A few weeks ago my little brother was talking to me about an odd food product he bought at a little out of town grocery store, “potted meat food product”. He described it as being similar in taste and texture to a cheap hotdog that had been tossed in a blender. So on my most recent backpacking trip, my younger brother decided to bring along some so I could try it. Well, he found 3 different cans (at about $.39 each), and brought them all up to the mountains so we can have the “Potted Meat Challenge”. So on Saturday afternoon, we cracked open all three cans. To give you an idea what’s inside these things, here is a typical listing on ingredients,
“Mechanically separated chicken, pork skin, partially defatted cooked pork fatty tissue, vinegar, salt, spices, sugar, flavorings, sodium erythorbate and sodium nitrite.”
As you can see in the photo, the stuff is pink, and definitely looks blended. I put my spork into the first of the three cans, the “Armour” brand and spooned a bit out and took a bite. First reaction, taste isn’t terrible, like a cheap hot dog, but with more spices and salt. The texture was gross though, and almost grainy. At least it was gluten free! I then sampled the next two brands, Libbey and Wal-Mart. These while still a blended texture, did not have that off putting graininess. (Think Pate) They also were a bit better in taste, but the Wal-Mart one was overly salty.
Winner – Libbey / 2nd – Wal-Mart / 3rd – Armour
After tasting them all raw, I found that if you spread a little bit of this stuff on a cracker it’s actually not all that bad. With that said, it certainly isn’t good, and it’s gotta be very terrible for you, hence it fits here under “Bad Food”.
3 comments
Eduardo says:
Sep 16, 2014
Ha ha! I’ve got to hand it to you. I don’t think I could even eat a product called “potted meat” to begin with.
I’m guessing that this is the stuff left over at the meat processing plant after they’ve made all the hot dogs and baloney they possibly can. They probably scrape up whatever glop they can off the floor, add salt, and let it congeal in the can.
You should have plopped an entire can onto a toasted bun and made a potted meatburger.
Bon Apetit!
Paco says:
Sep 16, 2014
Oh yeah, it took some guts to try this stuff raw. And the Armour one was pretty bad.
But the other two were tolerable, and actually not terrible tasting on a cracker. So not terrible, that I actually ate a few crackers with a bit of the potted meat spread on them.
Pecos says:
Sep 18, 2014
I tried all three cans as well. It was kind of like eating canned whole head-still-on-sardines: not really that bad, even maybe kind of tasty.. as long as you could repress all knowledge of just what it is you’re eating. But screw up and think about just what’s sliding down your throat, and it may slide right back up again. For reference, the sardines are also much better.
I can only recommend you eat Potted Meat when you’re.. hmmm.. not sure how to end that sentence.