My relationship with canned meats is akin to the experience of dating a fat chick: if youre not deterred by the appearance and smell, you might find that, if you give it a chance, you actually like it.
To me, all canned meats, regardless of what they are (turkey, beef, pork, etc.) all smell exactly the same when you open them – like wet cat food. In fact, I have to hold my breath when opening a can of meat. But, as a survivalist, I know there are going to be times where shelf-stable meats that can go long-term are gonna be rather handy.
I discovered that the local WalMart is selling Keystone meats (chicken, beef, and ground beef) a few weeks back. Normally my canned meat needs are met by the Kirkland roast beef at CostCo, which I have been quite pleased with. Although, to be fair, the availability of the Kirkland beef has waned over the years with stretches of time where it was unavailable.
I had seen a good bit of information about the Keystone product on the internet, and reviews I’d seen on YouTube were pretty uniform in that it was a rather good product. Well, before I go and drop a buncha money on a case of this stuff, lets check it out.
This looks like what the investigator sees when he opens a 55-gallon drum that had a mob informant stuffed in it before being tossed into the lake. The white stuff is congealed fat and the liquid is the juices from the meat, since no water is added to this product. The meat is pressure cooked in the sealed can so any liquid in there came outta meat.
Dumped into a frying pan it still looks like an organ transplant that went horribly awry. But, let’s put some heat to the meat and see what happens.
As things melt, plenty of liquid ensues. So, we keep simmering until we get something a bit less soupy.
My standard practice for a fast, cheap, filling meal is to then mix in a buncha salsa and then mix with hot rice. The result:
Gotta say…it was good. And the meat was of very high quality. I recall trying some canned meat a few years back that had tremendous amounts of silverskin to the point it was like trying to chew gum. I think there was one small thumbnail size piece of silverskin in this, which I plucked out, and the rest was all good striated muscle tissue. So, whats my story…recommend or no? It’s a recommend. At least for me it is. I can see this as being an excellent candidate for anything where tender cunks of beef are called for or where shredded beef is needed. Tacos, enchiladas, and that sort of thing seem like a natural for this. If youre a beef-with-noodles kinda guy this might be handy for a goulash or stroganoff. Shelf life is a couple years so it’s definitely a candidate for the long-term pantry.
Price was about $9 a can which isnt bad since theres definitely several days of meat in there. Obviously if you shop around you might do better than that. Overall, I’d say if you were on the fence about buying this stuff go ahead and purchase with confidence.
Didn’t this site show a small clip of How It’s made? Basically it’s quality beef canned with a salt tab. Like yourself I stumbled upon it at Walmart. Tried it with a jar of Heinz beef gravy served over rice or mashed potatoes. Don’t forget a slice of B&M canned bread on the side. A day is coming when we will be glad it’s in our pantry. Those on a tight budget could start off with Dinty Moore or Vienna sausages, but do something. This is no longer Crazy prepper talk, time to prepare is now.
Everytime now when I shop( once per month) I grab a couple or three. Haven’t tried them yet. Been buying other stuff. Beef and Chicken stew. Sandwich spreads by Underwood. To bad the roast beef is no longer available. It was the best of the three . Got some canned chicken white for making various things like soup. Tuna. Multiple uses including cat food. I keep a minimum of 50 pounds of dry staples including elbo macaroni. Instant rice. Noodles, white beans. Plenty of spam. Been soup. Scalloped potatoes and macaroni with spam. Plus lots of other things. Right now trying to figure out a solution to this tiny home I live in. Plus I keep a minimum of 12 gals of bottled water on hand. Plus plenty of flour and cornmeal. Sugar as well.
Used Keystone ground beef to make Bolognese sauce last night! Threw two cans into a large, heavy pot along with 1.5 lbs of mild Italian sausage from the freezer. Browned all that and removed the fat. Chopped 2 large yellow onions and added to the pot along with some garlic. Seasoned with oregano, basil, thyme, and a bay leaf. Let all that simmer a bit and then poured in a large jar of marinara sauce. Served over spaghetti. Delicious! And all from my freezer and storage pantry. Makes about 8 servings.
