Meat Makers Beef Original Sports 40g

Meat Makers Beef Original Sports 40g — the one to start with

Meat Makers Beef Original is the plain bag in the Sports range from Lithuanian producer The Meat Makers, and plain is meant as a compliment. Every jerky range needs a baseline: the version with no gimmick on the front, where you find out whether the meat underneath is any good. This is that bag. Whole-muscle beef, a restrained cure, dried until the strips are firm and pliable, and nothing shouting over the top of it.

Why this one

• The benchmark: taste this first and every other flavour in the range makes sense afterwards, because you know what is being seasoned.
• Lean and protein-dense: whole-muscle beef dried down, not reformed or pressed into shape.
• Low in sugar: there is a touch of sweetness in the cure, but nothing close to the sticky glaze of a barbecue jerky.
• Nothing artificial doing the flavouring: the taste is what comes off the marinade and the drying.

How The Meat Makers make it

The cure leans on red wine and honey for depth rather than sweetness, and the beef is dried slowly so the strips keep some bend. The Sports line is the producer's stripped-back half — it exists to be carried around and eaten, not to be admired on a cheeseboard — and the Original is where that idea is at its purest.

Taste and texture

Straight-ahead beef, savoury and rounded, with a faint winey depth at the back and enough salt to keep it interesting. The strips are smooth and tender with an easy give — an honest chew rather than a wrestling match. It is the most repeatable flavour in the range, which is exactly why people buy it by the box once they have worked through the others.

When to reach for it

The bag for the rucksack you never quite unpack, for a train journey where the buffet car is a rumour, and for the twenty minutes after training when you want food rather than a shake. It is also the safest thing to hand to someone who says they do not like jerky, because there is nothing in it to object to.

Frequently asked

Where should I start in the Sports line? Here. Then Peppered if you want it sharper, or Ginger Honey if you want something sweeter.

Does it need a fridge? No. Sealed, cool and dry is enough, and the bag reseals once you have opened it.

Is it chewy? Moderately. Firm enough to feel like meat, soft enough that you are not still working on it two minutes later.

Order Meat Makers Beef Original Sports 40g at Jerky Store Europe

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