Meat Candy is Grub Company's cooked and smoked beef jerky line, built from real sliced beef, a teriyaki and BBQ sauce base, and a smoke flavor finish, sold in two flavors, Hickory Kickory Dock and Baa-Baa BBQ Sheep, both $7.99 for a 2oz bag. Unlike Grub Company's biltong, which is air-dried and vinegar-cured with no cooking involved, Meat Candy goes through an actual cook-and-smoke process with a sauce stack layered on before and during that process. Here's what's actually on the ingredient panel, and how it gets from raw beef to a finished bag.
The Real Ingredient List
Hickory Kickory Dock is built from beef, teriyaki sauce, and a BBQ sauce made of sugar, tomato paste, distilled vinegar, water, corn syrup, molasses, salt, pineapple juice concentrate, and mustard bran. On top of that base sits brown sugar, soy sauce (water, soybeans, wheat, salt, sodium benzoate), maple syrup, honey, Tabasco sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and mesquite smoke flavor.
Baa-Baa BBQ Sheep starts from the same beef and teriyaki sauce base, with a BBQ sauce made of tomato paste, distilled vinegar, sugar, corn syrup, water, molasses, salt, bourbon, and mustard bran. From there it picks up brown sugar, the same soy sauce (water, soybeans, wheat, salt, sodium benzoate), Tabasco sauce, garlic powder, maple syrup, honey, onion powder, black pepper, red pepper, tomato powder, cumin, and hickory smoke flavor. Despite the nursery-rhyme name, it's 100% beef. Grub Company doesn't make lamb jerky, "Baa-Baa" is a reference to "Baa Baa Black Sheep," nothing more.
Both flavors run on the same soy sauce base, which means both contain wheat and soy, and both carry real added sugar through the brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, and corn syrup in the sauce stack. Neither flavor is gluten-free, soy-free, or low-sugar. That's a real, permanent difference from Grub Company's biltong, which contains no added sugar and is both gluten-free and soy-free.
The Beef Grub Company Starts With
Every Meat Candy bag starts from the same standard Grub Company holds across its whole product line: real, premium beef, and nothing else. No mechanically separated chicken, no ground "mystery beef," and definitely no leftover scraps. The beef is sliced before it ever touches the sauce, so what ends up in the bag is a real cut of beef carrying the sauce and smoke flavor, not a reconstituted or ground product pressed into a jerky shape.
How Meat Candy Is Actually Made
The process is what separates Meat Candy from biltong at the most basic level. Biltong is air-dried and vinegar-cured, the beef never sees heat, it's coated in a vinegar-based cure and hung to dry, which is where its clean flavor and firmer, drier texture come from. Meat Candy skips that entirely. The sliced beef is cooked and smoked, with the teriyaki sauce, BBQ sauce, and remaining flavor ingredients (brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, Tabasco, garlic and onion powder, and either mesquite or hickory smoke flavor) built in as part of that process rather than added afterward. That cooking step is why Meat Candy comes out tender with a sticky, caramelized coating instead of the firmer chew you get from an air-dried cure. It's also why the flavor reads as sweet and smoky first, rather than the tangier, saltier profile biltong gets from its vinegar cure. Pull a piece out of a Meat Candy bag and you'll notice sauce residue on your fingers right away, that's the reduced BBQ sauce and honey caramelizing onto the beef during the cook. Pull a piece of biltong out of its bag and your fingers stay dry, because there's no sauce or sugar left behind to begin with.
Kosher Certification
Both Hickory Kickory Dock and Baa-Baa BBQ Sheep are Certified Glatt Kosher by Harav Weissmandl and Aleph K. The certification covers the full Meat Candy line, so a shopper checking for kosher status doesn't need to check flavor by flavor, both meet the same standard biltong does.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Meat Candy actually made from?
Meat Candy starts with real, premium sliced beef, then goes through a cooking and smoking process with a sauce stack built from teriyaki sauce, BBQ sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, and Tabasco sauce. Hickory Kickory Dock finishes with mesquite smoke flavor, and Baa-Baa BBQ Sheep finishes with hickory smoke flavor and added cumin, tomato powder, black pepper, and red pepper for a Korean BBQ-style profile.
Does Meat Candy contain wheat or soy?
Yes. Both Meat Candy flavors use a soy sauce made from water, soybeans, wheat, salt, and sodium benzoate, so every bag contains both wheat and soy. This is different from Grub Company's biltong, which is gluten-free and soy-free.
Is Baa-Baa BBQ Sheep made with lamb?
No, Baa-Baa BBQ Sheep is 100% beef. The name references the nursery rhyme "Baa Baa Black Sheep" as part of Grub Company's whimsical naming for the Meat Candy line, and it has no connection to the meat itself.
How is Meat Candy different from biltong in how it's made?
Meat Candy is cooked and smoked with a sauce stack built in during the process. Biltong is never cooked, it's air-dried and vinegar-cured. That process difference is why Meat Candy comes out tender with a sticky, sweet coating, while biltong comes out firmer and drier with a cleaner, more traditional cured flavor.
Does Meat Candy contain added sugar?
Yes. Both Meat Candy flavors contain brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, and corn syrup as part of the BBQ sauce and flavor stack. This is a real difference from biltong, which has no added sugar in its ingredient list.
Is Meat Candy kosher?
Yes. Both Hickory Kickory Dock and Baa-Baa BBQ Sheep are Certified Glatt Kosher by Harav Weissmandl and Aleph K, the same certifying standard applied across Grub Company's biltong line.
