gunslinger said:
I have always been kinda interested in new product development for beef. I am sure you all remember when your Grandma, Wife, Mom whatever made up some home canned beef. It was pretty easy to do, chunk the beef up, put in a little salt, then process it in the pressure canner. I personally love the stuff. Just add a little cornstarch and water, and cook for just a little while and you have instant tender roast beef and gravy.
Now to me as a beef convenience food it would be ideal, as it does not take refrigeration or freezing to store.
Anyway I have really not been able to find canned beef in a store. There are a few strange spam like products and that is about it. Found one company in Ohio that makes canned beef and ships over the internet. I know that it seems to be more of a big thing in other countries as I was able to find it in websites, for the above.
Anyway I can not find much on the web or anywhere. I would love to hear others opinion, or find some industry rep to talk to.
gunslinger, in the past year or two there was quite a bit of ag media publicity in the area around Missouri that a group there was starting up a canned beef venture. Have heard very little since then. I believe it did get off the ground, at the least, because I heard the leaders of the company on Agri-Talk talking about it.
I still can beef because my family really likes it. I know of very few other people who do. It is much easier now than back when I started and my father-in-law brought home a quarter and cut the meat off the bones, then we women (mother-in-law and a couple of other dau.-in-laws), cut it into small chunks, cold packed it in boiling water sterilized jars, added the salt and pepper, put the sterilized lids on, set the jars on towels in the copper wash boiler on the stove, and cooked it at a slow boil for three hours.
Now, I ask the guy at the locker plant to save the amount I want, usually 60 pounds, and he cuts it pretty decent. I trim some fat if necessary, but don't have all the hassle and mess of handling the bones, etc. Still carefully wash (dishwasher does a great job!) and heat the jars and lids. Pack in the meat and add the seasonings, put lids on and cook in the pressure canner on a propane burner (in the garage or outdoors if not too windy). The burner is easier to regulate the temperature than an electric stove is. My favorite canner has a weighted valve that keeps the proper pressure rate, and I cook it 90 minutes. I hear of people cooking it in the oven. That isn't recommended by USDA, but it does work. USDA also recommends boiling in an open pan for ten minutes before using home canned foods. I don't know anyone who does that routinely.
We like the gravy recipe you mentioned. We also like the meat shredded up for sandwich filling with various additives such as chopped onion or dill pickle and a bit of mayonnaise. Maybe the favorite is heating a quart of beef, a can of corn, small can of tomatoes, half a box of creamettes macaroni. One dish meal in a flash! Home made dumplings on top of a quart of canned beef heated in a wide pan is a pretty fair winter meal, too.
Then there are noodles.........whatever the imagination brings up works great with canned beef.
On the down side, I wonder if the old commodity canned beef that apparently wasn't meticulously trimmed, had too much fat, and "mysterious" looking pieces in it may have turned consumers against it. I do believe it would be most successful packed in glass rather than metal because people could see it........yet they buy and eat canned tuna without being able to see that......so who knows.
Years ago, when cattle prices were very low, there was quite a fund gathered in SD to start canning beef from old cows to make them worth more. I don't know if any beef ever got canned, nor why it didn't? I think the last of the money was dispersed a few years ago, but don't know any details.Anyone from SD reading on this site that knows more about it? That was back in the days when I was too busy raising kids to pay much attention to cattle industry issues.
MRJ
