I usually dont link to threads from the various forums because some are closed to non-members and some arent and I dont feel like keeping track of that sort of thing. However, I think this one should be open. There was a thread about the canned beef from CostCo under thier house brand of Kirkland. I had seen this stuff up there the last few times we went to CostCo but I am always leery of canned meats…especially since much of it these days is from non-US sources. But, after reading the post on arfcom I decided to take a swing at it. Worst case, Nuke gets some awesome dog food. So I headed up to CostCo to pick some up.

Now, I have a freezerfull of dead bovine at the moment, and quite a few cans of freeze-dried dead bovine, but freezers die and freeze-dried meats are spendy. If theres some cow that comes in a can that is actually pretty good..well, I wanna know about it.

Turns out, its really good. To me, all canned meat smells and looks like cat food when you open the can. I absolutely hate that smell. But, after draining the meat a bit, putting the contents into a covered bowl, and microwaving it for 90 seconds it smelled wonderful. Meat was lean, very tender, and pulls apart quite easily…primo material for doing anything where shredded beef would be nice. Shelf life is about two years but in the real world its gonna be several times that.

I’m going to have to spend some time in the kitchen experimenting with this stuff. It seems like it would be an excellent staple for cooking with long-term storage food. I can definitely see this with some rice, Mexican seasoning of some kind, maybe some canned chiles, etc, etc. I can also see this working great tossed into the last two minutes of a stir fry with some peppers.

Anyway, if you have a CostCo near you, you might wanna try some of this stuff. Like any canned meat, it smells wierd and looks unappetizing when you open the can but if you can get past that and get it heated up and on a plate I think you’ll like it.