Vegetarian Jerky
by admin on Feb.01, 2009, under food
Background: From Vegan Dream in California comes this meatless jerky substitute.
Three flavours are available, bu all use the same base of wheat gluten and defatted soy with psyllium husk, soy sauce, and spices. You may ask yourself, “Paul, why are they using soy sauce?” Well, a major flavour component of storebought jerky is monosodium glutamate, also called MSG. MSG is in the way of being an unmentionable word among certain circles of health fanatics (that happens to overlap with vegans), so listing it in the ingredients is a quick way to turn them off. As it happens, glutamates give soy sauce a lot of its flavour, so dimwitted vegans might not notice that they're being fed those nasty chemicals.
Ahem.
My personal experience may be colouring the above paragraph.
Appearance: The product vaguely resembles jerky made from processed (ground) meat, but has a certain disquieting sheen.
Nose/Taste:
Original Hickory Pepper
Smells of smoke and pepper. An encouraging sign for something called Hickory Pepper. Tastes like spices, salt, and umami.
Cowgirl
Smells sweet. Some tomato, some vinegar. Evidently based on “an old cowboy ketchup recipe”, and is definitely reminiscent of that omnipresent condiment. Actually quite sweet, has a wee bit of heat but mainly tastes of tomato.
Hot Chili Pepper
Not much aroma. Has some good chipotle flavour and a nice kick of heat.
Mouthfeel: Here's where it starts to fall apart. As decent as the flavours are (the MSG and spice combination of jerky isn't difficult to replicate), the texture is all wrong. Rather than the clean stringiness of whole muscle jerky or the denser chewiness of processed, what we're presented with is a vague gumminess and an impression of cardboard.
Overall: Not at all a substitute for real jerky, but if you're avoiding meat for religious, ethical, or health reasons, it's not a bad snack. Given an actual choice, though, going with the meat version is a no-brainer.
