Ed’s Roadhouse Jerky: Devils Tongue & L’il Sweet Jalapeno Habanero
Manufacturer: Ed’s Roadhouse Jerky Inc.
Website: http://www.edsroadhousejerky.com
Ingredients: angus beef eye of round, fresh habanero & jalapenos, water, garlic salt, sugar, soybean, wheat, salt, natural flavoring spices, molasses, pepper extract.
Snacks are always something I look forward to. With my (attempted) diet, I make any excuse I can to cheat. Ed’s Roadhouse Jerky has sent in two of their hottest jerkys: L’il Sweet Jalapeno Habanero and Devils Tongue, and the results are in!
The packaging is nice, if not a bit plain. It’s vacuum sealed like nobody’s business, so it’s VERY hard to read the label before it’s opened (note the picture) – and the flavor is hidden in the upper right corner. Ideally – somehow – the label should be easier to read in the vacuum seal, and the flavor of the jerky easier to find. Also, I like to see Nutritional information. So far, this is my only suggestion to Ed. That said, if you order online you should know what you’re getting. I’m just imagining it on a shelf at the market.
I’m not a jerky connoisseur, but I’ve had my share. Let’s just say that off the top of my head I can name at least 2 major Jerky brands (Pemmican and Jack Links), and I’ve had home-made jerky a couple times. For the record, I prefer Pemmican to Jack Links.
Jerky needs to meet some very specific guidelines:
1. It needs to have just the tiniest bit of moisture, but be very dry. If it’s too moist, it breaks apart too easily. Pemmican and JL are a bit too moist (I believe on purpose, so you eat more of it faster).
2. It needs to be a bit spicy, a bit sweet and moderately salty. Teriyaki lends itself wonderfully to jerky because it fits these criteria nicely.
3. It needs to be VERY lean. Strips of fat in jerky are kind of gross to chew – being either too tough or too sinewy. Pemmican and JL both have fatty jerky. Until now, I just figured that went with the territory.
Ed, apparently, agrees with me, as he’s made a jerky that I would call “near perfect” for each of those guidelines. Moreover – and this is something that never occurred to me until Ed’s jerky – it’s cut up into small, bite-sized pieces (about 1 inch squares). With the major jerky brands, there is shrapnel on the bottom of the bags, and resting comfortably on that are huge, honkin’ pieces that you need to rip apart with your teeth. Frankly, it’s always bothered me – it’s hard to tear jerky, and sometimes I don’t want a piece of jerky nine inches long. These are the perfect size pieces.
Devils Tongue is awesome. It actually burns the throat a bit as you swallow, and once or twice has evoked a cough from me. It’s strong with spice and pepper flavor, cut perfectly with molasses and sugar. I would call it a solid medium heat, but Ed calls it “xxxx "HOT as HELL" xxxx.” Ed, you make a DAMN fine jerky, but it ain’t THAT hot. On that note, the wife loved it, but did need a drink to quell the burn. For your average Joe, it would definitely be classified as “hot,” but I don’t think anyone but the most sensitive would call it xxxx hot. And they probably wouldn’t be the target consumer for this, anyway, so f- them.
L’il Sweet Jalapeno Habanero has the same base flavor as Devils Tongue – that cannot be denied. It has a medium heat (Ed calls it xxx "HOT" xxx); it’s a bit less hot than DT. Also, it seems like the molasses was kicked up a little bit, it’s slightly sweeter. They’re both just fantastic. I expected a rather marked difference between the two, but that was not implied by Ed or the packaging in any way – it was an assumption I made simply because I got two types of jerky. Upon perusal of his site, it clearly indicates that these are the two hottest jerkys Ed offers – which makes perfect sense why he chose these to send in to The Hot Pepper (and why I should not be surprised at all that they’re alike).
Compared to mass-market jerky, this stuff is just leaps and bounds better. The meat is definitely much higher quality, it’s leaner, the flavor is fantastic, the texture and consistency is just right and make no mistake – you sure as hell won’t find this heat level in convenience store jerky (however exaggerated I find the description on the website).
Ed makes a slamming jerky, and I defy you to beat his meat. Now, Ed, I challenge you to ramp the heat up, and make a chili-head edition.
Flavor: 10/10. I can’t think of anything that could be improved about this jerky. It’s definitely the best jerky I’ve ever had.
Heat, from Nada to Naga: 4.5/10 Hot, but still within the realm of average acceptability. Let’s try to leave this realm.
Overall: 10/10.
