"z z" > wrote in message
...
> End of one of the aisles had something I have never seen before. Brand
> was something like Stonebeam or Stonebridge. Canned meat. Large cans-I
> am assuming 16oz. $5 a can. Low sodium which greatly surprised me. Beef,
> Chicken, Pork. The beef can ingredients only listed Beef and Sea Salt.
> Does Sea Salt not contain sodium? Does that mean it doesn't contain the
> pink slime stuff? (I realize it may contain beef parts I don't want to
> hear about.) The back of the can had a pot roast recipe using the canned
> beef. I have seen little cans of chicken and those hillarious potted
> meat cans, but never seen canned meat this large before.
> I did succumb to the lure of ice cream. I rarely eat or buy ice cream
> because I only like the rare flavors as a rule. Well, Haagen Dazs had a
> flavor I hadn't seen before. "bourbon praline pecan" That is some
> quality ice cream! Delicious flavor, and no crunchy gritty pieces-the
> praline pecans were very nicely softened.

Costco sells their own brand of canned chicken, turkey, ham and beef. I've
bought them all but chickened out on trying the beef or the ham. I actually
could think of ways to do the beef but not the ham. I gave those to the
food bank. I most often make a gravy out of the turkey or chicken to be
served over mashed potatoes, rice or pasta. This is a nice dish to make
when you are snow in, in the winter and running out of food. I also use the
chicken for a quick soup when my daughter is sick or into a salad. You can
add mayo, celery, pecans or walnuts, chopped apples, halved, seeded or
seedless grapes, or really any kind of fruit that you want. Onions would go
well in this too. But daughter likes it how she got it at Costco. They
were giving out samples. Bagged salad topped with some of the plain
chicken, drained but otherwise straight from the can then a sesame dressing.
The only thing she does different is to add black olives.

You could also use the chicken or turkey to make a pot pie. I have done
this with a biscuit topping. They served something like this where my dad
is. Sadly, most of the employees do not know how to cook. I recognized
what they were serving as some kind of Campbell's bakes. I think they call
them Homestyle or something. I used to buy them at the military commissary,
only because I could get them for cheap. Then daughter loved them and would
always put them in my cart. They were kept on the bottom shelf. Right
where she could get at them. IIRC, there was a can of chicken and
vegetables in gravy and then some sort of biscuits or perhaps it was a
biscuit mix for topping. I never made this as is though because there were
precious few vegetables in there. I would always add some canned green
beans and maybe some peas and some celery and onions to this. Actually
while we lived there, I kept a stockpile of dried veggies because I wasn't
always able to get out and get fresh ones, especially during the winter.

You could easily do something like this yourself and I have done it myself
as well. I would even make the gravy. Put the canned chicken (or turkey)
in a deep skillet then add some flour to it like you would for making a
sausage gravy. I would use sweet rice flour but you could use Wondra or
regular flour or even cornstarch or Arrowroot powder. But keep in mind that
if you are planning leftovers, the flour will not break down whereas the
other things might. Not saying that they will, because I've done this and
they did not. I've just read that they could. Cook this for a minute, then
slowly add chicken (or turkey) broth to this until you have a nice gravy.
Stirring, of course, as you do so. To this you will want to add vegetables.
If you are using fresh ones, you'll probably want to get them started first
in a little butter or olive oil until soft. I would for sure use onion,
celery and carrots and the minimum. But my daughter LOVES green beans so I
pretty much put those in anything. Not so sure that I would put tomatoes in
there but pretty much any other veggie you like could go in. You could also
use canned or frozen veggies. If frozen, I would put them in at the end and
just heat through. If canned, since already cooked, just drain and stir
them in. I would also add black pepper and parsley and perhaps a little
salt. Probably would not add salt if using canned veg.

Put this mixture in a baking dish. Be sure to leave room for the topping.
And the topping will be biscuits. If you want, you can use canned ones. I
would personally mix my own. Last time I did this, I made whole wheat ones.
You could cut them out. MIL does this and cuts them in squares. But I just
drop down the mix like you would for drop biscuits. Bake at around 350 for
20- 30 minutes until the topping begins to brown. You could top this with a
little butter for added richness.

The beef could also be used in any of the ways I listed above. It would be
in chunks. You could also make sort of a pseudo stew by adding precooked or
canned veggies to this. It would be quick to fix but would not have as deep
a flavor as a long cooked stew would.

Really not sure what to tell you about the ham. This family are not ham
lovers. Once in a while I'll pick up a ham steak and serve it to husband
and daughter. And they will eat a ham sandwich now and then. But I think
they'd prefer not to. You could probably turn this into some kind of salad.
MIL used to make meat salads by buying whatever meat ends they had at the
deli. Sometimes it was even mixed meats. She would chop it all up finely,
add pickles, mayo and whatever kind of seasonings that it seemed to need.
she would serve this sandwiched into little buns.

I would think that you could probably put the ham in a soup, or drain it and
mix it into scrambled eggs. But since I never opened a can, I don't know
exactly what it looked like or what texture it was.