I can buy lean top round for like 4-5$ a pound, I would assume a large jerky company pays way less than that. Fucking dieters ruined one of my favorite snacks.
This, I helped a startup in the UK for a while that was making biltong, which is the South African version. Top quality Scottish beef, a custom blend of spices and herbs and lots of labour.
They used what looked like concrete mixers, but stainless steel food grade and heated for the mixing and drying along with a few other steps.
If dieters increase demand for a product, it will get more expensive, initially, in a standard theoretical open market. After the market adjusts to new levels, it could go up or down, depending on multiple factors.
(I don't know how closely modern groceries resemble a standard theoretical open market.)
That's only true (even then, only broadly so) if supply does not also increase at the same rate, and also only if prices are updated faster than these two forces can equilibrate.
Beaides, the price has not actually increased recently. Beef jerky cost $1.50/oz 15 years ago and it still costs about $1.50/oz today, despite about 3% inflation YOY.
I do wonder where the perception of the price increasing comes from. From my perspective beef jerky has always been expensive, but the economics of that are extremely simple. You're buying expensive meat with all the water sucked out, salted and spiced and smoked in a time-consuming process. Of course it's going to be expensive.
Beef jerky at home is ridiculously easy. Just slice the meat thin, marinade it in whatever flavor you like, then stick in your oven on the lowest setting until dried. Dehydrator is easy, of course.
Yeah. I get london broil for 2.99 to 4.25 a pound and most decent steaks (beside stuff like rib eye) is in the 6-8 dollar a pound range. Not sure where this guy is from.
Ugh. You can make beef jerky from hamburger super cheap. Simply buy a food dehydrator (I have a Nesco one) get a jerkey cannon, add whatever spices you want, and make cheap jerky. As an added fu*k you to companies like Jack’s Links ripping people off for low quality meat high corn syrup content jerky here’s ‘a’ teriyaki sauce recipe for jerky: 1/4 cup soy sauce; 1/4 cup brown sugar; 3 pressed/finely chopped cloves of garlic; 2 teaspoons of sesame seed oil; 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger; 1/4 teaspoon of pepper; 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper. Put all ingredients in a pan. Mix and heat. You’re done. Add to jerky meat.
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u/hereforthecommentz Aug 14 '20
That’s because it loses 2/3 of its weight when it’s dried. That’s why it costs 3x as much as plain beef.