Thirty-five years.
Think about that number for a second, because in the food business it is astonishing. Hi Mountain Seasonings started in Riverton, Wyoming in 1991 as one man with one product, the Original Jerky Cure & Seasoning, run out of an office twelve feet by twenty-four. Today, there are more than two hundred products (!!), four buildings, and twenty-five employees.
The Original Jerky Cure & Seasoning is still their number one seller, although they have long since branched into seasonings, wild game processing products, and homemade jerky and sausage kits.
That caught my attention. The growth is impressive, obviously. But the fact that the very first thing they ever made is still the thing people reach for most tells you something about that original recipe that no amount of expansion could.
Hi Mountain sent us a selection of their seasonings to try - a full 35th Anniversary Bundle (thank you). A full review is coming once we’ve cooked our way through them. Let me tell you what I did first (well, after mailing the Original Jerky Cure & Seasoning to my foodie brother, who makes jerky regularly). I come from a family with southern roots, and I swear I saw little emoji hearts when I found the Country Style Breakfast Sausage Seasoning, a large box that seasons twenty-four pounds of meat (!!) for one of my very favorite dishes, the one I learned from my gramma: biscuits and sausage gravy. The instructions are clear and the results are DELICIOUS. Look for photos from the next batch. These were so good I forgot my camera entirely. Ed has made a daily popcorn batch now that he's discovered the deliciousness of Trail Dust. Sometimes, he shares!
What drew me into this story, though, was finding out how a Hi Mountain seasoning actually gets made. Hans Hummel, the president and owner, used to test every new blend himself, in his own kitchen. I had assumed that at this size, with two hundred products and national distribution, it would be a matter of spreadsheets and contract formulators. It is not. Somebody is still standing in a kitchen with a bowl, deciding whether it needs more. Brian Tucker, the company’s Assistant General Manager, explains how below (and it is my favorite part of our whole conversation!).
If you cook seriously, you already know there are two kinds of food companies. There are the ones that sell food, where the recipe is whatever the margin allows this quarter. And there are the ones that make food, where a person has to create it and taste it and approve it before it goes anywhere. Food people can tell the difference, and we are fiercely loyal to the second kind. It is why we will drive forty minutes to our good butcher, and why we pay more for the jam from the lady at the market, and the baker who is the mainstay in our community. When Brian says they do not use fillers and do not cut corners, that is truly remarkable to anyone who cooks, and the main reason you would choose them, thirty-five years on.
Enter the 35th Anniversary Giveaway
To mark the anniversary, Hi Mountain is giving away three prizes. Entries close at midnight on November 15. The grand prize is a limited edition chef's knife made for them by Matt Peterson of Fire on the Mountain Custom Crafts in Colorado, with a 66-layer Damascus steel blade, an oak handle, and a Wyoming bucking horse pin. Second prize is a bundle of nine seasonings, cures, and brines. Third is a black walnut cutting board. One entry per person, and you can enter here.
Brian Tucker is a Wyoming native who joined Hi Mountain in 2013 as an account executive and is now Assistant General Manager, with his hands in sales, dealer development, product testing, new product development, and production. He is also the one running that test kitchen. Brian is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys hunting, fishing, hiking, and camping. His interest in wild game processing and outdoor traditions has complemented his professional work and helped establish his connection to Wyoming's hunting and outdoor community. He guides for Hunting with Heroes, a Wyoming program for combat veterans.
I interviewed him about Hi Mountain's first thirty-five years, what being in Wyoming actually does for the company, and what a first-timer should make before they attempt anything ambitious (raises hand!). Here is our conversation.
Hi Mountain started in 1991 as one man with one product, the Original Jerky Cure & Seasoning. There are more than two hundred products now (!!). Historically, what is the throughline? What is in a Hi Mountain product today that was already in that first jerky cure?
Our biggest thing the last 35 years has been consistent quality. We do not cut corners with our products. We source high quality ingredients and do not use any fillers. This has kept our products and our brand at a premium.
