Gourmet snack foods | beef jerky

Honey

Just wanted to let everyone know that there has been a honey shortage for the last year in the Eastern United States.  I have had a tough time keeping honey on the shelves of the store.  I have found a new supplier who seems to have enough honey to supply his buyers.  Our new line of honey is the Tennessee Redneck brand. 

Sourwood honey

This fits nicely with our almost new line of homemade jams and jellies which also come from the Tennessee Redneck brand.  We will stock the honey in two different types.  You may purchase Sourwood honey with comb included or you may purchase with out the comb.  Sourwood honey is so named because it was harvested during the time our sourwood trees were in bloom here in the Eastern US.  We also have honey that was harvested either before or after the sourwood bloom.  This honey can also be purchased with or without the comb.  Hope everyone will take a trip on over to Smoky Beef Jerky and try our new honey.  We still have great tasting beef jerky, wild game jerky, and beef jerky spices.  Hope you enjoy our products as much as we do.

I just wanted to say that our beef jerky spices have been flying off the shelves.  I have been able to make a lot of people happy while making their own jerky.  You can use these spices to make beef jerky, or wild game jerky.  So be sure to check out our lines of beef jerky spices.  We have backwoods spices, smoky mountain marinade, and high mountain jerky seasonings.

Teriyaki Jerky

Teriyaki beef  jerky is a great gourmet snack food.  What is it about that Teriyaki flavor that mkes us love it so much?  Is it that soy flavor, the subtle hint of orage juice, maybe the garlic or onion powder, might it be that special teriyaki spice blend that is added.  I have decided to put our new line of beef jerky on sale.  Check out our flavors and the Teriyaki’s great price.

I have spoken about most of the products in our store at one time or another.  Certainly beef jerky, wild game jerky, and beef jerky spices are the top sellers, but there is one that I have not spoken about.  Everyone has heard of or eaten a popcorn ball.  These are made by taking popcorn and adding caramel.  They are then rolled into a round shape and eaten.  They are great.  My store offers this same treat but it is shaped like an ear 0f corn.  For my taste they are much more managable when you try to take a bite.  They also can be purchased with peanuts.  I really like the salt of nuts when I eat something sweet.  So the next time you think about a popcorn ball, kick it up a notch and go for the real ear.

 What makes deep fried peanuts a gourmet snack food? I am sure many people would say they do not cost enough, or what can be gourmet about a peanut. George Washington Carver developed many uses for the peanut that we never think about. It is a cool nut that is not a nut, it is a legume. A legume is a plant that encloses its seeds in a pod, so peanuts are like a bean that grows underground. It also is the crop of choice for one of our former presidents Jimmy Carter. If that does not make it gourmet I don’t know what would. Because there are so many different food items made from peanuts, it can be used so many different ways, and it is the chosen crop of a former president deep fried peanuts have to be a gourmet snack food.

So what are the food items that we use from peanuts? There are so many this can not be an exhaustive list but will cover many of the main categories. We all know about peanut butter, and what a great choice to mix with jelly on a sandwich. It is also used in many Asian dishes as a thickener in soups and stews. Many times Chinese, dishes have peanuts sprinkled on top to give the dish some crunch. Of course you can eat them raw, or roasted with salt or honey glazed on the nuts. Here in the south, we have a couple of unusual traditions with peanuts. The first is boiled peanuts. You can be driving down the road and many road side produce stands will have signs advertising boiled peanuts. Some of you may ask, what is a boiled peanut? Raw peanuts with the shell are dumped into a pot of boiling water which can have different flavors like salted, garlic, or Cajun. Then the peanuts are removed. The shell is cracked and the juice is sucked out and the peanuts eaten. The most unusual is deep fried peanuts. In the south, you have to deep fry everything. So with the shells on, you drop the peanuts into hot grease and fry. Then as they come out of the oil sprinkle your favorite flavors on the shell. Then eat the peanuts shell and all. Good stuff.

What else can we use the peanut for besides eating? One application is the making of peanut oil. Everyone who loves deep frying knows that the longest lasting and safest oil to fry in is peanut oil. Most restaurants use peanut oil because it lasts so much longer than vegetable oil in their deep fryers. The second reason is peanut oil has a lot higher ignition temperature than other oils. So when making funnel cakes or deep fried turkeys, your risk of fire is reduced greatly. Peanuts can also be used to make cosmetics, fuel for biomass stoves, dyes, paints, stains, paper glue, gas and hundreds of other things according to the Tuskegee University web site. The last group and probably the most used but least thought about are medicines. Peanuts and peanut products can be used for rubbing oils, castor oil substitutes, laxatives, and even for venereal disease. That George Washington Carver was an amazing inventor. He came up with all of these uses and did and only sold three of them, the rest he gave to mankind.

The last reason deep fried peanuts can be a gourmet food snack is a former president grew up on a peanut farm. Every body knew the peanut farmer from Georgia in 1976. The campaign was as much about rural people and peanuts as it was about the candidates. Now, Plains Georgia has an annual celebration of the peanut and the former president. There are images of the peanut all over the town, a 5K race, beauty queens, and several other competitions during the festival. There are also several museums commemorating Mr. Carter and the influence the peanut and farming had on his life. If a president had a significant experience with a peanut, then I think you should also. Go find some deep fried peanuts, boiled peanuts, or some honey roasted. I am sure you will be glad you did.

