I'll take case!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Midwest/...f.ap/index.html

Farmers offering up beef in a can



ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- As a five-decade livestock producer, Jim Farmer wants his son and two daughters to follow in his footsteps.

He hopes ready-to-eat beef -- in a can -- is the ticket.

Farmer has joined resources with about three dozen other beef producers, including his son and son-in-law, in creating a co-op that aims to turn 1,000 cattle a year into canned beef. Eventually, the co-op hopes to handle as much as 10 times that.

The specially built plant in Montgomery City, about 70 miles west of St. Louis, has begun production. Canned beef has hit the shelves in some Missouri stores, mostly in tiny towns. While it's too early to say what the demand is, farmers like Farmer are thinking big.

"Our goal is to make an opportunity in agriculture for all of my descendants, if they choose," said Farmer, 64. "Something like this could help make that happen."

To the investors from five Missouri counties, consumers get precooked beef on the go, perfect for outdoor enthusiasts from hikers to hunters and anglers to campers. Given its shelf life of two to five years, the farmers say, the canned beef can be left in tackle boxes or storm shelters.

In return, folks behind the Heartland Farm Foods Co-op Inc. say, participating farmers get a consistent market for their beef while satisfying pent-up demand for the kind of commodity that was commonplace decades ago, before refrigeration.

"It's just another opportunity," Farmer said of the co-op that began processing in mid-December, a couple months after finishing construction of a 4,480-square-foot plant on 10 acres. "If there's no risk, there'll be no gain."

The co-op and its cannery are starting slowly, processing just five cows a week right now.

'Only one ingredient'
Each animal produces about 400 to 500 cans of federally inspected beef from cattle raised without steroid and hormone additives or routine antibiotics, the co-op's general manager said.

"The unique thing about this product is there's only one ingredient -- beef. There isn't even salt," Mark Uthlaut said.

No water. No preservatives. And to Uthlaut, no worries about safety, given that the pressure-cooking, sterilizing canning process rids each can and its contents of harmful bacteria.

"It's completely safe," he said.

The offerings are limited to ground beef and leaner chunk beef, each in 14-ounce cans. Eight- or 9-ounce cans might be coming.

For the time being, the co-op's canned beef can only be found in a few north-central Missouri grocery stores, as well as a handful of convenience stores.

Some retailers are asking $4.99 a can, a cost that Uthlaut knows could discourage some people. "That's why it's so important to do the sampling and show the quality," he said.

That's interesting. We've always had canned beef as well as canned turkey & canned chicken available here in Ohio. Perfect for unexpected company to whip up a hurried meal. It is really tender and flavorful, but it IS expensive.

shortstuff

Isn't that called SPAM ? (ok, that's made from pork, but otherwise the same ?)

Yeah, but I bet it's hard to find it with *nothing* added to it.

Wow, ship me a case!

Spam is made with flavorings, lots of salt, and added fats and is a relatively highly processed product. I'd love to try some of this canned beef. We don't have anything like that in our area.

Sam's Club carries cooked canned chicken, similar to tuna. I bought some in hopes of making some chicken salad or adding to a salad. Haven't tried it yet, though.

It is hard to find without added salt and other "stuff". The government GIVES it away as part of the commodity/subsidy programs, though, so $4.99 a can sounds pretty high. Location, location, location?

We have a couple of brands of canned chicken in our area. They all taste incredibly bland. The meat has no flavor at all, and the texture isn't right either. I think the processors put too much 'broth' in there so the meat becomes permeated with the broth. Loses any chicken quality it originally had.

Sorry, my first thought was: "Alpo".

if you really want canned meat, you of course can do it yourself, with a pressure cooker and some mason jars... do a google on "home canning equipment" for loads more info on that...

here's a recipe:

http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/recipes/beef/canned.shtml

Just by reading the Thread Title I kind of got grossed out. I may be slow in trying that item out when it comes to market. I guess Beef in a can sounds better than Cow in a can.

LOL

Wow, now there's a pretty picture!

What's the point of home canning meat when you can just toss it in the freezer. I could see a use for it for camping but that's about it.

Canning is an alternative to freezing. What happens if you have lots of beef in the freezer and power goes out for a lengthly period of time? Although given the choice, I feeze meat instead of canning it.

I've never canned anything in my life, but I could see how it could be useful... one thing about freezing is that it requires a certain amount of planning ahead, you have to thaw the stuff out if you want to eat it. I'm a busy guy who's plans often change at the the last minute, I can't tell you how much expensive meat and seafood that I've thawed out and then never got around to cooking in time. I probably have the best fed trash can in America, heh heh...

if I could have a dozen cans of meat, chicken, etc around, I could just grab one when I needed it add some spinach or brocoli or whatnot and have an almost instant meal...