Wild West Jerky

Wild West Jerky's about page says the cooks stop while a little moisture is still in the meat, so the jerky can be enjoyed "rather than tasting like an old boot." The Levan shop strips the meat by hand and smokes all of it over 100 percent hickory. The strips are cut to medium thickness, and the seasoning goes on as a dry rub.

The smoking runs in the family. Corey Carlos's father started Ted's Quality Meats in Payson in 1980 and bought the Nephi meat packing plant in 1999. There he handled game processing and cut and wrap work, and wild game jerky came out of that plant too. Ted retired in 2008, Utah's Own says. His son wanted to keep the work going, so that April Corey opened a store of his own in Levan.

The about page says the shop buys choice meat, not the tough utility bulls and cows it says fill most of the jerky market, and that it works with Utah ranchers and others across the western states. The catalog goes well past beef and pork to buffalo, elk, venison and turkey. The salmon, its product page says, is wild caught king salmon from Alaska, smoked over the same hickory. There is also an elk snack stick with pepperoni flavoring, which the shop calls Elkeroni.

Many product pages list the ingredients down to the stevia. The page for the jalapeno venison skips all that. Its entire description is one sentence: "This Delicious Road Kill Is Worth Grabbing."

Jerky is not the only thing that comes through the door. The shop is also a game processor, and the about page offers that service to Utah hunters right next to the catalog. The company calls itself the original Utah based jerky provider, which is a claim only the company makes. Utah's Own says Carlos wants his smoked meat free of preservatives.

Carlos has spent years taking the jerky on the road. Utah's Own lists farmers markets in Park City and Park Silly days among his stops, along with sportsman expos and gun shows. A reviewer quoted on that page says he has traveled to 47 states for work and bought a lot of jerky, cheap and expensive. He ranks this among the best.

The website will ship the bags anywhere in the country. The smoking still happens in Levan, at the counter Carlos opened the spring his father retired.