New Galley Food Products

[Ron20324]

There were two new products I picked up when recently in Bobby's Market in Roadtown, Tortola. I promised a critique to those on my floatilla, and these may be of interest if you want to add them to your boat's stores or in the home pantry in case we ever get a snowstorm or hurricane and get stranded. I keep a number of such items as staples on my boat all season in case we need something in addition to the food brought for a cruise. Right- what's the chance of THAT happening?

The first product is from the Underwood company that makes Deviled Ham in those little cans. They also make a chicken spread, but this new one is beef. It looks like a pat'e (cat food, really), creamier than the Deviled Ham. At first bite I wasn't thrilled, but using the whole can on crackers, it turns out kinda nice. Put it on the shelf next to those little Vienna Sausages.

The second product is from those wonderful Hormel people who blessed this planet with SPAM. This new product is a SPAM, but "with real Hormel bacon". I could not depict an actual bacon flavor, but this is different from the original SPAM flavor. In a side-by-side test, you'd probably pick the bacon one if for no other reason than for a change of pace. It's ready to eat from the can or cook it. I just had two SPAM slabs- steaks, that is- for breakfast and I like it.

These were "new" products in that BVI food store, but I don't see them at Giant Food yet. Maybe at a gourmet shop???

 

[Ross]

I have no idea what these products cost but I keep home canned meat spreads on the shelf in 4 ounce jars. Cook the meat. Keep it hot, mill it in a food processor, pack it into hot jars adjust the lids, process for 75 minutes at ten pounds steam at sea level. Cost is the retail price of the raw meat. Generally less than 2 dollars per pound for red meat and less than a dollar for chicken and chicken liver. Season to suit your taste before you pack it into the jars.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Hey Ross, please explain "..,process for 75 minutes at ten pounds steam at sea level." So then this canned(jarred) meat can go on the shelf indefinitely? Any fish recipes or do we just stick with the canned tuna from Chicken of the Sea?

 

[Ross]

Hey Ross, please explain "..,process for 75 minutes at ten pounds steam at sea level." So then this canned(jarred) meat can go on the shelf indefinitely? Any fish recipes or do we just stick with the canned tuna from Chicken of the Sea?

Just meat, fish is a whole different canning process. but the pressure canned jars last for months. Nancy is about to open a jar of liver spread for appetizers tonight.
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can5_meat.html
This web site is very diffinitive.

 

[Benny]

No thanks, I pass on those two. We have come a long way since K-Rations to try to embelish processed left over meats and grains. It does not surprise me that you found those to delicacies in the BVIs as all through the Caribbean a taste was developed for spam in the years after WWII. US food programs gave away cases of the stuff and island ingenuity put them to use in some tasty dishes. I guess a market was created and the products are now being enhanced. A staple in most of the Islands was cod fish as it could be shipped dried and kept for long time. The cod fish came came from Canada and for that reason you will still find in most of the islands branches of Canadian Banks. For emergency rations I carry cans of soup and penaut butter.

 

[jibes138]

I second the "no thanks" comment. I had a friend that worked in a meat processing factory. I asked him once what they make this stuff out of. His answer "sweepings." Bon Apetit.

 

[Sailm8]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE&feature=related

 

[Ross]

I second the "no thanks" comment. I had a friend that worked in a meat processing factory. I asked him once what they make this stuff out of. His answer "sweepings." Bon Apetit.

