Unlike the standard truck-stop variety, the A & M jerky is pulled off the muscle, not ground up and reconstituted. Like most jerky, it’s from a lean cut — top round — because the fat that gives a buttery richness to cooked meats makes dried meat too tough. Sliced with the grain for a good chew, it is then marinated in a salty brine for a week before being peppered and smoked for three days with hickory sawdust smoke…

There is clearly a jerky renaissance under way. At Café Rouge in Berkeley, Calif., the executive chef, Marsha McBride, is making jerky from slices of Niman Ranch chuck and beef bottom round, and from unused meat off carcasses from Chez Panisse. Ms. McBride seasons her meat with brown sugar and cayenne, dries it for four hours, and serves it at the bar on butcher paper. “It’s perfect with Scotch and martinis,” she said.

Across the bay at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco, Taylor Boetticher, a co-owner of the Fatted Calf, an artisanal charcuterie, sells paper cones of jerky (at $25 a pound) made from organic grass-fed Marin Sun Farms bottom round that has been cut against the grain in long slices. Smoked over cherry and mesquite wood, and dried in a convection oven, it gets its flavors from organic blackstrap molasses, Jim Beam bourbon, and salt and pepper.

Source:   http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/dining/25jerk.html?fta=y

-------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpt:   But comparing commercial jerky to artisan jerky is like comparing Budweiser to a local microbrew. Both are beer, but comparisons end there.

It's not just about chemical additives or whether the meat is from choice cuts of local cows or from industrial cuts of Australian or Brazilian cattle. It's about crafting.

"My jerky is handmade in small batches," said Ron Ware Jr. of Green Valley Meats in Auburn, Wash. "I would be the artist because every batch of jerky passes through my hands."

…

At Green Valley meats, apple jerky infused with fruit compote had the bright flavor of green apples and the clean intensity of fresh beef; elk, veal and buffalo, though farm-raised, were wildly gamy; and "pioneer" jerky, run through the tenderizing machine that makes cube steak, was a denture-wearer's dream.

"Most people like a moist, flavorful piece of meat," said Butch Carlson of Stewart's Meats in Yelm, Wash. "Some of the jerkies are real dry, almost like cardboard, where you have to suck on them and get them full of saliva just to make them edible."

At Stewart's, tenderness and edibility are not problems: Lamb jerky was musky-sweet and intensely chewable; maple jerky was at once beefy, sweet and slightly crusty; and alder jerky looked like lacquered bark and tasted like a cross between a steer and a tree; veal was as tender as its name implies.

Source:   http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=222547

-------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpt:   But beef jerky connoisseurs need not worry. With funding provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service, K-State researchers Elizabeth Boyle and Kelly Getty have validated a new way for small-scale jerky producers to keep both E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella out of the food chain.

"The number of small plants producing jerky and other meat products has declined rapidly since the 1990s," Boyle said. "The standards became more strict and, in some cases, harder to abide by. That trend has had a definite economic impact on small towns like those in Kansas that have traditionally been home to smaller-scale meat producers."

…

A commercial processor provided samples of the batter used to make chopped and formed beef jerky. The researchers then inoculated the raw batter with either E. coli O157:H7 or Salmonella and extruded it into strips measuring 2.54 long by 0.64 centimeters wide. The strips were then thermally processed in K-State's own pathogen dedicated commercial smokehouse for nearly seven hours, using varying rates of relative humidity and temperature.

Researchers determined that the worst-case scenario for a commercial jerky process does not adequately reduce the pathogens as required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. In order to ensure that both pathogens were destroyed, researchers found that an additional hour and a half of drying at 68 degrees Celsius was needed.

Source:   http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/101466.php

-------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpt:   The economy -- a roiling caldron of evaporating jobs and soaring food prices -- has caused shoppers to migrate to cheaper store brands at rates not seen since the last recession in 2001, according to market researcher Nielsen Co. Back then, they shifted right back to name brands when the economy perked up.

But this time, the shift may be more permanent, potentially benefiting food retailers at the expense of packaged-food manufacturers, industry analysts say. Since the last recession, supermarket chains have poured millions into beefing up their private labels, launching new brands, improving packaging and bolstering quality.

"I do think we are in for some very fundamental long-term shifts for private label just because so many retailers are getting behind it," said Todd Hale, a senior vice president at Nielsen. "And, without question, consumers have a more positive attitude toward private label."

The upshot: When shoppers such as Ernst switch, they may be more likely to leave a name brand behind permanently. "I think if I don't see any difference, I'll stick with the store brand," she said.

Shoppers increasingly find little difference between name brands and store brands, which typically cost 25 percent less. A recent Nielsen survey found that 63 percent of consumers said the quality of most store brands is as good as that of name brands, up from 60 percent three years ago.

Source:   Hughlett, Mike. "Shoppers pick up store brands - In slowdown, consumers are drawn to, may stick with labels that typically cost 25% less." Chicago Tribune. 21 Nov. 2008.  Access World News.  NewsBank. University of Texas at San Antonio, John Peace Library. San Antonio, TX. 10 Mar 2009