A Review of Tibbs Beef Jerky

What makes beef jerky so good? Most anyone who likes the taste of meat, will tell you they enjoy jerky. Sometimes occasionally, many times it serves as a staple.

Jerky is convenient because you don't need a refrigerator to store it. You can take it camping, on road trips, to school or work. It's portable and not usually easy to make a mess out of.

There are many different types of jerky besides beef: Venison, alligator, turkey - you name it. Any variety of meat that can be consumed by a human, can probably be converted into jerky.

Though the nature of its exact origin is under dispute, jerky seems to have evolved from societies hundreds, possibly thousands of years ago, who wanted a way to preserve their meat. Methods involving the addition of salt and drying the meat were developed. From using the salt and the sun, to implementing smoke cooking and additional spices, modern jerky was developed.

In addition to prolonging the life of the meat, jerky also provided a portable food source for nomadic societies. This was useful for the mobile cultures whose food sources were limited.

Jerky is as useful to modern man as it is to his or her ancestors.

From what I gather on the website, Tibbs is a company founded in the Central Valley region of California, started by a young man who "really liked jerky" and worked to perfect one with a desirable flavor and texture.

One of the points he makes, and I agree with is that texture can greatly influence the quality of jerky. Some jerkies are a bit drier and tough and you can enjoy them in your mouth a bit. Others are already moist and almost feel like fresh slices of meat.

Both are pretty good - provided the right flavoring is included. As Tibbs observed himself on commercially available jerky products: "The flavor was bland. The texture was weird. They were either too brittle or too thin. It left a bad after-taste in your mouth. And the more I ate it, the more it felt like I was biting into something that didn’t even resemble food anymore."

With this company, Tibbs seems to have tried to create the perfect jerky.

Yes, jerky is certainly a healthy alternative to fried meats Very little fat, lots of proteins, minimal carbs. Compatible with keto and paleo diets.

If you are a carnivore and looking for a way to try and loose weight, yet maintain your meat consumption, jerky is definitely an option.

Tibbs makes that point as well, claiming that he once weighed over 260 pounds and that a jerky diet helped him loose some of that unwanted weight.

Whether you can actually loose weight with a strict diet of dried beef is probably up for debate. It certainly would be a fun experiment to attempt.

Jerky, wherever you buy it, is pretty expensive.

Tibbs, for example sells 1.66 oz pouches. Let's round that up to 2 for the sake of making the math easier. At $5 a pouch - when you buy in bulk, that is $40 a pound.

That's a pretty expensive piece of rib eye/fillet that probably isn't from one of those cuts.

Is it worth it however, considering the time and spices and other flavors that went into it? That is totally up to you.

Well, in my opinion this jerky is pretty good. So yes, it is worth the expense.

And until I learn how to make my own...

I'll still be sampling other jerkies out there.