Indiana Soft Beef Jerky Peppered

Indiana Soft Beef Jerky Peppered: tender strips, serious pepper

Indiana Soft Beef Jerky Peppered takes the tender Soft texture and puts coarse black pepper front and centre. It is the sharpest of the three Soft beef jerky flavours: aromatic, warming and savoury, with just enough sweetness underneath to stop the pepper running off with the whole bag.

Why this one

• Pepper you taste, not pepper you read about: this is not a dusting on the surface. The pepper is the reason the bag exists.
• Sharp, not hot: the kick is aromatic rather than burning, so you can finish a bag and still taste whatever you eat next.
• Tender bite: the Soft drying leaves the strips flexible, so the pepper lands before the chewing even starts.
• One bag or fifteen: a 20 g pack for the coat pocket, or a case for the drawer you keep to yourself.

How Indiana makes it

The beef is cured and seasoned, given a light smoke and then dried gently, stopping well short of the point where a strip turns rigid. The pepper is worked in before the drying stage rather than after, which is why it stays on the meat and not on your fingers. Bags are packed under a protective atmosphere and keep at room temperature until opened. Indiana asks for an open bag to be finished within a couple of days.

Taste and texture

Pepper arrives first, resinous and faintly floral, then the savoury beef base comes up underneath with a quiet sweetness holding the two together. The finish is long and warm and makes you notice your own tongue for a second or two. Texturally it is the same forgiving Soft chew as the Original, soft-edged and fibrous with no fight in it, which is a genuinely odd and very good combination with this much pepper on top.

Who it is for

Night shifts and early starts, when something with an edge to it does more good than another cereal bar. Commutes. People who reach for the pepper mill before they have tasted the food. And anyone who wants the classic Indiana Peppered flavour without the classic Indiana Peppered chew.

Frequently asked

How does it compare to Indiana's classic Peppered jerky? Same pepper-led idea, different texture. The classic strips are firm and dry, these are tender and far easier going. Choose on chew rather than on flavour.

Is there sweetness in it? A little, and deliberately so. It rounds the pepper off rather than making the jerky taste sweet.

Where should it be kept? A cupboard, sealed. Once a bag is open, give it a couple of days.

Order Indiana Soft Beef Jerky Peppered at Jerky Store Europe

The 20 g bag and the fifteen-pack case are both on the shelf, shipping fast across Europe from Jerky Store Europe.