Post – In the south plains of Texas, where cotton is king, lies a town that has a connection with a cash crop you crave in the morning. Post, Texas was founded as Post City in 1907 by cereal tycoon Charles William Post. Now, in the post Post world, Post, Texas is now all about two things.
“Football. It’s all about football here,” Jamie Hernandez said.
Jamie Hernandez used to play for the hometown Antelopes, but now he has a connection to the other prized export here: Jackson Brother’s Meat Locker.
“That old Sasquatch dude can’t hang with our jerky,” Jamie said.
Now, before you go starting a big ol’ beef with bigfoot, it’s probably best to backup your claim. At Jackson Brother’s, it’s not called world famous for the fun of it. We’ve tried all sorts of jerky while traveling across Texas, but the beef sticks here a bit bigger than most. Jackson Brothers originally got its start as a butcher. Started by brothers Bo and Jim back in the 60’s, Jamie’s father David Hernandez and his cousin Jose Rodriguez bought the business that they had worked at since the 70’s from the brothers back in 2000.
“He gave me opportunity to take over,” David said. “That’s what I enjoy. My whole life is working.”
Together, they’ve kept up with the tradition of this time-honored process of procuring smoked meat.
“The recipe, it’s maybe got tweaked here and there, but it’s been the same for a long time,” Jamie said. “They’ve kept it the same.”
Don’t fix what ain’t broke.
“Everything’s old, Jamie said. “A lot of the stuff is original. Slowly but surely, we’ve had to replace a lot of it, but they try not to. Man, I’m telling you, anything you change on these guys, it’s like world changing.”
We don’t want to change their world, but Jamie was nice enough let us into it and gave us quick course on how the beef sticks are made.
“Basically, it’s where the guys start off with the round and that’s where they get the jerky out of,” David said. “Raw jerky. Piece by piece, that’s the process right there.”
Once the massive strips of meat are hung, it’s time for pepper.
“This is where we pretty much spice the jerky up,” David said. “Of course, you’ve seen the first process. This is where we put it in pepper, hang it up, and then it goes to the smokehouse. I mean, it’s a pretty simple little process, but we’ve mastered it pretty good. This right here is the plain jerky, and that’s the pepper jerky. If you like pepper, it’s the way to go.”
There’s only one thing left to do: Try it out.
“You can put it in Bloody Marys, you can put it in anything,” David said. “That’s what my in-laws do. Jerk kills everything.”
Once this catches on, Jackson Brother’s Beef Jerky will be an even hotter commodity in the state that loves its beef. It’s well worth a stop on the Texas Bucket List.
“Hopefully, we can keep the doors open forever,” Jamie said. “Jerky. As long as the jerky keeps flying though, then we should be alright.”