(As an aside, I preferred this jerky one or two days old. It dried it out just a tad more.)
Manufacturer: Ed’s Roadhouse Jerky Inc.
Website: http://www.edsroadhousejerky.com
Ingredients: angus beef eye of round, fresh habanero & jalapenos, water, garlic salt, sugar, soybean, wheat, salt, natural flavoring spices, molasses, pepper extract.
Snacks are always something I look forward to. With my (attempted) diet, I make any excuse I can to cheat. Ed’s Roadhouse Jerky has sent in two of their hottest jerkys: L’il Sweet Jalapeno Habanero and Devils Tongue, and the results are in!
The packaging is nice, if not a bit plain. It’s vacuum sealed like nobody’s business, so it’s VERY hard to read the label before it’s opened (note the picture) – and the flavor is hidden in the upper right corner. Ideally – somehow – the label should be easier to read in the vacuum seal, and the flavor of the jerky easier to find. Also, I like to see Nutritional information. So far, this is my only suggestion to Ed. That said, if you order online you should know what you’re getting. I’m just imagining it on a shelf at the market.
I’m not a jerky connoisseur, but I’ve had my share. Let’s just say that off the top of my head I can name at least 2 major Jerky brands (Pemmican and Jack Links), and I’ve had home-made jerky a couple times. For the record, I prefer Pemmican to Jack Links.
Jerky needs to meet some very specific guidelines:
1. It needs to have just the tiniest bit of moisture, but be very dry. If it’s too moist, it breaks apart too easily. Pemmican and JL are a bit too moist (I believe on purpose, so you eat more of it faster).
2. It needs to be a bit spicy, a bit sweet and moderately salty. Teriyaki lends itself wonderfully to jerky because it fits these criteria nicely.
3. It needs to be VERY lean. Strips of fat in jerky are kind of gross to chew – being either too tough or too sinewy. Pemmican and JL both have fatty jerky. Until now, I just figured that went with the territory.
Ed, apparently, agrees with me, as he’s made a jerky that I would call “near perfect” for each of those guidelines. Moreover – and this is something that never occurred to me until Ed’s jerky – it’s cut up into small, bite-sized pieces (about 1 inch squares). With the major jerky brands, there is shrapnel on the bottom of the bags, and resting comfortably on that are huge, honkin’ pieces that you need to rip apart with your teeth. Frankly, it’s always bothered me – it’s hard to tear jerky, and sometimes I don’t want a piece of jerky nine inches long. These are the perfect size pieces.
Devils Tongue is awesome. It actually burns the throat a bit as you swallow, and once or twice has evoked a cough from me. It’s strong with spice and pepper flavor, cut perfectly with molasses and sugar. I would call it a solid medium heat, but Ed calls it “xxxx "HOT as HELL" xxxx.” Ed, you make a DAMN fine jerky, but it ain’t THAT hot. On that note, the wife loved it, but did need a drink to quell the burn. For your average Joe, it would definitely be classified as “hot,” but I don’t think anyone but the most sensitive would call it xxxx hot. And they probably wouldn’t be the target consumer for this, anyway, so f- them.
L’il Sweet Jalapeno Habanero has the same base flavor as Devils Tongue – that cannot be denied. It has a medium heat (Ed calls it xxx "HOT" xxx); it’s a bit less hot than DT. Also, it seems like the molasses was kicked up a little bit, it’s slightly sweeter. They’re both just fantastic. I expected a rather marked difference between the two, but that was not implied by Ed or the packaging in any way – it was an assumption I made simply because I got two types of jerky. Upon perusal of his site, it clearly indicates that these are the two hottest jerkys Ed offers – which makes perfect sense why he chose these to send in to The Hot Pepper (and why I should not be surprised at all that they’re alike).
Compared to mass-market jerky, this stuff is just leaps and bounds better. The meat is definitely much higher quality, it’s leaner, the flavor is fantastic, the texture and consistency is just right and make no mistake – you sure as hell won’t find this heat level in convenience store jerky (however exaggerated I find the description on the website).
Ed makes a slamming jerky, and I defy you to beat his meat. Now, Ed, I challenge you to ramp the heat up, and make a chili-head edition.
Flavor: 10/10. I can’t think of anything that could be improved about this jerky. It’s definitely the best jerky I’ve ever had.
Heat, from Nada to Naga: 4.5/10 Hot, but still within the realm of average acceptability. Let’s try to leave this realm.
Overall: 10/10.
(As an aside, I preferred this jerky one or two days old. It dried it out just a tad more.)