Here is a grat idea for a beef jerky gift, Smoky Mountain Teriyaki beef jerky.  There are many different brands of Teriyaki jerky, but none can compare with Smoky Mountain. 

Smoky Mountain Teriyaki Beef Jerky

Our jerky has a flavor like no other.  We start with the finest cuts of beef and slice it thin for biting ease.  We add our own special beef jerky spices and marindes to make the flavor explode in your mouth.  You will find the soy, some salty goodness, and great teriyaki flavor.  Come on over to our place and try some of the best teriyaki beef jerky you ever had.

Beef Jerky

You want beef jerky gifts but are not sure where to get them.  It seems that every body and their brother can spread a little soy on a slab of meat dry it out like boot leather and sell it as jerky.  It is also true that you can buy the right off the shelf brands of jerky.  Neither of these is what I am talking about.  I am talking about finding a great tasting jerky, with some old favorites as flavors as well as something a little unusual, that is affordable and unusual enough to be classified as a beef jerky gift.    Not Oberto’s, Pemmican, or Jacks Links something off the beaten path.  Where would you go to find this jerky and what would you have to pay to get some delivered to your door? 

Ol' Smoky

     First, we are looking for a great tasting jerky.  Honestly it is just as easy to get boot leather as it is to get a great jerky.  There are millions of them to choose from so how can you begin to decide.  Unless you live next to a store specializing in beef jerky you are going to have to go to the internet.  This is not the ideal way to choose a great tasing food item.  So, where do you start.  I am going to look for a brand that is on more than one web site.  For instance if I find a specific brand Google that name and see if there are several sites carrying that brand.   Smoky Mountain is a good choice with about 9,000 sites having this brand.  Another good choice is Buffalo Bob’s Wild Game Jerky.  Bob has an excellent selection of flavors and meat types.  You can get about 5,500 different sites where this can be found.

Venison Jerky

Second, you should look for something that has some of the origina beef jerky spices as well as something a little different.  If we stick with the brands we already found here is what we have to choose from.  Ol’ smoky, cracked black pepper, teriyaki, and cajun for the old faithfuls.  We can also find fire on the mountain with a great blend of traditional jerky flavors with some Jalapeno to kick it up a notch.  We can also find a spicy flavor with more of a cayenne pepper hot touch.  With Buffalo Bob’s We can get venison, elk, and buffalo as our common wild game meats.  You can also get alligator, ostrich, and wild boar to take the road less traveled. 

Thirdly, because price is always a consideration let’s look at the affordability of buying jerky over the internet.  There are sites that range from 20 to 30 dollars an ounce for the same jerky.  There is also shipping to consider.  Many times there is a little higher price but there is free shipping.  Remember to take into account all of the factors before purchasing.  For a nice jerky you should pay between 23 and 30 dollars a pound.  Unless you have three teenage boys in the house this should last your for several weeks.  You can remember that the larger the size package the cheaper the price, so you might want to buy in bulk.

Finding a beef jerky gift is not that hard.  If you are willing to do a little research you can find a great tasting jerky, with some unusual flavors and some old  favorites, that will not break your budget.  This winning combination will make the receiver of the jerky as happy as the one who gave it away.

Here are the top 10 reasons beef jerky is a great superbowl snack.

1. You can not get your hands dirty eating beef jerky like you can with nachos.
2. If you drop some on the floor because you get excited, the wife will not be mad because of the spill on the carpet.
3. If you have some left over it will not spoil for about 6 months.
4. It can not dry out if you leave it out.
5. No dishes when you are done.
6. You can use hundreds of different flavors, everyone gets their favorite flavor.
7. There is also wild game jerky for your wilder friends.
8. You can branch out into elk summer sausage, or buffalo sausage if you are really feeling wild.
9. People  will be asking Who Dat got Dat beef jerky?
10. Even vegetarians love beef jerky.

Today is another rainy and snowy day in western North Carolina.  It seems to be a hard day to come up with anything for the blog.  So my wife suggested the following topic.  Many times you may not think about honey being used in beef jerky.  I have talked about using fruit juices and even brown sugar to add some sweetness to the mix.  It seems I have forgotten honey as an all natural sweetener.  So the next time you want to make some sweeter beef jerky or wild game jerky don’t forget that a teaspoon of honey can be a great beef jerky spice.

Beef jerky black pepper

     Which beef jerky flavor is the most requested on the internet?  If you have not figured it out from the title and the picture let me help you.  It always goes with salt, it is not white, and it is best when it is freshly cracked.  That is right it is black pepper.  Pepper has a flavor that almost everyone loves, and brings a very complex flavor to the party when added to beef jerky.  So today let ‘s look at a jerky recipe for cracked black pepper jerky.

Here are your ingredients.

4oz soy sauce

1 oz liquid smoke

1 oz Worcestershire sauce

¼ T black pepper

1 oz hot sauce

1/2 tsp garlic powder

This recipe will flavor about 1 pound of meat.  You may double or triple as necessary for larger batches.  Mix all of the wet ingredients and the garlic powder in a zip lock bag.  Slice the meat when half frozen for best slicing.  Marinade overnight in the refridgerator.  You can leave longer for more intense flavor.  Pull meat out and sprinkle with black pepper and place in food dehydrator to dry.  In 8 to 12 hours you will have some great black pepper beef jerky.   I read this week where a person used much more black pepper and squeezed it into the meat with a rolling pin.  Then let the meat sit for 24 hours in the fridge.  Then the second day marinade in the liquid ingredients just as before.  Then proceed as normal with the drying process.