Carne Seca A New Mexican Traditional Flavor

Is Carne Seca the same as Beef Jerky?

Carne Seca in Spanish means dried meat. Carne Seca can indeed be the same as beef jerky if that jerky is marinated and not too dry. Many in Mexico and the southwestern states use the terms interchangeably. Served on it’s on, carne seca looks like beef jerky and is to be eaten with a squeeze of lime and salt to flavor.

Carne Seca is also the name of the meat many Mexican dishes use to fill empanadas and tacos. Here the meat is also marinated before dried to encourage more flavor in the dishes it will be used in. So, the answer to the question is, carne seca is beef jerky, and it is not.

Beef jerky can be very dry and thin. It can be dusty as well, if the flavors have been just opened up in a packet and poured over it during the drying process. A lot of this jerky gives us real traditional jerky guys a bad name.

At Jerky By Art we use several different methods in creating our flavorful meats, ensuring that none of it is dry. We cut our jerky fairly thick so you won’t find it dry. And we won’t even DISCUSS opening up some dried up spice flavor packet and pouring it on top. Well, that’s just not how we do things!

Most of our jerky is marinated, making it very similar to carne seca. We use a special marinade to get our smokey mesquite flavor. Some of jerkies are dipped during the drying process. And we’re not going to lie to you, we do use some dried spices on our beef. We rub the delicious flavor in before drying the meat. This makes sure in the drying process that the flavors are imbued in the beef.

In addition to great practices for flavoring our beef, we ensure that it has a great local flavor by sourcing all our chile and beef regionally. Whether you call it carne seca or beef jerky, we’re happy to serve it to you knowing we’ve used the best available ingredients to make your mouth water! Try some today: Red Chile.