Besides cost, the great advantage of home canning is that I have complete control over the source and quality of the ingredients, We are constantly hearing about hidden salt and sugar in commercial products. When your food is canned by you, you can know exactly how much of what is in the jar.
When roasting chickens are on sale you can get an eight pound chicken for about six dollars. Roast it for supper and enjoy. Pick the remaining meat off the bones and save it. in a large pot put the bones, 4 quarts of water, an onion, two carrots and a stalk of celery. Cook this for about 2 hours and and drain the liquid into another pot and save it. Next pick as much more of the meat from the bones as you can and discard the bones and veggies.
Now peel and dice 2 cups of carrots and 2cups of onion, dice 2 cups of celery add these to a pot with the some of the fat (2-3 tablespoonsful) from roasting the chicken and heat over a low fire, covered until the onions are translucent. Having prepared your jars and pressure canner, divide the veggies into 6 pint jars and add an inch of chicken meat to each jar now fill the jar with the broth that you have seasoned to your liking but leave one inch of space in the jar for expansion. Adjust the lids and process for 75 minutes at 10 psi . you will now have 6 pints of soup ready to heat with added noodles. When this batch is done you can bring the broth back to a boil and pack the rest of the chicken meat into pint or half pint jars fill with the broth and process as for the soup. This will probably leave enough meat and broth for one meal for two. If you had cooked out a large amount of fat, you could save three ounces for making biscuits use the rest to make gravy from the pan drippings. In the end you will get two meals for two people at home and 12 meals on the shelf for less than 10 dollars including the cost of the chicken, the veggies, the jar lids, and you will know precisely what you are eating.

 

[sailingdog]

Michael Pollan, the author of "The Ominvore's Dilemma" has some basic rules about food. One of the ones I particularly like is:

"If it comes from a plant, eat it—if it is made in a plant (factory), don't."

 

[Ross]

Michael Pollan, the author of "The Ominvore's Dilemma" has some basic rules about food. One of the ones I particularly like is:

"If it comes from a plant, eat it—if it is made in a plant (factory), don't."

Two things you should never watch being made , politics and sausage.

 

[sailingdog]

Very true... both will turn your stomach.

Two things you should never watch being made , politics and sausage.

 

[jibes138]

Check out the documentary "Food,Inc." available on netflix. It is a movie about the food supply that will really open your eyes about what you are really eating. I just saw it in the last week. Makes you want to grow your own cows, pigs, and chickens.

 

[sailingdog]

Read Michael Pollan's book, The Ominvore's Dilemma.

Check out the documentary "Food,Inc." available on netflix. It is a movie about the food supply that will really open your eyes about what you are really eating. I just saw it in the last week. Makes you want to grow your own cows, pigs, and chickens.

 

[Ross]

Buy all of your food with the least amount of processing. Grow what you reasonably can, learn to bone a pork shoulder and cut it into meal size portions, learn to cut up a whole chicken or turkey and freeze the parts. Cook from basic as much as you are able. I would never buy ground beef that had not been ground in the store where I was buying. Watch for meat that has been enhanced with up to 10 percent flavoring and broth. Salt water is cheap.

 

[jibes138]

I think buying ground meat regardless of the source is risky all the way up to deadly. My wife stopeed eating beef a long time ago when the mad cow scare started. I found that using a food processor like a cuisinart you can grind your own pork, turkey, chicken, even fish, and since I eat beef make your own hamburg. This way you know you didn't get a bunch of meat at the end of the shelf life and you can control the cleanliness of the equipment. We use ground meat like this in spaghetti sauce, chili, to make burgers. Home grouund pork makes a fine burger or meatballs. Once it is spiced up and condiments added you hardly know the difference. Plus you can mix other things in the meat for interesting meatloafs.

 

[sailingdog]

You also don't get the fatty remnants that are often used to bulk up pre-packaged ground beef.

I think buying ground meat regardless of the source is risky all the way up to deadly. My wife stopeed eating beef a long time ago when the mad cow scare started. I found that using a food processor like a cuisinart you can grind your own pork, turkey, chicken, even fish, and since I eat beef make your own hamburg. This way you know you didn't get a bunch of meat at the end of the shelf life and you can control the cleanliness of the equipment. We use ground meat like this in spaghetti sauce, chili, to make burgers. Home grouund pork makes a fine burger or meatballs. Once it is spiced up and condiments added you hardly know the difference. Plus you can mix other things in the meat for interesting meatloafs.

 

[Ross]

My first job in high school was in a neighborhood A&P butcher shop. The beef arrived in quarters and lamb as whole carcass, the pork was broken down and the chickens were eviscerated and packed in crates of ice. We didn't sell fish. Beef for ground beef came in in 60 pound boxes of frozen lean meat from low grade beef called canners and cutters. We ground the meat just as soon as it was thawed enough the handle and we ground fresh several times each day. All cuts were custom.