I do a can of keystone beef in the crock pot with some BBQ sauce. Let it cook on low for about 4 hours then put it on Hawaiian rolls for little beef sliders. Tasty tasty…
My go-to quick & easy throw-sumpin-together from the cabinet: Survivalist’s Shepards Pie. Can of Costco beef, packet of instant mashed taters-prepared per pkg directions, can of mixed veggies, and my only cheat is some cheese from the fridge. Tasty, filling & comfort food at it’s best. Double the recipe & you’re good for a couple days for a couple people.
Heartily recommend!
I too wish Costco could keep their beef in stock.
Hereford and store brands sub in a pinch.
But I liked the Costco cans, since they were dinner for two in one can, or two dinners in a row for someone solo. I did it for a month a few years back to see how it’d work.
I gained weight that month, btw.
Pasta, rice, and beans all store as dry starches near indefinitely.
They all just want water when you cook ’em.
When combined with canned/retort shredded beef, pork, and chicken, and a selection of appropriate sauces, that gives you nine different meal menus.
122 servings of each is a year’s supply of dinners.
It microwaves in 5 minutes, or heats up over a propane can and skillet in about 10. Bottles of tabasco/chili, Worcestershire, and teriyaki sauce are your best friends there. Chipotle, cajun spices, and tomato paste recipes do pretty well too.
Throw in some random cans of new potatoes, plus corn, green beans, etc., and some fruit servings, and before you know it, you’ve socked away a full year’s dinners without breaking much of a sweat, or spending much cash. Probably eating better, healthier, and more balanced than you normally do on top of that.
Oatmeal and freeze-dried eggs with sausage, bacon bits, etc, and breakfasts are handled.
Tuna and PBJ, and or whatever you will, and you’ve got lunches.
Throw in some dried fruit for the oatmeal, and some fruit and pudding cups for the lunches, and you’re set.
Round it out with powdered milk, Tang, Koolaid, and lemonade mixes, along with cocoa, tea, or coffee if you’re so inclined, and you have your next year’s calories lined up.
Even the shortest-lived items are usually good for a year or more, and some of them for five years, just going by the “best by” dates.
Most are fully edible long beyond those.
Cycle them into your regular diet one week out of four, replacing oldest firstest, and your food budget goes even farther, while always having at least the next year on-hand. You can level up until you’re into multiple years without doing anything but doubling and tripling down.
We haven’t even mentioned Spam, Spam Turkey, crab, salmon, sardines, and those cute little canned hams for special occasions. Don’t forget the canned sweet potatoes and cranberry.
Remember spices, condiments, extras.
Salt, sugar, butter, lard/oil.
Have a year’s supply of flour (better yet, uncracked wheat and a grain handmill), pancake/waffle mix, biscuit mix, and a sourdough mother, and you’ll live like a king for months to years.
If you look it up, this is pretty much also how to stock a trail drive chuckwagon.
I’ve done nothing more than cut up canned ham or add canned shredded pork or chicken to 1/2 a cup of Minute rice and 1/2 cup of water with a few shakes of teriyaki, done 5 minutes in a microwave, and it’s mouth-wateringly good. Half a can of corn with butter flavor added, and you feel fatter before the first forkful.
For planning purposes, you can put by everything for all three meals for a day for two inside a 1’x1’x1′ cube, with room to spare.
2′ shelves on both sides of a 40′ conex or equivalent is over 18 months’ supplies for two, or double that for one, with ample room for 5 gallon buckets of dried supplies along the 4′ aisle.
Don’t forget can openers (get extra; they wear out over time).
