On todays episode of ‘Will It Digest’ – an 11-year-old can of Kirkland Beef.
Not gonna lie, I was actually thinking of just dropping these at an animal shelter or homeless shelter (surprisingly interchangeable) and replacing it with some more recent stuff. But…this is a good chance for a little empirical data gathering, don’t you think?
I should have taken the pic before I opened the can. Didn’t plan ahead.
As always, it smelled exactly the way canned meat always smells – like cat food. Its hideous. But even recently made stuff smells like that. It’s just the nature of canned meats. As usual, once you put the heat to the meat the smell is replaced with a more appetizing smell. Figured I’d do a Green Pepper Beef sorta rice bowl. If youre curious: 1tbsp of hosin sauce and oyster sauce, 2 tbsp garlic, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup chicken stock, pinch of sugar, some red pepper flakes, sliced up pepper, sliced up onion. And make up some rice while youre at it.’
How was it? Delicious. I guess I’ll have a more definitive answer in about eight hours, but it seems just fine. I’m not surprised, most canned food will last a bloody long time. As long as the cans retain their integrity, and are stored in the classic ‘cool dry place’, they’ll last for decades. There are some caveats to that of course….highly acidic foods (tomatoes, pineapples, etc) will not last near that long, regardless of how well you store the cans. But low-acid stuff (which is what meat is) will keep quite a while.
I was reminded how darn good that Kirkland roast beef is last night. It really is an unsung hero of the long-term pantry. And, as shown above, a handy item for making a quick and hearty meal.
While I’m on the subject, a good question would be “Have I ever actually had any problems with canned food?” Actually, yes. I learned the hard way a long time ago that canned tomato products were best used up within a couple years and not much longer than that.
I had a can of enchilada sauce that, when I opened the can, was filled with nothing but water. Also had several cans of roasted red peppers start bulging in a disturbing manner. Those last two were from non-USA sources. I try to stick exclusively to US made/packaged foods when possible. Maybe the canned corned beef from Argentina is tasty but I trust the US food environment far more than I do something in South America….Upton Sinclair not withstanding.
I’m still eating Kirkland Roast Beef & Gravy that was purchased around 2009 and it still tastes and looks great. Same with canned DAK hams from the same time. Despite the pull top lids which tend to leak, all is good. Hormel even claims that the shelf-life of SPAM is indefinite.
I would eat that. I have canned meat that is older than that I am still eating. Home canned, but still canned meat does not ever go bad as long as it has been sealed properly.
back in the late 1990’s or early 2000″s. not sure, but was helping a buddy of mine do some work on his DAD’s old cabin upstate. he made tuna fish for lunch.
from 6 OZ. cans ? never saw a 6 OZ can before myself. but it was part of a stockpile his old man had hidden behind a false wall. along with some other goodies. now the tuna was packed in olive oil too. had to be early 1960’s at least.
we where both fine. it also looked like he dipped the cans in hot wax too before
he closed the wall up. even the old ammo was sealed in what we figured was wax paper. now some of the spices looked and smelled a bit “off” and he dumped them
but all of the canned meats where good to go !
canned food is the only way to go for the short term anyway.
there was even 4 cans of coffee. 5 pound cans ?
The odds are both the animal shelter and the homeless shelter would have just dumped it. I’ve even seen post on websites from both of these kinds of businesses say they would not use or give out cans with just a few months left. One would only take cans with one year left on the Best Be For Date. It’s nuts.
We have had no problems with any canned meats and have gone as far out, so far, to 10 yrs past the “best by date.
Where we have had problems is with canned fruits. In the last 3 years we have had 8 or 10 cans explode in storage. Always a big mess to clean up. We now toss at 2 years past “best by date”. Living in Southern Florida, it’s hard to rotate canned fruit in to diet with fresh fruit always avalible.
Has anyone experience the tomato problem with spaghetti sauce? We store a lot, all in glass jars with the pop up top as if canned at home. So far it all tasted fine and no ill results.
Glass does not suffer the acid related problems that cans do.
Several months ago I was digging through one of my freezers and came across several packages of venison backstrap dated 2011. Since I killed the deer and did the processing myself, I was fairly confident the meat was OK. I thawed some of it, cut the freezer paper off a couple of the packs and it smelled as sweet as the day I wrapped it. One end had a little spot about like a nickel that was burned hard and dry. I trimmed that spot off and the rest cooked up and ate just like fresh.
Following. The canned chow items, with those exceptions (tomato/ fruit, acidic) that the Commander had itemized are literally a tangible asset, like precious metals. Something as in a product/item that your body needs to survive (food!) Can sustain you or your health (staying fed) and with an intact label or see through canning jar is also readily identifiable as an exchange medium for trade purposes (barter, gifting) when things get spicy, yes they will, an Anon with a pantry or larder of canned up long storage foods will be the real winner of the day. For lulz and lmao entertainment go on the dating web sites and ask those femcels posting for mates to attach a photo of their pantry, as you cannot be sure their facial photo is not doctored up or make up covered, and the sexual poses are uninteresting. “How much rations are you bringing to a relationship lady”? Or if your date invites you up for a nightcap, comment on the nice place and casually inquire of the pantry, kitchen storage, etc. If a proud display of a chadlette’s stocked larder is displayed with giddiness, good to go. If it is bare bones weak sauce like the rest of America, take your leave and escape out a window if necessary as it is a no go at that point. Priorities, just saying. Stay frosty.
When will the Commander Zero cookbook hit the shelves? I have bookmarked the “bunker gumbo” recipe. I envy your cooking skills. “Cut slit in foil over entree. Microwave on high 3-5 minutes. Rotate once. Caution brownie may be hot.” Those are my cooking skills.
I can make anything using only two ingredients: a credit card and a cellphone
Speaking of cooking skills, I asked my wife 2-3 years ago to laminate my favorite bread recipe and that’ll be what intruders have to pry from my cold, dead hands. When I’m making it frequently, usually in the winter, I get to where I have it almost memorized, then warm weather comes and I don’t bake as much.
Huh, now that I read this….
That would ‘splain why the only thing in my pile of canned goods to have troubles is: Pineapple! Must have been too acidic for the metal, ate right through the edge of one.
Personally speaking, I have not had good luck with acidic items like tomato sauce, etc.
“Name brand” cans have held up better than “off brand” cans.
Dented cans and those exposed to “other dented/leaking” cans have not faired as well either.
“Store in a cool dry place” seems to work.
The absolute hardest thing to do is to “rotate” the cans by purchase date.
Yes, I know, Last in First Out (LIFO) means the newest cans go to the back of the shelf, so the oldest get used first and a steady rotation evolves. But…. when Mrs. goes grocery shopping it doesn’t always work out that way.
Canned goods will often last for a long time beyond ‘Best By’ date.
But it is a challenge to keep it all bought, stored and rotated. YMMV.
One of the few perks of living in Italy, from a preparedness standpoint, is that we have a slew of tomato sauces and other tomato based products sold in glass jars, which will last way longer than those in metal cans.
There are drawbacks however: products in glass are generally more expensive, and they are heavy and more sensible to light. And, of course, glass jars will tend to break after a fall, so you’ll need to store them more carefully.
Cheers, Daniele