For the hunters out there you know the joy of Venison Jerky. Although venison is not generally found in packaged Jerky offerings, after you’ve brought home a fresh deer, Jerky is a great way to store and enjoy your prize. Venison is generally leaner than beef and the flavor of the meat stands out more than many types of beef where the meat flavor has been bred out.
The big difference between beef and Venison is that Venison fat and connective tissue does not taste that good. So a butcher preparing Venison will generally remove everything but the pure red meat. This leaves a very lean cut to make Jerky. On top of this, Celestinos Venison Jerky is cut very thin which balances the Venison flavor with the seasonings applied.
Because of the lean meat and thin slices the meat starts out in your mouth as a hard-leather like texture. But as you begin to work it in your mouth and your saliva re-hydrates the meat the flavor comes alive. Celestinos Venison Jerky is not gamey, in fact it has a very mild flavor where you can taste Venison and the Teriyaki in each bite its a great mix if you’ve never tried Venison. But be aware you better like jerky because you’ve got to work this meat in your mouth before it will give up its flavor.
Since Celestinos Venison Jerky is a butcher-shop product we don’t know much about the nutritional value but its safe to say the Teriyaki has soy sauce that provides the sodium in this snack. Celestinos also adds a pinch of garlic powder and crushed Red Peppers and Cayanne to give it some kick. Sodium seemed a little high but this may be because of the paper-thin cut of the meat. The 4 oz bag has a lot more pieces than other jerky and at $9 (March 2015) it comes in at the same price as Celestinos beef jerky at $2.25 an ounce.
This Jerky gets 4-Flavor points, 4-Chew points and 3-Heat the 3-Sodium and 3-Value points so overall its a solid 3.5 Jerky. Some people worry about Venison being gamey, but when properly prepared it offers a wonderful meat-eating experience and you can feel good about the fact that you are doing a biker a favor by responsibly managing the deer population. Remember, it’s better to eat them than to crash into them.