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127K views 272 replies 132 participants last post by  JOHN68 
#1 ·
I've seen a lot of threads talking about spam, or various other canned meats, and they can be found all over the forum.

I thought with this thread we could make a central place to post reviews of the various canned meats and be able to find them easier (since I'll make this a sticky).

So.... to start it off here's my review of Werling and Sons Canned Beef

I have recently purchased some Werling and Sons canned meats and decided to try out the canned beef. I must say I am impressed with it.

It is a 14.5oz can (soup size) and on the nutritional info it says it has about 7 servings in the can.... that comes out to roughly 2 ounces per serving which aint a lot of meat. That 2oz contains 80 calories, 3.5 grams of fat (1.5 saturated) 30mg cholesterol, 110mg sodium, 0 carbs and 11 grams of protein.

Werling and Sons cook the meat in the can in it's natural juice and seal it right then. The ingredients on the can are beef, water, and salt... that's it. The smell of the beef after opening the can was nice. It was a basic roast beef smell, not a lot of heavily seasoned stuff, just beef. Visually it looked like beef should although it's always kinda strange pouring a beef log out of a can, after breaking it up a little in the pot it looked tasty.

I decided to add the meat to a can of 'Simple Suppers Beef Stew Fixins'



And this is what it looked like after opening the cans...



I did take a quick taste of the beef by itself and it was good. I was expecting a flavorless chewy hunk of meat but it was actually tender and had a good flavor.

Here's a shot of the beef, broken up in the pan. The white stuff is the fat from the process of cooking the beef in the can.




And here's a pic with the stew fixings added in...



I would've preferred the stew fixings to have more carrots and other veggies, less potato, but overall it was fine for what I wanted to do. It was very tasty as well and beat the hell out of a can of Dinty Moore...

This final picture is of the bowl I ate so you can see the final product and serving size I had. There was enough left in the pot to feed my daughter the same size bowl and we are both feeling full right now.



Based on rough estimates and the size bowl I ate I would say it was around 400 calories all together. The taste was very good. I didn't add any seasonings to it, not even salt and pepper. It took less than ten minutes to heat.

Bottom line: I plan on adding more of Werling and Sons canned meats to my food preps. Right now I have 7 more cans on hand that I order to test out before buying large amounts. They are family owned and operated in the USA since 1886 and you can find their website here... http://www.werlingandsons.com/

A four pack of the canned meats like I bought is $18 and I think it will be a good addition to my preps.


Now y'all feel free to add reiviews to this thread.... it's nice to know what will actually taste good or bad before SHTF....
 
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#3 ·
Interesting...Have you talked to them about shelf life,I checked the website but didn't see that info..call for details...so did you?..

Might be worth it if it has a long shelf life,good alternet to those who do not can..
I did call them actually.... if stored in a dry safe place (like a pantry where them temp doesn't go down to low to cause condensation) and the cans are kept rust free they are good for 5 years at least. The lady I talked too said they have known people who stored them longer than that and had no problems. The info is not on the cans because they can't control how you will store it.
 
#6 ·
Not that it makes to much of a difference but I could not see any of the pictures...

Great review none the less and I will have to try some. Especially with the shelf life.

I will add in that spam is an aquired taste. It definitely has it's place. Their are numerous recipes online to make dishes with it. I am sure some will disagree and argue about the sodium content and all but when you are hungry, it will do the job.

Great idea for the sticky. Thanks.
 
#12 ·
jfountain - thanks for the review. I can not see the pics in your post and was wondering...you said it comes out of the can like a log. Is the beef in chunks when you break it up or does it end up looking shredded?

Thanks.
It's in chunks but the chunks turn to shreds if you stir them to much while cooking....


For those that can't see the pictures for some reason, go to my profile and I have them posted in an album there too.
 
#17 ·
I prefer DAK hams over Spam any day. I buy Spam for when I don't need to eat as much ham. Right now it's easy to just put leftover DAK ham in the fridge but after SHTF it may be better to have the smaller cans of Spam to open, less chance of having leftovers means no worries about storing them.
 
#20 ·
OK, I changed my seetings to allow registered members to view my albums instead of just people on my friends list so try it again.
 
#23 ·
I think Costco's canned tuna beats the heck out of Starkist et al. We drained all of the liquid off three brands including Costco and Costco was cheapest per ounce of actual fish, and the chunks were more like actual fish than gruel.

