Tinned meat - is anything nice?

[GreyishDays]

We tried the M&S steak and it was pretty good, but ideally we’d get something online from Sainsbury’s. I see they do a tinned mince and onion. Anyone tried it (or from a different supermarket)? Or anything else?

I am trying to find protein sources that we would actually eat normally. Well normally-ish.

Another alternative may be powdered milk used to make a white sauce.

Wholegrain breakfast cereals

Uht,oat, soya milks

What about wholegrain crackers.

Working on the principle that supplementing animal protein with plant protein will help you make it last longer.

@BahHumbygge I am both gluten and lactose free and we have Tesco's Sweet and Sour Chicken, Chicken Curry and Chicken Jalfrezi. All are full of good amounts of decent quality chicken. I've found that most things with beef seem to include wheat flour aside from that Heinz Big Soup. If anyone knows of anything else, I'm all ears. Oh, and we have the obligatory corned beef for hashing. I seem to remember M&S Danish ham in a round tin as being ok too.

M&S tinned chicken used to be lovely, but not sure they still do it.

@planningaheadtoday thank you, that's really clear and helpful!

@CrepuscularCritter thank you for GF/DF recs- I may plan a trip to Tesco over half term and see what they have.

The "look what we found" beef chili is good, it's in pouches.

haba I forgot Look What We Found which is good, and also runny enough to cover any accompanying carbs or veg well. There are also some meals in the M&S Plant Kitchen range which are shelf stable. I've only tried one so far -dahl with cauliflower?- and it wasn't good at all. Hope the others are better for anyone looking for a plant-based option. And I've just remembered Merchant Gourmet chestnuts in packets, one of my favourite things stir fried with brussels (and bacon if desired).

Asda do boxes of curry. Not sure what they are like but ex keeps reordering them and DD eats them.

We have a few tins of meat here. Corned beef hash was unexpectedly tasty made with tinned potatoes as well. Inspired by bellinisurge we tried corned beef beef bolognaise and that went down well too.
I bought 'Tin Can Cook' by Jack Monroe (paperback copy in case of kindle/Internet/power going down - not neurotic at all lol!) It is full of ways to jazz up and make edible all sorts of tinned food. For some, she recommends rinsing off any gravy/sauce from the tinned meat, and beginning again with your own.
It's worth having spices, stock cubes, tomato puree and wine, as they make bog standard tinned beef much more alluring.
Also how about tinned frankfurters? I doubt they are healthy I (daren't look at what's in them) but they are popular with DH and can meat up a soup if sliced.
I really like the method of freezing for the library method inside a tub. Genius!!

Love making a pasta sauce and adding corned beef it is really tasty.

You can make a great chilli with tinned steak...add tinned kidney beans and chopped tomatoes, tomato and garlic purees, chilli powder, ground cumin and coriander.

Or chuck in a pan with whatever veg you have to hand and a large tin of drained baby potatoes...serve with fresh crusty bread.

Spam recipe - make a ragu style sauce - sautéed onions, garlic, passata, tom purée etc however you usually make it but also add 1-2 tsp madras curry powder and a little chilli powder, mushrooms and sweet corn. Instead of mince add cubed, browned spam. Serve with rice. Sounds ridiculous but everyone who tries it loves it. (Recipe from my nan from when times were hard!)

That spam recipe sounds nice! I will have to try that.
In my experience all the tinned meat 'meals' have been good except generic 'curry' (madras, jalfezi, balti all fine) but I think that's because I didn't like the sauce rather than the meat. Often I would rather be able to add to the contents rather than have them straight out the tin but if I'm at work for example it happy to eat them.
I also use mattersons sausage, if you read the back you don't need to keep it refrigerated before you open the packet. Use it like hot dog for adding meat to pizza or soup or whatever.

@Pegase that recipe for spam looks nice.

We have tried chicken in white sauce, was ok. Steak in gravy, was ok. Tinned curries from Tesco, Asda etc all quite nice. Cans of chicken breast from Costco, fine, work well in pasta, curry etc. Corned beef instead of fresh beef to make chilli con carne. Have got tinned ham. Have bought bacon grill to try. The tinned chilli con carne in tins is fairly nice. I have used jerky to make sauce in the slow cooker before and it went nice and soft, but cans store longer than than jerky. If you can't get meat for any reason lentils make an ok substitute sometimes, and they store well.

Sainsbury Beef Bolognaise, Beef Casserole, jmild Beef curry and Chicken Balti and Tesco Sweet n Sour Chicken are nice, and gluten free.

Another idea for corned beef, which my mother used to make when I was a child, is meat and potato pie. I didn't have it for decades, then a couple of years ago decided to make it for a change. DH lapped it up and now it's a regular dish.

I make it gluten free, with corned beef tossed in gf flour, added to boiled cubes of potato and slices of onion (water left in), together with a gf stock cube and a good squirt of tomato puree. Gf pastry on top and bake.

We eat half and freeze half. It's really nice and savoury, and a good alternative to corned beef hash.

I tried out Sainsbury's tinned chicken in white sauce as a pie filling. I fried off garlic, carrots, leeks and mushrooms with a knorr chicken stock pot then when it had cooled a little stirred in the tins and topped with a sheet of jus rol puff pastry

It was delicious! I did try a bit of the chicken cold from the tin and not quite as pleasant of course but it would be fine if we had to!

Might experiment with freezing the prepared veg for the filling too

@formerbabe
This chicken in white sauce, what's the texture like? Is any of it gristly? I'm quite tempted to try it now
It’s beautiful, particularly the M&S or Tesco one. Large pieces of chicken breast, no gristle whatsoever.

I also made a sort-of pie (just a shortcrust top) with the Sainsbury's chicken in white sauce, some veg and extra white sauce and it was fine - and I'm not a fan of recooked chicken.

We quite regularly have bubble and squeak the day after a roast and DP would happily add corned beef every time to make a 'proper' meal out of it!

M&S chicken in white sauce is an occasional treat in our household. On toast or over rice with green salad to make it more of a main meal.

As for corned beef... fry as many onions as you can bear to peel and chop until just beginning to caramelise. Add cubed corned beef and spread in bottom of oven proof dish.

Meanwhile scrape loads of floury potatoes, cover in cold water and put on to boil til 'nearly' soft.

Drain, mash and add butter melted in warmed milk. It really is worth warming the milk/butter. Add one raw egg and mix thoroughly, spread over meat and onions and cook in hot oven til potatoes are brown and puffy (almost soufflé like).

Some people looking at DSis enjoy a layer of baked beans between meat and potatoes. No hope for some people.

Look out for Grants pulled pork, beef ribs and gammon (the ones in the black label tins) we found them in Morrisons and Sainsbury's. All very nice and quick to prepare using microwave and grill.

We also always have some Bunlimited hotdogs in the cupboard (classic and spicy) for quick dinners - only hotdogs we ever have now!