Thanks for the lab rat / crash test dummy report on this product line. Supply chains shortfalls may limit the availability of those familiar heritage or legacy products that we were so used to having always on the shelf. A similar substitute brand may have to be utilized in it’s absence, so a test of those products are indeed needed. Commercially canned animal protein, (as with with home canned meats) is an important category of foods to lay in quantity along with those other pantry staples. Spicy times will require rounded nutrition and energy dense chow options for optimal “A” game performances. Useful readership culinary techniques and inputs as well. I lay in those foil packs of gravy, sauce, seasoning mixes as well to make bland apocalypse food into somewhat banquet fare even with my all thumbs kitchen skills. Stay well fed, so as to stay the frostiest.
Became a fan of foil packet tuna a few years ago, when I had some breakfasts made with oatmeal mixed with tuna packet contents (don’t judge me – its good, especially when a slice of cheese is added when microwaving).
The canned Wal-Mart GV chicken product isn’t bad, but I’ve noticed a small uptick on the water versus the chicken chunks. Adding a mayo envelope to drained content and mixing about is good for two standard sandwiches – works for me.
The GV beef product is sort of meh for me – a bit too much gravy. I rarely heat the contents of it – the above pictures make me want to try it. Eating it out of the can, i break up bread into torn piece and mix with can after slurping part of meat gravy before adding bread.
Canned meat is good to put back for emergencies.
Thanks for the review CZ !
$9 A CAN!?!?!?!?!? You have got to be kidding me. Last Friday night we canned eight half-pints of leftover turkey that we had earlier in the week.
Cost: ZERO
It is delicious served over noodles, it doesn’t taste like cat food, it tastes just like it did when it was fresh, and there is nothing else in it other a quarter-teaspoon of canning salt. No preservatives or mystery chemicals.
You need to stop buying glorified cat food for $9 a can and start saving your leftovers. Just sayin’.
Well, lets start with the math. Your cost isn’t zero, unless you got the meat, jars, lids, rings, canning equipment, and energy (heat for the process) for free. Plus your hourly rate. Even if you’re re-using jars and bands that you paid for, all youre doing is reducing the subsequent per-use cost. So a cost of zero seems terribly unlikely. Not impossible, just unlikely.
I already know how to can meats and do it from time to time. However, for me, it often makes more financial/time sense for me to purchase items and services rather than do them myself.
I already have the jars and reusable lids and rings. (As so should every serious prepper) They have been reused many times. I don’t know how much gas I used running a burner on the stove for two hours, but it sure wasn’t $9.
You say that it makes more financial sense to purchase items rather than do it yourself, but at $9 a can, my eight cans of meat that took me about three hours to can (and I did other things while the jars were processing) would have cost you $72 to purchase. With inflation the way it is, we’re all going to have to get used to doing things ourselves. I don’t mind paying for things I can’t do, but I sure can’t afford to pay for things that I can do myself.
I enjoy your column and read it every day!
It’s not a matter of which — commercial canned meat or home canned meat — is “better” because there’s room and a need for both. Up until this summer I didn’t own a pressure canner, so my venison all went in my freezers and I bought canned meat for the Apocalypse Pantry. Then I finally admitted to myself that I had 100-150 pounds of meat in my freezers and there’s no way I could get it all dried or salted down by the time I ran out of gas for my generator.
In June I bought a Presto 23-quart canner and practiced on some beef roast, which went well. From the two deer I’ve killed so far this season, I canned 20 pints of venison (1# each) and 7 quarts (2# each). I did freeze the backstraps (15# ?) and ground Bambi burger (20#?). Both the backstraps and burger can be thawed and canned should I choose to do that.
Now that I have the canner, jars and lids, I can take advantage of sales on post-Thanksgiving turkey, chicken, pork butts and such without having to worry about whether there’s room in the freezer. Yes, there has to be room on our shelving, but that’s easier to expand vs. buying yet another freezer.
I figure there’s no one right, perfect way. Buy it, can it, freeze it or dry/salt/cure it … JUST DO IT!
