Canned Meat Products - where do you draw the line?

Having a quantity of Canned meat products for Emergency preparedness is very useful but the quality and the cost can vary quite markedly.

There is SPAM and there are some lower cost imitations offering the same salty fattiness, although the taste and texture consistency may vary quite a bit.

There is Canned Corned beef (mostly originates from Brazil), quality and taste can vary from something thats inedible to something that is acceptable even in a Sandwich with pricing that can vary from £1.50 to £3.00 a can in the UK.

Then there are canned hams and chicken. Again some are quite good usually over 85% ham/chicken content down to the barely 60% ham by content (bulked out with fillers and water etc). I have seen even seen 52% ham content!

We are now getting to the Canned meat balls and hot dogs and other unspecified meats such as Pates etc usually of the mechanically recovered chicken etc spinning in an industrial concrete mixer machine type. This I think is getting into real survival food territory. These products can actually be quite expensive for what they actually are and won't even compare to canned fish such as Tuna, Salmon, Pilchards, Mackerel and even Sardines or anchovies (although now I will now pay more for Atlantic sourced fish over Pacific) in quality protein bang for the buck.

Cost is important factor when bulk stocking a larder for preparedness, I would forget the cheap stuff and look out for the higher quality meats when on offer.

Overall though I would say the quality of canned meat products have slowly declined over the years.

You are playing roulette with processed canned meat. Who can really say what is in those cans?

Yeah, I keep a stock of Spam, mostly because I grew up eating the stuff and it is so full of calories it is worth consuming, but no substitutes.

My recommendation: skip the middleman and can your own meat. It is not that hard, and in the long run it will save you money and be better for you.

I have 300 pint jars on the shelves. I wait for good prices on fresh meat, or I go catch it or hunt it, and I can it up. I know what is in the jar, and that is a huge deal. I control the sodium, which is a big deal. I eat it regularly. It tastes good. I learn a valuable skill set and acquire vital equipment and supplies, and that is priceless.

Do yourself a favor, limit your commercially processed meats and can your own.

But if you gotta eat commercially canned meat, Spam is definitely the best.

I wanted to do a review of a number of canned meat products, but it never materialized. Maybe I'll check to see if I still have my notes.

Some canning companies such as Werling and Grabill are regarded by fellow preppers as qualify companies. I sampled about two boxes of their stuff, and I didn't notice the problems that Liath complains about above (watering down the nutritious stuff). Maybe there is a similar company in the UK?

Now, what I discovered is that even from one single company, different product lines can vary in palatability. This has to do with individual preference as much as with the product itself. So I'd suggest trying everything first before ordering them for your cupboard. I'd say I'm quite comfortable with having certain products from either of the companies named above for my short-term preparation.

I'm no expert but I'm told that you have to follow specific techniques to can meat safely at home. A good place to start would be http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/clay53.html.

I keep kicking a deceased equus, but the Wendy DeWitt video and pdf is definitely worth looking at if you plan on home storage, ... she is the "pro from Dover"

http://allaboutfoodstorage.com/wp-content/uploads/EVERYTHING-UNDER-THE-SUN-2010-word.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOLuIApyNPc

Spam, tea, and toilet paper: they're not luxury items, they're necessities.

Yes, there is a distinct process involved, and once learned, it is an immediately useful skillset, as you can start putting up quality food anytime you want. There are even recipes for making home made Spam.

I've canned all sorts of meat products, from ground beef, chicken, salmon, moose chunks, sausage, hot dogs, corned beef hash, turkey, shrimp, chili, bacon, and even meatloaf (an accidental discovery).

As with anything worth doing, it takes an investment in time, effort, and money. The return on investment is high, and if you are reasonably diligent about it, you will save enough from canning your own than what you'd pay for inferior commercial product from the store to cover the investment in no time.

Wouldn't you rather eat something you made from scratch, knowing what is in it, instead of the mystery meat in a can?

I am a little skeptic about actually saving money when canning your own meat. You might spend more money than you would have done on the industrial product. It is still worth the effort.
Even if you come out even, you know what is in the can and you control the process. The canning industry tends to optimize return on investment. Sometimes that leads to cutting corners and shifting the process from "save" to "we will likely get away with it". Sometimes they also put in some meat from animals they don´t declare on the package. This year buyers of industrial meat products had the opportunity to taste horse meat. What a pity they got to know that from the press.

