While meat prices are on the rise, please trust that I do everything in my power to keep my prices down through sourcing quality ingredients in quantity and limiting waste…
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/01/30/soaring-beef-prices-force-shoppers-to-find-other-foods/
Some of you may have read about the trials and tribulations in my use of the Weston 10-tray stainless steel dehydrator. The first one I received had a manufacturing defect that rendered the 10-tray dehydrator an 8-tray. On top of that, the front door wouldn’t really stay on.
These minor quibbles were trivial compared to the God-awful jackhammering noise that the dehydrator made frequently, although not all of the time. I’m pretty sure the Bush administration used it as a torture device. Anyway, if all that wasn’t enough after Weston finally agreed to replace the 18 day old dehydrator with a new one (begrudgingly at their expense for shipping), I continued to use it despite the noise.
No one told me that it should not be plugged into outlets with other devices. So on Friday morning, when it was plugged into an outlet shared by a refrigerator, the damn thing made a smell, then exploded and then there was a fire. Suffice it to say, very uncool.
So the new dehydrator comes today. I’m excited to find that all of the 10 trays fit into the slots. The door fit nicely on the dehydrator as well. I loaded the puppy up with 10 pounds of American BBQ goodness and…the jackhammering was back!!! Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. Customer service said originally that the screws get loos and rattle…but to happen in two brand new dehydrators? Color me skeptical.
In other news, the Superbowl frenzy has resulted in many a request for jerky, which I’m working hard to fulfill. Thanks to all my friends, fans, and fellow jerky lovers! GO PATS!
Friends:
It was my new buddy and good buddy Steve’s birthday this weekend, and we celebrated with an ambitious bicycle pub crawl in both Santa Monica and Venice. I brought along samples of Japanese Curry, American BBQ, and Hawaiian Teriyaki. Most regretfully, what I did not bring was my camera, and my cell phone was short on battery. So I don’t have photos of friends and strangers alike voraciously gobbling up LAWLESS JERKY along with their beers. You’ll just have to trust me. I did take one photo…of sunset hour near the pier in Santa Monica.
As you will soon see, I had a very rough morning. This song made my day better though…a true poppy foot tapper. Brett Dennen is great, and so philosophically grounded… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z18kgaoTJw (“Comeback Kid”)
Today was absolutely nuts. I woke up at 3 am and realized I conked out without brushing my teeth or taking out my contact lenses. Almost immediately, I rushed to the kitchen to check the jerky. The dehydrator was off but there was a batch hyper-cooling in the freezer. I rescued that batch and brushed my teeth and went back to bed.
Fast forward to 6:30 am…I’m up and load a full dehydrator to include everything from Vegan “Peace” OG Jerky to American BBQ jerky to Grassfed OG Jerky to Bison OG Jerky. It was wild. I was checking my morning emails when I heard a scream from the kitchen. My sister had witnessed the 2.5 week old Weston stainless steel commercial dehydrator BLOW UP. There was a smell, then a popping sound, and then a legitimate fire inside the dehydrator. I was summoned and saved the jerky from the flames, which subsided of their own accord. FORTUNATELY. Some perilous sh!t for 815 am. I quickly tapped my backup dehydrator and began calling the Weston manufacturer, Sears.com, Sears customer support, the third party middleman who sold on Sears.com, and the Sears credit card that the item was purchased on. Only the manufacturer gave me recourse, which consisted of an offer of a new dehydrator (which was coming anyway [see prior post]) or a willingness to provide me with a refund. Conceptually, the Weston is a large badass dehydrator, and I want a working one. So I’ll give them another try.
Having taken care of the dehydrating jerky, I began filling an order for 3 pounds, one of each flavor. I commiserate with web guru Bennington Purcell, who threw in some sympathy with his latest recommendations for my humble site.
I had my sister take some design concepts to some folks at her work who love my jerky and who do graphic design, and the beginnings of my logos for each flavor are under way. Big shoutout to Mike who has agreed to help design my next iteration of packaging designs.
Next, I finalized and shipped my first ever batch of Vegan “Peace” Jerky, in the OG/Japanese Curry variety. A customer in Los Angeles’ “Silver Lake” was the lucky recipient.