Hi Mountain has been in Riverton for all thirty-five years, growing from a 12-by-24-foot office into four buildings. For readers who have never set foot in Wyoming, what does being there actually do for the company and the product? Is there anything you could not do the same way somewhere else?
This gives our brand recognition and legitimacy. Several of our products carry the title Western Style, and it is hard to find a more western setting than Wyoming. We have had customers over the years purchase our products as gifts for people because of the Western idea, that we are from Wyoming. I was at a trade show years ago in Pennsylvania that focused a lot on Amish stores. They were shocked that someone from "The West" was in attendance. My conversations quickly turned from our products to life out West. The mystique that is Wyoming helps identify who we are.
Many of our readers are teachers and parents who have never cured anything in their lives and are slightly intimidated by the idea. What is the mistake first-timers make most often, and what would you have somebody make first, before they attempt anything ambitious?
One of the biggest things we hear from first time users is that they try to change or alter our instructions on their very first try. I cannot stress enough that on a first attempt, do not deviate from our instructions. We have made the steps very easy and clear to follow. After you have made a batch or more, then try adjusting.
Hans Hummel has described Hi Mountain as part of "the tradition that follows the hunt," and said that bringing home the harvest is only the beginning. How does that show up in what you hear from customers? What are people telling you they are doing with this food?
Hans is spot on with this comment. People by nature have been hunters and gatherers through history. They did not go out for the fun of it, but rather to provide. There are some hunters who are in it for the sport, there is no denying that. However, a Hi Mountain customer is one that is stocking freezers for winter or looking for a healthy alternative protein. Our customers cover a lot of areas with what they use our products for: making sausage, jerky, grilling steaks. The number one use of our products, though, is making jerky. We have something for everyone, even non meat eaters. But the products that continue to lead the way for us are our jerky making kits.
Thirty-five years is a lot of customers. Is there a customer story that has become part of company lore, the one that gets retold around the office?
We have had a lot of conversations with customers in 35 years. One that sticks out is a customer who had not heard of our brand before and called to see if she could even use it. Our name is Hi Mountain Seasonings, but she was thinking High as in elevation versus Hi as in Hello. She had one of our kits and did not think she could use it because she did not live at a "high" enough elevation. Once I explained the brand to her, we both got a good laugh out of it. We love our customers, and we love to hear how happy they are when they make their own jerky out of their harvest.
Your anniversary recipe collection includes wild goose pastrami and brined and smoked dove. Which recipe in there would you put in front of somebody who had never eaten wild game and was a little nervous about it?
For a person who has not eaten wild game, I would do the venison medallions (click for recipe in the 35th Anniversary Cookbook). Bacon wrapped, backstrap is hard to beat.
For somebody opening the 35th Anniversary bundle for the first time, what should they make first, and why that one? And is there anything in the box that people routinely underestimate?
For the 35th bundle, I would suggest trying our Original Jerky first. This is the product that started our company 35 years ago, and is our number one selling product. If I had to choose an item in the bundle that people underestimate, it would be the Black Pepper & Brown Sugar Bacon Seasoning. Bacon is already good by itself, so why would you season it, right? Give it a try and see what you think. We get a lot of pleasantly surprised customers with this one.
How does a new seasoning actually get made? Who decides a blend is finished, and how many versions does a typical one go through before it ships?
New seasonings happen in a variety of ways. It could be a customer request, or a new trend we are seeing. We have had employees come up with ideas from conversations with people, or simply mixing ingredients to see how things work. Deciding when a blend is finished or ready is the fun part of the job. Hans has told me stories about how he used to test stuff all the time in his kitchen.
This is a role I have taken on that I enjoy. With the expansion over the years we now have a test kitchen here on site, so I get to spend part of a day mixing and curing, and then cooking or smoking the next day. We then have staff try everything. With over 25 employees, we have various tastes and preferences to test against. Once a product is ready for production we may have run 3 test batches or 10 test batches. Each one varies.
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