Per my conversation with the local store this afternoon, Costco apparently has discontinued their Kirkland “house brand” canned roast beef. It was excellent-quality lean Brazilian beef, and I like eating it straight from the can, or as a base for other meals. Plus, the price could not be beat: $10.99 for six 12.5-ounce cans. That’s $0.146 per ounce. (Bear in mind some of that, unavoidably, is water weight.)
Kirkland still has their canned chicken, but I’m guessing that’s going away soon too.
Looking around for replacements for the beef, I see my local Safeway has NOTHING comparable (corned beef is NOT the same). However, Hormel canned roast beef (with gravy, probably making it less useful as a generic base meat) is at my local Albertson’s for $4.99 per can (!!!) or $0.416 per ounce. No, thank you! Wal-Mart might have it cheaper, but of the many Wal-Marts in the nine-county SF Bay Area, none indicate that they have it in stock, and when I 
called Martinez’ store twice to ask if it was there I waited ten minutes on hold both times before giving up.
Sam’s Club? They’ve got Manco roast beef, which looks promising, but when you click on it it’s NOT AVAILABLE. Grrr….
Well, how about online sources? This site has a variety of nicely packaged canned meats, without gravy — and they’ve got both canned roast beef and canned ground beef! However, the price is $62.99 for 12 14-ounce cans, or $0.374 per ounce. Once shipping’s included I’d be better off buying it from Albertson’s. Grrrr….
Hmm, this looks like it might work! From MREDepot.com, Yoder’s canned beef, at $74.99 for 12
28-ounce cans. That’s $0.223 per ounce, the closest so far to Costco’s price. The larger cans aren’t as handy as the 12.5-ounce tins, but still a manageable size for a meal for a single person or two folks. (If you had to open a can in an emergency situation, I’m presuming no refrigeration would be available, so you’d have to eat it all right then.)
But wait…. let’s look at the label, shall we?
I’m always suspicious of something that has a gigantic percentage of calories from fat. In a 56-gram serving of Yoder’s, you get 8 grams of protein, and 82% of calories from fat.
Look at Kirkland’s label in comparison (below the fold): same serving size, 9 grams of protein, but only 20% of calories from fat. 2 grams of fat versus 15 for Yoder’s. Lean beef vs. fatty beef, I suppose.
OTOH, you need a source of fat in your diet anyway, especially in a survival situation where most of your diet’s naturally gonna be carbs.
Yoder’s seems to be a survival staple on lots of storage-food sites. I like that it’s made by Amish folks.
Anybody tried the Yoder’s meat? Like, dislike?
Kirkland Roast Beef Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 2oz (56g)
|
|
|||
| Amount per Serving | |||
|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
|||
| % Daily Value * | |||
| Total Fat 1g | 2% | ||
| Saturated Fat 1g | 5% | ||
| Cholesterol 25mg | 8% | ||
| Sodium 250mg | 10% | ||
| Total Carbohydrate 0g | 0% | ||
| Dietary Fiber 0g | 0% | ||
| Protein 9g | 18% | ||
|
|
|||
| Vitamin A | 2% |
| Iron | 8% |
Est. Percent of Calories from:
| Fat 18.0% Â Â Carbs 0.0% |
| Protein 72.0% |
The Yoder bacon is first rate and not that much more expensive then buying raw bacon. And the Yoder is sure as hell a lot easier to use then cooking raw bacon from scratch. Only downer is no bacon grease to collect for cooking the Southern way.
That’s too bad. The Costco stuff makes great ghetto beef stew, and some of the best SOS I’ve ever made.
The solution is jerky.
I posted on the 25% price increase of my fave brand, World Kitchens, here: http://rivrdog.typepad.com/rivrdog/2009/02/pair-of-kroger-wtfs.html about a month ago.
Lessee, WK jerky is NOW selling for $7.99 the 12-oz package, or 66 cents an ounce. Reconstitute jerky and you get at LEAST 3X the weight in LEAN meat, so now you are down to 22 cents/oz for LEAN meat.
Jerky wins!
Check the label for the mfg. of the Kirkland. Then do a search and call them to see who else carries the stuff.
I have eaten at the Crossroads Cafe in Yoder and everything there is first rate.
That is Yoder, Kansas, about 1/2 hour NW on K-96 from Wichita.
If you want something canned, and TSHF, can it yourself!
If you are serious, instead of grandstanding, buy canning jars, lids, and LOTS of sealers.
I have jars and lids from my grandparents, and believe it or not, the glass jars and lids still work. And can be reused, unlike cans.
Conrad
Thanks, all. Good feedback on the Yoder from Glenn and EMDFL.
EMDFL, as for looking for the manufacturer, all I can say is D’oh! Excellent idea, and one I will follow up on as soon as I can locate what is probably my one remaining can of the Kirkland stuff.
Rivrdog, I have jerky in our 3-day grab-n-go bags. The seven-day kits are supposed to be filled with more substantial, yet easily-cooked food for hot meals — food that my wife would eat. She would not be happy with seven days’ worth of jerky.
Conrad, great advice. I’ve been saving the FalFiles Survival forum sticky on Canning, and I’ve read a lot of Jackie Clay’s articles on the subject from Backwoods Home magazine. And of course, my grandmother is a past master at it. But I haven’t yet gotten off my ass to can anything. At the prices above, it makes sense to buy fresh meat and just can it myself, that’s for sure!
However, I don’t think the glass jars would stand up to the abuse our seven-day emergency food kits take in the trunks and cabs of our family vehicles, so factory metal canned goods are called for there.
In my yute, I dinked around with dehydrating foods, and made some semi-jerky.
Take a 1/2″ thick round steak (full steak, that big oval one) and trim off as much of the fat as you can.
With a SHARP knife, cut the steak around the edge, 1/2″ wide, so that you have as close to continuous long pieces of meat as possible. Cure first in Morton’s Tender-Quick curing brine for 24 hours overnight in ziploc bags in the reefer, turning them and re-distributing the meat through the bag, then in a bowl of liquid smoke (which you can get in quart bottles if you ask for it) for an hour. Drain. Arrange in your dehydrator and dehydrate to soft-but-chewy.
This jerky will NOT keep forever at room temp, must be refrigerated or frozen, but taken out of the reefer, it will last for a week in your pocket. I’ve not experimented with taking farther towards dry than this stage, or changing the brine to have something more preservative in it, but both of those things could be done, I suppose.
Sometimes if you call the mfg. you can get them to sell you a couple of “trial” case of their product.
Pingback: Random Nuclear Strikes » Seven-Day Food Kit
The problem with dehydrators is that they use heat as part of the dehydration process and partially cook the meat. You can get around this by using a box fan, some paper a/c filters and a couple of bungee cords to dehydrate your jerky:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/beef-jerky-recipe/index.html
It’s a pretty time-intensive method, but the jerky you get is quite good and keeps longer.