Although Beef Jerky
and meat sticks prompt an “ick” from some people, they’ve earned enough love to
migrate from gas stations to supermarkets, with store brands sold by Costco,
Trader Joes, and Whole Foods. The target audience of most beef snacks: men, as
is evident from the pitch on Slim Jim’s website: “Whenever a man-emergency
arises and your energy levels star to dip, just peel and eat a cured meat stick
to turn your mouth into a deli-flavored stronghold of protection.”
Beef Jerky
Our trained tasters
can’t comment on the stronghold, but they did try 10 sliced beef jerky snacks
and five meat sticks. Three of the beef jerkies and two of the sticks tasted
very good; the rest were just ok. When it comes to nutrition, the jerkies win,
with fewer calories than the sticks and far less fat.
How good for you?
Jerky is made from
lean cuts of beef that are cooked at low heat for a long time, so very little
fat makes it into the end product. On the other hand, meat sticks, encased like
sausage, have 8 to 13 grams of fat; including 3 to 5 grams of saturated fat.
The sticks also have about twice the calories of the jerkies.
Pacific Gold Original
All of the tested
products are loaded with sodium. 7 Select Original jerky, for instance, has 600
milligrams per serving. If you were to eat the contents of a 3 – ounce bag (
that’s not a lot), you’d consume more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium, the
American Heart Association’s suggested daily limit.
All of the meat sticks
and some of the jerkies contain preservatives, including nitrites. The jerkies
from Oh Boy Oberto, Pacific Gold (Costco), Trader Joe’s, and 365 Everyday Value
Organic (Whole Foods) lack those additives.
Market Pantry Original
Other jerkies are made
of turkey, chicken, buffalo, bacon, salmon, or tuna, but nutritionally, none
we’ve seen varies much from beef.
How tasty?
The best jerkies have
a just-right chewy texture. Oh Boy Oberto Original is a tad spicy, with
well-blended smoke, brown sugar, garlic, and fruit flavors. Pacific Gold is
sweeter than most and has a distinct black pepper flavor. Market Pantry
Original has fairly complex and intense flavors, though our testers found the
taste varied slightly from piece to piece. Some of the lower-rated jerkies are
too dry and tough. Tasters compared the texture of Nice Original jerky to that
of a splintering popsicle stick. The bottom-ranked store brands from Whole
Foods and Trader Joe’s are too soft and have an organ-meat or metallic note.
Ratings Jerky and meat sticks
The best meat sticks
aren’t from top-selling Slim Jim and Jack Link’s; our experts said those taste
fatty and have tough castings. Nice, best among the sticks, has salami-like
flavors, and runner-up Market Pantry is a little spicy and has more meat flavor
than others.
Bottom line
Neither jerky nor meat
sticks are exactly good for you, but jerky is the more healthful protein
pick-me-up. Among the very tasty choices, Pacific Gold is the best value.
By the numbers: 12.9%
That’s the rise in sales of jerky for the
year ending on Dec.2,2012, according to SymphonyIRI Group, a Chicago market-research
firm.