Speaking of lucky, I was invited to an antique mansion “Clue” party for which I dressed as The Duke of Blue (new character for 2012, coming fully equipped with vintage Duke letter sweater and Wilson NFL football…and sherlock pipe). More importantly, however, I brought samples of the jerky, including Japanese Curry, American BBQ, and the pilot Hawaiian Teriyaki flavor. I brought 67 sample bags of jerky to a house full of about 30 people, and the jerky was gone before everyone could try it. I got some minimal constructive criticism, but the reviews were largely ecstatic. Folks gobbled up the business cards like they did the jerky. Birthday boy Dave’s guests were taken care of!!
Having had to bag a ton of jerky on short notice,I didn’t have the chance to eat dinner, which I’m doing now at 2:56 a.m. Seeing people gush over my product really energizes me, and I’m excited about things to come. On Saturday there’s going to be another birthday party that I’ll be doing party favors for, my boy Steve! I look forward to getting more valuable feedback and meeting new, valuable customers through sharing my jerky tomorrow…errrr later today!
Thanks for caring. I love you for reading this. And for being you.
Matt
And it begins. After long hours in the lab and with a focus group, Hawaiian Teriyaki has made an appearance, joining American BBQ and Japanese Curry as my triumverate of flavors.
Today, one lucky customer is set to receive the first mixed pack of jerky, a 1-pound grab bag containing 1/3 lb of each flavor. For $25, you too can experience all three LAWLESS JERKY flavors.
For you vegans out there, the lab results did not fare so well for my Peace Jerky, which is in ICU with a dubious outlook.
Full grown, finally a man, just scheming on ways
to put some green inside the palms of my empty hands
Just picture me rollin’
Tupac, “Picture Me Rolling”
January 25, 2012: What’s new on the jerky front? Here goes….
1) Tofu “Peace” Jerky: The prospect of tasty tofu jerky took a turn for the worse in the last 24 hours. First, I attempted the Japanese Curry flavor of Peace Jerky. The consistency was not enjoyable and the flavor was overwhelmingly strong. There’s something fundamentally different between the water levels inherent in lean meat protein and vegetable carbohydrates/protein from soy. Definitely far from mastering the tofu jerky but not giving up!
2) Teriyaki Jerky: After getting the jerky tasting feedback from a dozen friends, I whipped up two versions of the winning marinade. I applied each to a small batch of meat and commenced to jerk. The results were sampled by yours truly and a fellow Tolnick, my sister Laurel. We each administered several blind tastings to the other, and we decided on a marinade to move forward with for a 5-pound batch. In scaling up the ingredients, I made some minor tweakings to taste, and the marinade smelled wonderful. Here’s the now-marinating meat:
3) Eco-Friendly Jerky: At the behest of one of my dearest customers, I picked up some organic, grassfed steak for use in a custom batch of Japanese Curry LAWLESS JERKY. Additionally, I picked up some bison medallions which I’ll marinate with the same Japanese Curry flavor. IT should be interesting to see how the different meats take to the same marinade.
4) SPECIAL DEAL! For those devoted readers who have gotten this far, place a 1+ pound order in the next week and receive free samples of the grassfed organic and bison jerky! When ordering, use code word GOTYE.
He won’t have it , he knows his whole back’s to these ropes
It don’t matter, he’s dope
He knows that, but he’s broke
He’s so stagnant that he knows
When he goes back to his mobile home, that’s when it’s
Back to the lab again, yo
This whole rhapsody
He better go capture this moment and hope it don’t pass him
- Eminem, “Lose Yourself”
Well, I’m back in the lab, and this time it’s to dehydrate the Vegan OG and the two variations of Pacific Teriyaki. After about half of the dehydration time, I’m feeling really good about the consistency and flavor of the tofu….my recipes are ironclad, I’m just worried about the tofurky’s consistency.
The coloring of the Pacific Teriyaki, and the dried sesame seeds visible on the jerky is a real nice touch. The color actually reminds me of the Malaysian Jerky I had in Manhattan’s China Town….so that’s encouraging.
Haven’t tasted them yet…will come later. But for now, here are some photos to get those salivary glands wet…
For those of you concerned about your calorie, fat, and saturated fat intakes, I want to show you just how lean the steak I use in LAWLESS JERKY really is. Please see the photo below. The red, fleshy area is lean muscle….all protein. The white area is fat. From the looks of it to me, this meat is 98+% fat free.
