Okay, admittedly this one isn't that exotic, but it is kind of weird, at least. I've reported on various kinds of jerkies before, such as on January 4th, 2025, and one on vegetarian jerkies on September 25, 2021. But today I thought I'd cover one made from mushrooms. Specifically, the original mushroom jerky from Pan's.
For a change, I was easily able to learn some about the history of the Pan's brand, and the company behind it, which is Panco Foods, Inc., out of Portland, Oregon. In 2006 Michael Pan visited some relatives in Malaysia. The folks were vegetarian Buddhists, so clearly they didn't eat meat. But they did make a dried snack out of mushrooms. Michael was dazzled by this, and remembered the great taste when he returned back home to Oregon. He was an engineer by training, and he continued this career for quite some time. However, in 2018 he launched Pan's mushroom jerky, inspired by his relatives' creation. Initially there were four flavors, but this has expanded since. In late 2020, Pan was a guest on the ABC television program "Shark Tank." Once the judges and potential investors tasted his mushroom jerky, they were interested enough to get involved. Mark Cuban made a deal with Pan, and others invested as well. That financial boon, and the national exposure helped Pan's business spread, and thrive. As of now, beside the one I tried, Pan's also makes mushroom jerky flavors of teriyaki, curry, salt & pepper, applewood barbecue, zesty Thai, and a limited edition kind that uses sichuan mala mushrooms instead of the usual shiitake mushrooms as the base. The Pan mushroom jerkies are also obviously vegan-appropriate, and free of gluten, soy, and GMOs. Additionally, they're "Earth Kosher," which I just learned is an organization founded in 2004 that assists companies in earning kosher certification in an affordable and accepted manner. (I don't know if some super hardcore Jews refuse to accept this Earth Kosher designation, so that's up to the consumer to decide, I guess.) There is a warning on the Pan label about California's Prop 65 act, based on the safety legislation from 1986. Pan claims that the mushrooms they use may absorb minute amounts of cadmium, lead, and mercury from the soil they're grown in, but that these levels are not high enough to be dangerous for people. Again, I suppose potential customers can research this and decide for themselves if they want to eat Pan's products.
Pan's mushroom jerky, original flavor: Had a brownish-black color. Earthy odor. It was stems and caps chopped up, so the shapes and sizes were variable. The texture was quite chewy, even though the pieces were dry. Pretty good. I like mushrooms in general, so this wasn't a big surprise. This was a new, and different way to enjoy them. Kind of odd, but more than decent. I would definitely recommend them, unless you really hate mushrooms.
Pan's website mentions that their mushroom jerky is "satisfyingly umami." Which, once more, I had to look up. Well, umami is a word coined by Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda. In 1908 he identified a fifth basic taste, to go along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Umami is savoriness, as is produced by glutamate and some nucleotides like inosine monophosphate and guanosine monophosphate. These substances help form the overall tastes in foods like beef, cheese, seafood, and soy sauce.
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