Along my usual strolls through my local Grocery Outlet, I ran across this Teriyaki Jerky. I love beef jerky, turkey jerky and even pork jerky. But, I have never had mushroom jerky. “Very interesting,” I thought to myself. After deciding $2.99 was a decent price to pay for a trial, I put it in the basket. I also bought a bag of beef jerky just in case.
I couldn’t wait to try this “jerky” out. But, the packaging is pretty child proof – I could barely open it after tearing off the top portion above the zip lock line. I put jerky in quotations because I imagined that beef jerky was given the name jerky because when you bite the meat, once your teeth cuts the meat apart, your head jerks back. Alas, I’m wrong again. According to to this site, the term beef jerky derived from a Native South American tribe’s word “ch’arki,” meaning to burn meat. You learn something new every day – I hope…
Once the package was open, I grabbed a couple of slices of mushrooms and popped them in my mouth. The umami was there. The smokiness you expect from a bag of beef jerkey was there. I have to say, it was pretty tasty. My only problem with the experience is that the mushrooms themselves lacked bite that you expect from jerky. It was obviously more rigid than mushrooms that have been sautee’d, but not by too much.
The Verdict?
I’m not sure that I will finish the bag. The taste is fine, but this particular substitute for beef jerky isn’t quite close enough in terms of texture. I can see why someone would want this though. We all know how hard it is to raise cattle, so having some alternatives would be nice. Additionally, what drew me to this item was that the sodium level looked pretty good. There are a lot of jerky options out there that range from 20%-30% in sodium level. That’s just too much for one item. In summary, I really wanted to like this, but I may not purchase this again. However, I hope that people who are looking for a plant based jerky will enjoy it.
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