Starkist ingredient list says "natural flavors." I know one of them is garlic because I'm allergic to it, lol. Shocked me. Ate it, got upset stomach, pulled the can out of the garbage and...

If their fish is so bad they have to flavor it, they can keep it.
 
#26 ·
Got tired of searching for them.
 
#27 ·
chef boyardee count?

I'm not sure if whats in the cans legally constitute beef, i do know the taste is consistant and the shelf life ranges from a year to three years if stored in a cool place. And the taste is o.k. in a pinch, but you would get tired of it eating it on a regular basis. Therefore I think it would be a good to fair short term storage food entree. down in the south it can cost up to $1.99 a can (16oz) but since I moved up north I have found it as cheap as 89 cents a can. as for pure beef alone you really can't beat just getting a dehydrator and slicing up some and making it up yourself. My wife loves "sos" which of course is dried beef with a cream and flour gravy over fresh made bread toasted. damn good and works out to be about .19 cents for a 9 inch plate full steaming hot.
 
#30 ·
i have bought several cans of the Libbies caned beef in gravy. Half the time there is only half the meat and the rest is REALLY REALY saly gravy. Its tasts good over rice but it rather expensive for the 6-8oz of meat you pay 5$ for. I prefer the canned chicken and canned hams. Also powderd chicken and beef gravy pouches. Mixed it up and pour over rice and beans.
 
#31 · (Edited by Moderator)
I highly recommend the little cans of "potted meat product". I onece was broke and hungry and I found a can of it that was 3-4 years past its best buy date. I opened the can and gave it a sniff. Smell was fine. So... I gave it a taste, tasted damn good. Didn't get me sick or nothing. The stuff is made outa meat scraps, fat and tripe. Try it fried with potatoes or on bread like deviled ham. I was edgejamakated in the culinary arts and sciences. You probably could eat an opened can of ham that has been sitting out at room temp for 24 hours with no ill effects. I've done it. I have an off the grid cabin and can't make enough money these days to properly take care of myself. I would say the real issue would be to do some research on eating a lot of food that is high in sodium nitrite. I heard it's bad on a mans prostrate.
 
#32 ·
I have bought and used Costco's canned chicken breast and canned beef products for a few years.



I will resort to them if I really want to make something with meat in it (usually in the crock pot) and I am not going to the store soon.

Both are good enough. Not as good as frozen or fresh, but as good as any meats in canned soup/stews.

The meat in the can itself at opening is not particularly appetizing because of the water and the congealed grease, but I pour that off.

Yes, it pretty much falls apart like shredded meat, which is pretty much how far I cook my meat in the crock pot anyway.

As for "stew fixings" - most beef stews in cans are heavy on the potatoes and light on other veggies because potatoes are cheap and they take up a lot of space. So mostly I don't use them except for a bit of flavoring.

The way I make stews/soups is to put a can of the desired soup/stew (I like Progressive low sodium Chicken Gumbo) in the crock pot, then add individual cans of veggies, then add a little more meat and spices. Then I let it cook. I often add rice or rice/lentil mix too. Maybe some dried split peas.

Generally the commercial canned soup/stew will be about one fifth to one tenth the volume of whatever I am making.

On the trail I substitute jerky for canned meat - it softens up and gives me something to chew on.

A little meat goes a long ways. The veggies are more important. We eat way too much protein anyway. Stretch out that meat by eating less of it and use the veggies for your calories, carbs, vitamins and other protein.

I really really like meat (mmmm! seared mammal flesh! yummmy!), but I could easily cut back to about one tenth of what I would eat and still be fine diet wise.
 
#34 ·
Nope, no Zatarians, no Tony's, no Tiger Dust, no Crystal's, no Louisiana, no Tabasco, no Slap ya moma, no salt and no pepper.... wanted to see how it tastes without the good stuff.
 
#35 ·
I tried the Keystone Beef. It was good, but in a soup or stew it was very long cuts and stringy. It was tender but with the stands being so long I was afraid the younger mouths in the family might choke on it.

I preferred a brand in a smaller can I picked up at Walmart. Cant think of the brand right now. Smaller chunks that stayed together and didnt get stringy. It was moere expensive though.

BIH
 
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