How To Use Canned Ground Beef
I’m so excited to share with you how to use canned ground beef! You may remember I took classes to receive my Master Preserver Canning Certificate from USU (Utah State University) extension service using the USDA canning guidelines. I have canned everything possible now after taking that class. Well, I better clarify that I have not pressure-canned any wild meat. By the way, I talked Mark into taking the class with me and we both passed the test with flying colors, thank goodness! We pressure-canned cooked ground beef and cooked ground beef patties. We also pressure-canned raw chicken. Here’s the deal, it was great pressure canning meat in the class. I must admit I will not do it at home. Mark and I eat very little meat, but I loved the experience and it’s really easy to do.
But, after Pleasant Hill Grain sent me some cans of cooked ground beef so I could sample it and write a review, I was literally in awe. Why would I do this myself when I can buy two cases of it from a commercial company I trust? After I fixed the chili with the first can of cooked ground beef, I went online and ordered two cases. Oh, my goodness, you can make so many things with just one can! I remember growing up and we had hamburger meat several times a week. I grew up with a single mom so money was tight, but I didn’t know how tight at the time. Then my mom remarried and things were a little better, but we still didn’t have a lot of fluff, so speak. My mom taught me to make bread, and after having kids of my own, I taught them how to make bread for their families too.
What I love about opening a can of cooked ground beef is the meat is ready to add to almost every recipe we want to make that calls for meat. It won’t make meatloaf because it’s cooked crumbled beef, but that’s okay. I love having something in my pantry that I can add to a meal at the last minute, or, to prepare a meal in the slow cooker. Here are a few meals I started thinking about that we can all make. Please send me your ideas and I will add them to my list. Who wouldn’t love having 13 ounces of ground-cooked ground beef in a can and ready to go? I’m going to tell everyone I know about this meat! We can all get canned tuna, roast beef, or chicken at Costco, but not cooked ground beef! Woohoo!
I used to buy the frozen meatballs so Mark could have some meat in his spaghetti, but not anymore, I’ll grab a can of this yummy ground beef!
How To Use Canned Ground Beef:
- Soups
- Chili
- Stroganoff
- Casseroles
- Creamed ground beef over biscuits
- Spaghetti
- Tacos
- Snack ramen, beef, and peas
- Lasagna
- Sloppy joes
- Burritos
- Beans, rice, and beef
- Stuffed bell peppers
- Manicotti
- Tamale pie
- Shepherds pie
- Asian wraps
- Taco soup
- Mexican pie
- Mexican Pizza
- Goulash
- Tator Tot casserole
- Beef nacho casserole
- Italian wedding soup
- Seven layers Mexican dip
- Hamburger soup
- Chili mac and cheese
If you have a farm or mini farm and raise your own beef, that’s awesome! This works for me and I don’t use any freezer space to store my cooked ground beef! Here’s yet another way to be prepared for the unexpected. If we lose power, we still have some meat on our pantry shelves. Again, if you have ideas on how to use this kind of meat product please let me know. I love sharing my reader’s ideas so the world can learn and be better prepared. Thanks for your loyalty and for visiting my site.
Soup Recipes: Recipes by Food Storage Moms
My favorite things:
Lodge L12CO3 Cast Iron Camp Dutch Oven, 6 quart
Lodge L10SK3ASHH41B Cast Iron Skillet, Pre-Seasoned, 12-inch
Kelly Kettle Large Stainless Steel Base Camp Basic Kit
That meat looks great! I’ll have to check it out. Thank you!
Carol, it’s great, I love it! Linda
Your timing is excellent! I just jumped into the exciting world of pressure canning meat- chicken and pork, so we have meat on the shelf if the power goes out. I was intrigued by your comment that you canned ground beef patties. How and how to use them? Just like burgers?
Hi Linda, this is so funny, when I took the class I couldn’t imagine how to use the patties. After the class, I totally got it! You could use them with a cream sauce, gravy or in a casserole. I only canned them (you pre-cook them and then pressure can them). They will not taste as good as a barbecued hamburger pattie! For me, I could pressure can the cooked ground hamburger over the patties. Linda
I also can chicken, turkey & beef. I would love to hear what you learned in your course. I found a great meatloaf recipe that I have canned . It is good and helps out when I’m tired. Looking for more recipes to can .