@ Tractorguy
You’re heart is in the right place, but as our blog host indicated, your math is a bit off. The Keystone cans are 28 ounces, or about four times what your half-pint jars would hold. When you consider that it is beef, not poultry, $8.98 per can is a terrific value.
Keystone stamps their cans with a “best by” date at 5 years from production. That means they’re good for 10. I would never trust home canned meat for more than 2 years. Just my opinion.
We have 3 all American pc’s. One 7 quart and two 14 quart. In our experience, home canned meat, veggies, and fruit lasts about 1/3 to 1/2 longer than factory canned with no segregated taste or consistency.
A package of Knorr Spanish rice mix cooked to instructions, heat up a can of beef, and refried beans, mix together and fill tortilla’s, add a splash of picante sauce if desired and dinner for four is ready. Canned chicken with stir fry or fried rice add a plate and fork.
Knorr packets have Lots of ingredients? that should not be consumed but are more suitable for lab experiment. Read labels and learn food from carbon reduction filler(the carbon they want to eliminate is you and your family and have no qualms about a little poison)
Knorr pkgs: Teriyaki noodles
6-8oz of tough beef sliced and soaked in soy sauce and Worcestershire for ’bout half hour.
Chop up a handful of whatever veggies that you *like
Throw beef in frying pan(bacon fat is your friend), slop a little of the sauce mix and some **spices while cooking for 3-4 min, then toss in the veggies and cook down. Hold in pan
Boil the water for the mix and dump in the pkg. Let it cook for ~ 5 min. Then dump the beef and veggies, liquid and all, into the pot and cook until you like the noodles. Makes enough for two meals.
*I like to use broccoli, Boc Choy, and Chinese cabbage
** I stir in a couple of spoons of General Tso sauce when cooking the beef. Add a spoonful to the noodle water for a little more zing.
Considering the crap that most people put in their bodies every day, the Knorr mixes are relatively benign additive-wise
This basic idea of adding stuff works for almost any of the Knorr mixes.
I’m sure there are some hungry soldiers and civilians in the Russia Ukraine area that would treat a can of meat like a state dinner about now.
“Hunger never saw bad bread.” – B. Franklin
Ergot anyone? Dance party starts 30minutes later.
Thanks for the great summary. The pics told the story.
I’m calling it here first. . .
New for 2024 (that’s if we make it) Commander Zero’s Post-Collapse Pantry Cookbook. . . Inside you’ll find the Commanders favorite recipes from short and long term shelf stable stored foods being prepared by scantily clad biologically born college aged co-eds! Available in cargo pocket sized softback only because the looming EMP/CME will wipe out your PDF version.
Laminated page,ring bound travel bersion too for the bug out bag. Makes great Paratus bag stuffers
I’ve hit all the local Walmart stores (central VA) since you mentioned this weeks ago. None to be had. I’m guessing it’s a regional / distribution thing for Walmart. I’ll keep accumulating the Costco canned meats.
I wondering about getting some of the pork and making pulled pork sandwiches. Like Famous Dave’s sauce and some sour dough buns. Couple sides like tater salad and macaroni salad. Have to get some next time I’m at the store.
The Keystone pork is really good for this, a bunch of the people who run the little league concession stands around me keep these as backup if they run out of their pulled pork or beef sandwiches. Add some bbq sauce to the crock pot and heat. I’m sold on doing it this way, two cans can feed a good sized group. However it has to be shredded, anything chunky is a weird texture.
Man this place is getting better then the Food Channel.
Meh…For a long time I thought about a cooking-with-food-storage kinda theme but, honestly, its been done elsewhere far better than I could do. But, once in a while….
So I love all the info, been a reader and survivalist/prepper for about 20 years. I am lucky enough to be retiring, sold my house, and moving the heck out of South FL (really turned into a crappy place) to Tennessee to be closer to family and a house on an Acre of land(I know not big enough) but it is almost paid for….i will only have a small mortgage for debt. I am not able to take most of my canned supplies,(way to expensive to ship) so I will be starting over and will correct some of the mistakes I made the first time around! I still have some freeze dried buckets and some packed buckets with Mylar bags)….Lessons learned…. But canned meats will take a bigger place than canned soups! Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!
