For the last one hundred years or so Americans have been really spoiled when it comes to food preservation. Home refrigeration hit the market in 1913 and dramatically changed the way that we store food. Even though there have been lots of recent growth in the prepper community which leading to a resurgence of traditional food storage methods like drying and canning, we are still collectively spoiled by technology.
Before modern refrigeration or canning, storing food was essential to prehistoric human survival and early humans had limited methods to cure meat. Heat from the sun or fire were the best means available to dry meat were the sun (still a very widely used method in Africa) and fire. Smoke is also used to cure meat, but smoke alone won’t do the trick. Heat treating (cooking) the meat to an internal temp of 165F or a chemical solution (sodium nitrite) is required to truly cure meat and keep it from spoiling for an extended period of time.
Jack Link’s helped beef jerky make a very strong resurgence in the convince store market in the mid 1980’s, since then it’s really evolved, and so have the consumers. C-Store jerky is now the commodity and a whole new booming craft jerky industry has erupted along with the internet and the ability for lots of companies to successfully penetrate the consumer market. Jerky aficionados know that to get the best jerky, that they are not going to find it in C-Stores. Small Jerky makers who are passionate about what they do are the ones pushing the envelope in today’s jerky market and developing new techniques and recipes that are taking a time honored method for food preservation to a whole new level.
Lucky® Beef Jerky is among these makers. To this small, family owned and operated business, that has been raising cattle for over 4 generations, traditional meat preservation is nothing new. We make our premium jerky from cattle that we raise right here in central Nebraska and we are experimenting with new flavors and styles of jerky weekly and sometimes daily. We are looking for new, epic flavors and flavor combinations that will allow us to take jerky to the next level. We also offer our tried & true flavors to the public on this website. If you have an idea for a flavor, please don’t hesitate to let us know on one of our social media feeds. We’ve been the best kept secret in beef jerky for the past few years, and we’re going to be working hard to get the word out, especially on our bootleg jerky that we’re cooking up here at the farm.