Charlie Sosnick
Web Editor
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWB2Nbw5LFY
On a sunny Saturday afternoon, freshman Charlie Marsh can be found in his kitchen cradling a juicy slab of meat. Intently focused, he thinly slices the beef and drops it in a custom marinade of his own creation. In this moment, Charlie is not thinking about the myriad things typical students concern themselves with; he is concerned only with running the school’s most lucrative beef jerky business.
Charlie dedicates much of his free time to making his own beef jerky and selling it to family, friends, and classmates. He began selling beef jerky around the school in September and quickly found an enthusiastic customer base.
Charlie first began making jerky with his father. “I just started a couple years ago with my dad,” he said. “I usually just helped him cut it but I didn’t know the recipe until seventh grade. Then when I made it at my dad’s, I brought some into school and sold it, and everyone really liked it.”
He has started selling his product under the name Chief Beef, which was suggested by Charlie’s brother, Max. “My brother and I were upstairs in our room thinking of a name and he’s like, ‘Oh, Chief Beef!’” and I’m like “Wow, that’s pretty good,’” Charlie said.
Originally, both Marsh brothers were making the jerky together. “My brother and I both bought [the dehydrator]together, but he never uses it. I just use it.”
In high school, Charlie turned his hobby into a business. He invested in a dehydrator, a specialized kitchen appliance that dries out meat. Charlie leaves the beef in the dehydrator for up to eight hours to turn it into jerky. “This year I bought a dehydrator in September and now I’m buying my own meat and selling it and I’ve made a lot of money,” he said.
The exact definition of “a lot of money” might surprise you. According to Charlie, he has made around $1800 selling beef jerky at school. “Every day, [I sell] about $20 in jerky,” he said.
Chief Beef’s biggest customer is freshman Charlie Adl. He has spent more than $120 this year on beef jerky. “It’s an addicting product,” he said.
Making a batch of beef jerky takes almost two days in total. “First I get the meat,” Charlie Marsh said. “I use top of round. It’s USDA prime and I use top of round because it has less fat.”
The meat selection is critical to making good beef jerky. “Flank steak is marbled with fat. When you make it as a steak it doesn’t seem like very much, but as jerky it’s a lot. You need to use low fat steaks,” Charlie Marsh said.
Next, Charlie Marsh marinates the strips of beef. “I marinate it for 24 hours and then the next day I put it in the dehydrator and leave it for 8 hours,” he said.
The marinade is Charlie’s own creation and he guards the recipe closely. “It’s a soy sauce base, and then there’s some other secret ingredients,” he said.
Making the jerky takes a lot of time away from Charlie’s schedule. No matter what he’s doing when the jerky is ready, he has to stop and do the next step. “I know that if i don’t take the beef jerky out then it will get ruined, so i have to do it,” he said.
Charlie Marsh has seen the impact his jerky had on his transition to high school. “A lot of people know me as ‘that beef jerky kid,’” he said.
Charlie Adl sees the Chief Beef company growing in the future. “If he really expands, he could go pretty far,” he said. “He could sell in-store products, maybe a small company in town. It can go anywhere it wants.”
Charlie Marsh plans to continue selling his popular product. “It tastes better,” he said. “Everyone likes it.”
Watch below to see Web Editor Charlie Sosnick sample some Chief Beef Jerky:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI3cBDSEda0&feature=youtu.be
