Teriyaki
• Cracked Black Pepper

Rather than the jerky we’ve previously reviewed that came as beefy shingles in plastic pouches, Gary’s meats come in long shrink-wrapped strips. To help me break into these steak strips, I reconvened the Circle Jerk council that has helped me review jerkies before. Once again I took notes and wrote down quotes as they happened from a variety of men and ladies as we enjoyed a multi-course meat feast. Here’s what I got…

The Great Consumption

Traditional

“On the salty end of things, for sure.”
“Excellent flavor…”
“Almost a ketchupy, tomato-type savory flavor.”

I enjoyed the traditional flavor for being a damn fine, no-nonsense jerky. It’s got a good balance of saltiness and sweetness, even if the texture is a little thicker than I typically enjoy. There’s a good satisfying tear to chowing down on it though, and many jerky fans like a little fight in their meat.

Cajun

“Legitimately hot.”
“Definitely real bite and spice.”

The cajun flavor lives up to it’s name, and you won’t forget you were eating it the moment you swallow. The spice of it notwithstanding, the actual flavor is present and delicious as well.

Teriyaki

“A little dry- common thing with teriyaki, but more shredded meat than chewy jerky”
“The ginger flavor is very present.”
“Not as salty as I expected, which is good. There should be more to it than that.”

I was definitely impressed with the teriyaki, a well-worn flavor that may have ended up being my favorite of the bunch. It was noticeably dryer than the other flavors, but not so much that it diminished the meat.

Cracked Black Pepper

“Strong, present pepper”
“Straightfoward- pepper flavor not quite as strong as the Cajun’s spice. Tastes nice”

Cracked pepper is rarely my favorite jerky flavor, but I enjoyed it more than usual with this set of tasty beefs. The pepper flavor was present, definitely spicy, but no overbearing. It also wasn’t as bone dry as pepper jerky often ends up.

The General Consensus

So it seems Gary lived up to his reputation for jerking a fine beef. Now I’m excited to try out the buffalo and elk jerky that the company makes. The rest of the group agreed, and I think it’s safe to say this is a high-quality jerky. Unlike something like a Slim JIm –a ground-up monstrosity of a product that turns into meat chewing gum with the first bite– here you have a long strip of sinewy, tough, but flavorful jerky. This isn’t run and gun beef morsels- you’ll be investing some time and effort in to chomping down on these steak strips. It will be worth it for the hearty flavor though.