Keystone meats are a staple of many prepping and survival stores. Looking at their website, they say they're in grocery stores, too, but I don't know that I've ever seen them there.
https://keystonemeats.com/ (There's also a cookbook for their products on the site)
I've been buying various cans - natural beef, pork, and ground beef for a while now. Mostly at TruPrep - they're competitive at $8.99 for a 28 oz can. Having beef on hand seems like just a great idea, but I've never tried it. So last night I cracked open a can of Natural Beef. The "Natural" is to distinguish it from ground beef - it's like a can of bland pot roast. I say bland, but not in a bad way. It has no specific flavor other than "beef" because it's meant to be made in to things, and you wouldn't want a predetermined flavor profile. It's here I realize I should have taken a picture. It was a liquidy can of what would best be described as "pot roast chunks". the liquid was broth from cooking - not overly watery. Room temperature beef fat, of which there were some bits, is never appetizing looking, but also good and necessary to have a complete beef product.
I tried a bare, unadorned, room temperature piece to evaluate on it's own. Just a salty beef flavor as I mentioned, but here's the problem. It's DRY AS HELL. Trying to chew and process a "chunk" was pretty awful. The flavor was fine, but the texture and mouthfeel were just horrid. I honestly don't know if this is an unavoidable side effect of canning beef inthis manner, or if it's a problem with this particular product.
ALL IS NOT LOST! The secret for rescuing dry meat is to eliminate biting and mouthfeel from the equation - I folded in some refried beans and salsa, and fork tossed it until it was largely texture free. I added cheese and heated it up a bit.
The flavor wasn't bad - and frankly it was a pretty nice little quick dinner. I mostly enjoyed it. I say "mostly" because of the time or two I bit into a bit that wasn't "pureed" enough that I actually bit it and was reminded of the awfulness that was the texture.
The recipe on the can suggested making pot roast with it by putting it in with raw vegetables and cooking it til the vegetables were done. Really? NO.
So - ***, I suppose - three stars for tasting good and adding real beef to dishes suited for it, but stars subtracted for never, EVER wanting to bite into it. I'll keep it as a prep and even continue to buy it, but with these factors in mind.
