Review/Giveaway: Old Trapper Beef Jerky

Out here in the hills of Western Maryland and South Central Pennsylvania, dried meat is a ubiquitous staple in every convenience store or gas station one encounters. Not just your token Slim Jim at the register—you usually get a “meat aisle” that rivals the candy aisle in variety, and you’d be surprised at some of the quality available at your average Sheetz.

As a kid, my dad used to go on a lot of hunting trips. My mom expressly forbid him to hang deer carcasses in the garage or process his own conquests, so he would take them to the butcher and return with various goodies. The jerky and the dried chipped venison were always the best.

Maybe I have been spoiled, but store-bought jerky has always sort of been a consolation prize.  It’s usually sort of shoe-leathery and has that distinct MSG flavor—something that a lot of people (who are not me) actually enjoy.  So, when I do eat it, I want the ingredients to be as close to that childhood jerky as possible.

I recently had the opportunity to try Old Trapper Beef Jerky for review.  Old Trapper is an Oregon-based company that has been in the bee jerky business for over forty years, using, as they say on their site, "the best lean strips of beef, freshest seasoning ingredients, and real wood-fired smoke".  

They sent me a generous bag (10 oz) of their Traditional Style Old Fashioned Beef Jerky, as well as a smaller bag of their teriyaki flavor.

The ingredients in the Traditional Style are thus: Beef, Brown Sugar, Water, Salt, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Vinegar, Flavorings, Sodium Nitrite.

Okay, not too bad in terms of jerky. “Hydrolyzed corn protein” is essentially a natural source of MSG, while Sodium Nitrate is contained in practically all cured meats.

I was slightly disappointed with this discovery, because I was somehow under the impression that “naturally wood smoked” meant “absence of nitrates”.

Old Trapper makes its jerky using quality sliced steak, and bits of gristle and fat were pleasantly absent.

The texture is notably more moist and tender, and chewy without being tough. The brown sugar gives it a slightly sweeter flavor than most, and the vinegar a little bit of tanginess. It is fairly highly seasoned, in my opinion—it could have been a bit more subtle, but that’s just personal taste.

The Teriyaki flavor punched this up to the next level.  The ingredients here are:

Beef, Soy Sauce [Water, Soy Sauce Powder (Wheat, Soybeans, Salt, Maltodextrin) Sodium Benzoate], Brown Sugar, Apple Cider Vinegar, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein, Salt, Flavorings, Sodium Nitrite.

Nothing personal to Old Trapper, I just don’t particularly care for teriyaki. It’s a flavor profile that I find kind of “meh” in general, on anything.

For people who love that super-sweet and salty flavor, this will be a good choice, and  proved to be very popular with people I shared it with.

Of course, venison and beef are two distinctly different flavors, but I would say that Old Trapper is the closest to the butcher-shop quality that I’ve tasted in a store-bought beef jerky, and it should appeal to jerky connoisseurs anywhere.

In addition to Old-Fashioned and Teriyaki, they also currently carry Peppered Jerky, Hot & Spicy, and Original Beefsteak, which is cut into thick strips so that it retains a chewy, meaty quality.

They also offer a number of other snacks, including snack sticks and deli-style sausages in a variety of flavors, as well as snack boxes and an option to make a subscription-style recurring order.

Aside from their products, the website itself is a fun place to visit - the "Old Trapper" himself has his own biography, as well as a series of entertaining video commercials sure to make you laugh.

Old Trapper is generously offering a sample pack of at least 6 of their most popular snacks to one lucky winner in the US. Keep reading to see how you can enter to win!

http://oldtrapper.com/
https://www.facebook.com/oldtrapper
https://twitter.com/old_trapper
https://www.instagram.com/old_trapper/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLd2nihEzChwm0uhFAba3Jw

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment in this entry as instructed by the Giveaway Tools Entry Form below. This will open up additional optional entries to increase your odds of winning. (If you don't leave a comment, any additional entries will be void.)

This giveaway is open to US RESIDENTS ONLY and will end just before midnight ET on 2/24. 

The winners will be notified by email within 24 hours after the end of the giveaway. In order to claim the giveaway prize, the winner will need to respond within 24 hours of notification, or an alternate winner will be selected.

Good luck!

Entry-Form