A New Mexico Tradition

New Mexico has been air-drying beef thin and crispy since long before jerky was a national snack aisle staple. The style is called carne seca, which means "dry meat" in Spanish, and it comes from a centuries-old desert preservation technique first developed by Indigenous communities across what is now the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico, long before cattle were even introduced to the continent. When Spanish colonists brought hardy cattle herds into the region in the 16th century, that existing knowledge of salt-curing and sun-drying was applied to beef, and carne seca as we know it today was born.

Founded by a New Mexican Who Grew Up on It

GrazeOn was co-founded by Nathan Ammerman, an Albuquerque native, Carnegie Mellon-trained computer scientist, and self-described lifetime beef jerky hobbyist. Growing up in New Mexico, carne seca was not a novelty to him, it was simply what beef jerky meant: thin, air-dried, brittle, and often sold by someone working off a family recipe passed down for generations. That upbringing became the foundation for GrazeOn, a company built to bring authentic, New Mexico-style carne seca to people who have never had the chance to try the real thing.

Built on Real Food Science

GrazeOn takes the craft seriously. Every batch is quality-checked to a water activity of 0.40 or lower, the same dryness level as whole-egg powder and drier than most boxed pasta, which is what gives GrazeOn its signature crunch and shelf stability. The beef is trimmed of fat, sliced thin, seasoned, and dried in hot, dry air for six to ten hours, using salt and dehydration rather than sugary marinades or liquid smoke to do the work. It is a hands-on process, grounded in food science and Southwest tradition alike, run by a small team that genuinely nerds out on getting it right.