It depends on how good a deal you can find on the raw product. I've canned fresh sockeye that cost me $2.99 a pound. I put up 30 lbs of it at once, and I can guarantee that the cost per pound was way less than what you'd pay for canned sockeye salmon at Costco. That's even factoring in the amortized cost of the jars, lids, and the canner (the cost of which goes down every time I re-use them).

Normally ground beef sells up here for around $3 a pound for 80/20. I found a great deal on cross rib roasts (lean and a bit tough if you cook it past medium rare) for $2.29 a lb. The ration was like around 93/7 lean to fat, and I ground it myself then canned 30 lbs of it. Ground meat in 8 oz foil pouches costs about $2.50, or $5 a pound, and is full of other things besides lean meat.

Then there's the deals I get from others for moose meat, deer meat, salmon, and so on for helping them grind/can their stuff using my equipment and know-how. The cost on that meat is very low comparatively.

But you're right, it is tough to compare commercially canned meat products to home canned cost-wise. I don't factor in my labor costs, which if I billed my standard rate would probably make the home-canned stuff exorbitant. But since I am doing something I enjoy that helps me relax and forget my troubles, I sort of write off the labor part of the bill. After all, I wouldn't factor in labor costs in my fishing trips vs. picking up a fish or two at the store.

I guess if I were to make it a business venture, my home canned meats would be sold at a premium, as would my sausage and baked goods. But then I know some people who would be happy to pay a fair price.

Home canned will always trump store bought. I don't ever have to worry about the mfr taking shortcuts with my product.

The only minor issue is that jars are much more fragile than cans, but I think you can use cans with a bit more equipment. I agree- quality-wise the stuff you do at home blows away the stuff you buy.

Pretty much, I draw the line at opening the can and eating them. Yeuch!

That alone would be reason enough to do it. I did the calculation on my baked products. The per unit cost is below that of commercial products. I just use more of it though. That kind of reduces the overall savings.
Around here we have two or three cases of "food scandals" in the press (e. g.: rat droppings in bread and rolls, whole mice processed in baked goods, retired cart horses in meat balls, rotten meat put in ground meat). And they only publish the extreme cases.



I bet some people would be happy to acquire a product of that quality at all.

I agree the quality of most canned meat is terrible. And expensive! Thats why I stick with Chicken, Tuna, Sardines, and Herring mostly. Hopefully one day I'll be able to do my own pressure canning. That would open up the variety. Then sky's the limit as they say.

The only canned meat that I keep in significant volumes is Spam, it is fashionable to dislike spam but I enjoy it.
In emergency it may be eaten straight from the can, but is much better fried IMHO.

Spam and corned beef seem to have much longer "best before" dates than other canned meats, which is a decided adavantage for long term stocking up.
I dont take dates on cans too seriously, but still prefer longer dated when possible.

Does anyone know for how long canned goods remain wholesome ? under normal indoor conditions.
I normally allow an extra year on the shorter life canned goods, and an extra two years on longer life goods including spam.

Jars are fragile, but also reusable, which means if you are careful, you can reduce the per-use price considerably over time. Some of my jars have been used 8 times already. Since a box of jars cost me about $8, that is quickly becoming a negligible expense. With using tattler lids now (reusable plastic lids and seals), the cost will continue to go down.

I wouldn't have a problem canning using tin cans, only the equipment is a bit more expensive for the volume I do. Using retort bag canners would also be handy and useful. But again, the capital expense is a bit much.

PLEASE continue beating this dead horse. The video is absolutely incredible and the PDF is VERY good. Ms. DeWitt is an great, engaging speaker. It is difficult to listen to a topic as this without falling asleep and she was incredible! The PDF is full of useful information.

Conway Yee

How big is equipment for canning, and how many cans do you need to make to be "worth your time" in a sitting?

-For example, is it worth the time/effort to can 1 chicken (which to me is 2-4 meals), when you have to cook it first?
-Or should I have made as many as my oven could fit?
-How long would it take to can said chicken after cooking (for an average user)?