Carol from Kansas
Hi Carol, one of the biggest or newest things I learned was how tomatoes are not as acidic as they used to be. Remember when we would get cankers if we ate too many tomatoes? Now, most tomatoes are genetically modified organisms (due to Monsanto’s $$$ power). We need to add lemon juice or citric acid to the jars to make them safe to can or eat. Here is the manual if you can get it from your local state extension or county: It’s a spiral bound book called Complete Guide to Home Canning USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture REVISED 2015 Agriculture Information No. 539. Keep up the food storage, you rock! Hugs! Linda
I’m with you! I can’t imagine my family happily eating the precooked, canned burgers, so precooked, canned ground beef it is! Thanks for all you do.
I loved hearing about your experiences growing up and your family. This is wonderful, Linda. I haven’t had the nerve to try canning ground beef. But now I want to try. My aunt has a big pressure canner that we all borrow and share. Or I might just try the commercially prepared.
One problem I have is that I have many jars of “ground beef dried rocks” that I prepped according to directions and then put in jars and sealed the jars with my food saver vacuum sealer. The problem is, I can no longer find the directions that had what to do with the rocks after you have them dried. The book was pamphlet sized and it disappeared. Do you know what I can do with the rocks so I can make room for canned beef? I think it would be better to use canned ground beef like you have done instead. But in the meantime, I’ve got jar upon jar of rocks and don’t know how to use them.
I’ve googled “beef rocks” and no recipes come up except how to make beef into rocks and Bierocks which uses beef but is an entirely different animal.
Thanks,
Debbie
Wow, Debbie, I have never heard of beef rocks. The thing I would be concerned about the storage of them. Did you use oxygen absorbers in the jars? I would check with your local state extension service. I’m betting they will tell you they are not safe to use, but I don;t know the entire process you did making them. If I had a large family at home I would pressure can raw chicken for sure. But Mark and I eat so little meat that those Costco chicken cans work great in just about everything I fix. I decided to BUY the ground beef because I know when home canning or commercial canning has a short-term shelf life. Of course, freeze dried commercially canned foods have a longer shelf life. Commercially dehydrated has a few extra years over the store purchased cans depending on the brand. Most of my long-term food storage is freeze dried. I bought the 24 cans of cooked ground beef cans because I calculated the cost of frying the meat (which is expensive) and I already had the bottles, but I would need to buy new lids to process the meat. I guess I’m getting tired at 67 years of age. I bought the cans! Hugs! Linda
I do a lot of canning. I have canned chicken, ground beef, pot roast and pork. I do season some, but most is unseasoned because I love being able to grab a jar of meat at the last minute and make a great meal. I have bought can meats from Costco and the only one we didn’t care for was the roast beef.We would buy meat there at least 2 times a month. We were just starting out in our prepping journey and wanted a variety of meats. But after opening and using a few cans of the roast beef we decided we didn’t like it. So, I sent the remaining 48 cans to my brother in Alaska as he loves it. As far as home canning goes, I have both water bath and pressure canners. I did buy the meat sampler pack from PHG some time ago. We enjoyed all of them and keep some on hand. I highly recommend them for anyone that can’t home can or prefer not to home can. We also have freeze dried and dehydrated meats in storage. The one thing I have not attempted to can is tomatoes. My garden has not supplied enough to can as we eat them as fast as they grow. Thank you again for another great article. God Bless and keep on prepping.
I’ve been canning leftover Thanksgiving turkey for almost 30 years. We use it to make turkey ala king, turkey and dumplings, turkey noodle soup and turkey gumbo. Any recipe that calls for cooked chicken,
I buy chicken 40 lbs at a time, then pressure can 1/2 of it. My husband and I trim off any fat, put it in sterilized jars and follow the directions that are in the USDA canning guide. It is wonderful for soup, pot pie, creamed chicken and more. I love my pressure canner, in fact I have 3.
Oh Janet, you rock as usual! I love hearing this! I wish I had the space to store more bottles of canned food. I love hearing you have three pressure canners! Awesome! The class I took actually used my All-American to show people different pressure canners to use. Life is good if we have food and water stored. Hugs, Linda
Where does one obtain canned ground beef?
Hi Hessie, I had a link in the post. Here it is: https://pleasanthillgrain.com/ground-beef-13-oz-case-of-12
All this sounds wonderful but in a true emergency stuff will just be limited. I found that out back when hurricane Matthew came through and we didn’t have power for two weeks. What I missed the most was foods that had crunch. We were experiencing food fatigue. I had canned beef, hamburger, chicken and home canned soups and mountain house quick meals but unless you have something that has some crunch you’ll get food fatigue too. Think about that.
Hi Thelma Jane, would cookies work for crunch? I can bake cookies and pop popcorn. This is a fabulous tip for all of us!
I can also make tortilla’s into chips in my emergency ovens or on a griddle. I LOVE this comment! I always have salsa. LOTS of salsa. Great thing to think about, crunch! Linda