Check out ABF,they have a moving service where they park a 28ft trailer for you to load then haul it to where you want it. From working in trucking I know #20,000 can be loaded on one(2-3bd house of furniture over heavy supplies)so transporting might be doable over starting over.
Addendum, follow up notation. I concur with those canning anon folks ability to self process and can up domestic or game meats for themselves, a good route in of itself. Prepping must factor in contingencies as part of all that survivalist theory and strategy. Commercial metal canned foods at any price has a more inherent durability quotient for those out of the house, mobile or tactical needs. Also consider the readily universal identification and acceptance of known brands of commercially produced products. Think of the movie scene of “Boy and his dog” where a can goods is an admission price (barter merchandise) as long as label is intact every rube that can read will know it is a can of beets, not peaches, made by xyz corporation, with a date range stamped on it. Different value attributes there versus a privateers glass jar of something with a hand scawled cursive handwriting label on it. Think of that entrepreneur at the gun shows with his boxes of hand reloads for sale. He may be a squared away autist with meticulous protocols for his reloading, but way most shooters will eschew other folks reload products as a matter of trust as well as safety. Sure when hungry, anything edible will be eaten anyway, however these big brain strategies and considerations are background data points to factor into one’s own preps and macro strategies. Study the “big picture” to things so as to stay frosty.
Questions; #1 stackability-rounded bottom easy to stack or old style harder to stack #2 salt content-I dont like a lot of salt and find most processed foods salt heavy #3 preservatives or additives #4 fat/protein ratio-fat is flavor,satiation,easy energy, hard to store #5 Walmart ship to store free or only in stock #6rotation- do these fit case size crates to make fifo rotation easy.
Starvation, OTOH, is both low calorie, and sodium-free!
Before we started to raise our own beef and pork we bought Keystone. Going to have to start canning some since we don’t want to run two freezers all the time. I really don’t want to waste all the gas to run the generator until we can get it all canned. So we’ll can it now
You have talked about canned meats many times but what about canned Fish?
Tuna fish is pretty much the most common option and, I think, everyone has experience with tuna fish.
We have tried many species, pan fish are fine taste wise but texture gets a bit mushy, and we can catch pan fish year round…on the other hand, our local river has a nice salmon run in the fall and steelhead in spring and it cans great.
Lake Michigan is but 40+- miles downstream and it is no problem getting 3-4 ten to 20 lb Coho or Chinook each trip.
Just make sure to limit the belly fat, has an off flavor after canning. Gonna try carp next weekend. Good flakey fish but the y bones have always limited them…But canned might resolve the y bones…well gonna try anyway.
Greetings y’all:
After reading your September 24, 2023 article on Walmart having Keystone canned beef, I went on the Walmart web site to order it. I got sidetracked and forgot to order. A week or so later when I was back on the Walmart site again I read some of the recent reviews. Many of them said the cans they received were badly dented, and were not returnable. There were enough of these reviews that made me decide not to order. My local Walmart did not have the Keystone beef in store, otherwise I would have gone there and at least looked at the cans.
If you have some money to burn, we ordered one case, to try, of canned beef (28 ounce cans) from Head 2 Tail dot com, located in Ohio. Their beef is certified Texas Longhorn and totally grass fed, free range raised right there in Ohio. It is indeed pricey, especially when adding shipping but it is delicious. We called their store and their shipping specialist was able to find an independent shipper for a very reasonable rate, to send to us in Florida. We are going to order more as we like it so much, and the price per can is actually cheaper than buying fresh,100% grass-fed, beef from our local grocery store. As long as I can, I want to buy the best quality animal protein that is available. For shredded or chunky style beef we prefer this farm’s canned beef to fresh.