The big detractors for me are space and time. I have an infant and my wife and I both work - out the door at 0630, home around 5-6pm. kid in bed around 7:30pm, so obviously food/bath/bed takes most of that time. Bed by 10pm (and usually dinner around 8). Doesn't leave much time, other than weekends, to do stuff. And of course that's taken up with "life." Grocery store, Home Depot, etc.

if this is something like an hour or 2 a month, great. If it's more of a few hours weekly, the heck with it.

I am looking into this option even though the chest Freezer is where the majority of my meaty and fishy comestibles are stored. Having a Pressure Canner and Mason Jars etc on hand to can during a long term power outage would save the freezer contents from spoilage assuming the solar and generator backups are not available.

First, you don't need to pre-cook the chicken, you can raw pack it and process it, and the process time in the canner is the same, so the overall process time is greatly reduced.

Assuming half a chicken per quart (unboned), or 1/4 chicken per pint (unboned), 3 chickens would do a short load in a canner. My canners will each do 6 quarts at a time, roughly two hours in the canner (15 minutes to get it up to pressure, 90 minutes at pressure, 15 minutes to let it come back down to ambient pressure). Figure half an hour prep (cutting up the chickens, stuffing the jars, putting on the lids, etc). So you could do 6 quarts in an evening easily.

But it's really a matter of priorities, and it sounds like your schedule is too full to mess around with it, so probably better for you to just buy what you need at the store and forego the trouble. If all you have is an hour or two a month, that's not going to work. It won't be as healthy for you or your family, but that isn't always the most important thing.

If you wait until the power is out to do your canning, you will be too late. You might have the ability to can without electricity, but probably not the time for it then.

I have a freezer and it is full of food, mostly staged for when I have a block of time to process. This next weekend looks like a good opportunity. I should end up processing at least 60 pints of meat in the canners if all goes as planned. I also plan on making at least 30 lbs of sausage. That may or may not happen. But if not, I can probably do it during the week next week.

Not everything goes in the grinder or gets canned. Steaks, frying chicken, fresh sausage, and roasts stay raw in the freezer until time to cook. A few salmon fillets stay in the freezer, and a couple roasting turkeys, ducks, and goose have to stay in as well. That's still a lot of food to leave at risk if the power goes out. But hey, even I like a little fresh meat once in a while. I are a Texican, after all.

A pressure canner isn't a huge investment. Depending on where you live they can be had from around $175 or so. There are cheaper models that may work but in the US I'd say an All American from Wisconsin Foundery is one of the best deals around. All metal, no O-rings to fail or wear out, and really well made.

I find the 'natural' type of canned chunk chicken breast to be an acceptable additive to recipes in a pinch. It is fairly shelf stable and is often on sale at the local supermarkets. Not that great right out of the can, but when added to soup, rice, noodles, or stew, it's not bad.

The makers of Spam also offer a lower sodium version and a turkey-based spam. The turkey variety is not bad when cubed up and used in a cooked recipe of veggies, rice, or noodles.

One concern I have with this and many other canned products is with the white lining of the cans...what's in that stuff, and how much leaches into the food?

I got a few of those small crackers-and-canned meat combo's, the ham salad and the chix salad. I ate them just late last week and the expiration date was 01/2012. These are a staple in my large hurricane cooler, a cooler I keep filled with shelf stable food I can throw into the car if we need to bug out. So these are reasonably stable, I'd say. THe crackers still had plenty of crunch, and the canned contents hadn't separated or anything. Taste was perfectly fine, since I've been eating these for a couple years now, just enough for a quick lunch without being too heavy and ruining your appetite for dinner later by being too much. Great for on the go and always take a couple when we visit the theme or water parks.

I think you'd find that home-canned chicken breast is not only better added to hot dishes, but also not too bad right out of the jar. I like making chicken salad out of it often. The good news, it is generally a lot less expensive in addition to tasting a lot better, and being a lot healthier.

I don't can meat, but I count 6 tins of Spanish sardines in my food supply that I draw on through the year, and I just refresh it when the local Spanish specialty store has a sale on. Fresh or at least canned sardines are the bomb when sautéed in oil and served over olives and cucumbers, or with cooked eggplant. And Spam - love it. Can't get enough of it. Love it in my loco moco. Got a case of Span that will last a fair long time in the larder. I know that Spam is pretty salty but I can get past that, I find the canned corned beef to be too salty for my tastes. Hey, if we're going to be reduced to rations during a disaster, there's no reason not to eat well.

Wait and you might find Spam offered with air tight plastic lids to put on after opening, it means you don't have to eat a whole can all at once, but you can save it for a while until the loco moco calls again. I've used the same 2-3 plastic lids for years.

I can't seem to put Costco canned chicken into the family's food rotation, I donated 3-4 cans to the food bank earlier this year.

Thanks. If I lived somewhere more remote, I'd definitely be into canning, jelly/jams, etc. Especially someplace where the supply line can be cut off relatively easily.

If it only takes 2-3 hours, it might be feasible, eventually. Once my kid is a bit more self sufficient, a weekend "mommy & me" date at the park could give me the time I need. Now to get the wife on board ...

Besides chicken, I assume all meats could be done, correct? Not that I'd like to smash a sirloin into a jar, but things like turkey, ham, etc? I'm thinking holiday leftovers.

whole muscle meats can generally be raw packed... ground meats typically are packed in broth... not sure about fish

This is a very interesting thread, and it certainly intriguing to have the capability to put up your very own . But please clarify - are we talking cans (metal - tough and durable) or jars (implies glass - not so good for my preps in earthquake country). All the home canning with which I am familiar involves glass....

It won't take much convincing, as I grew up on home canned goods. I have been looking at pressure cookers, as home canning is on my short list of projects when I semi-retire in a couple of years.

Incidentally, my chicken salad contains shredded radishes and pickles, black olives, safflower mayo, avocado, sea salt, and currants. Oh yeah, chicken too.

I raw pack all my salmon. Shrimp are raw packed. Not sure about mollusks.

Glass is more popular because it is cheaper/more common equipment and material and has a far more widespread knowledgebase for the household. There are home canning possibilities with metal cans and retort bags, but it will be a lot more expensive.

You can store glass jars in earthquake country securely if you take suitable measures. I live in Anchorage and have over 360 jars in stock right now. They are on shelves with wooden rails, packed in fairly snug, and the only way they will get destroyed is if the house comes down.

You don't have to live remote. Start with something simpler than meat so you can use a less expensive canner rather than a pressure canner. We took a trip one fall to a farm a bit out of town and picked pumpkins and apples. Came home and canned applesauce. Don't wait for a someone take the kid to the park day, my kids liked using the apple peeler/corer/slicer and munched on the peels afterward. We picked three different kinds of apples so we made three batches of different flavored applesauce. Its real simple, you basically, peel and slice into small chunks then put in a pan and cook and blend until its a sauce then put in a little bit of lemon juice and can. You can add cinnamon to make another flavor. Some people add sugar but its not necessary.
Start with something the kids will enjoy then they will want to help and do more.

I found I preferred Princes canned corned beef to fresh. I keep a dozen or so 200g tins of it, that get eaten in sandwiches with Branston Pickle. (Larger tins wouldn't get all eaten.)

Tinned cured ham is something I've been getting into over the last few months. I've settled on Princes premium brand, which I like in sandwiches with beetroot. Lesser quality isn't nice enough for me.

Buy what you eat and eat what you buy. If you can buy in bulk that should save money, but I wouldn't go for cheaper food because it's "only for survival". The tinned meat I buy has a long enough shelf life that it all gets eaten during normal times.

It is for this reason I prefer to can my own. You can't find canned wieners in the grocery. Vienna sausages are not a substitute. Likewise plain ground beef is not available anywhere, and the foil pouched seasoned ground meat I've found has an awful taste. My own corned beef hash recipe is far superior to anything commercially canned, and affords me the opportunity to adulterate it as I see fit, whether with diced green chile, or mushroom, or what have you. Of course I could add these things at the time of consumption, but only if they are handy at the time.

But I also have a stock of commercially canned meats, simply because more is better, and I am not altogether that picky about what I consume. Canned Spam is tasty enough, as is most tuna fish, which is something I do not home can, as I have no cheap source for the raw product here.

Of course, here in the colonies, er, territories, uh, states, we have all this wonderful wild game, and you won't find that in any store. Wild caught canned sockeye salmon is rare and expensive, so when I put up 30 pints at a cost of about $4 a pint by my tally, I was quite pleased. Likewise with the moose meat and caribou I've enjoyed. I suspect a good stag would fare as well in the canner.