Supermarkets don't generally stock a very good selection of canned meats as there is not much call for unrefrigerated staples in the modern world.
Some readily available, canned stews, like Dinty Moore, are good for quick, rough weather meals, as they are a complete meal containing rice and vegetables and can just be heated up. Since they are already a complete meal, you can't do much else with them in other dishes.
One of our favorites is canned roast beef in gravy, which is just solid chunks of beef in a rich gravy. These can be turned into just about any type of beef meal you can think of. . They can be used in curry and rice dishes, served on pasta, wrapped in fajitas, and we have even used it cold on sandwiches. Not too common, but we did find some at local supermarkets.
The rest of our canned meats we ordered online from places like
internet-grocer.com that have a good selection of cans containing chunks of just chicken, beef and pork or hamburger (ground beef) that can be used in a variety of dishes. Product names like
Werling and Yodar from
MREdepot.com are all good ingredients and you can't really go wrong.
The cans last for years, and I found myself using canned meats for quick meals at anchor when I was sailing alone, three seasons later.
Canned vegetables, of course, are readily available and can be used deep sea and in port.
Canned tuna is a good thing to have on hand to add to many different meals and salads. If you are not a big fish fan, a few drops of Worcestershire source takes away the fishiness and makes it delicious.
To keep the weight down low, we stored the cans in lockers as low as possible. We wrote with a felt tip pen on the lids of all the cans in case the labels got wet and soaked off. There is nothing worse than opening a can of peaches to find that it is actually green beans.
I have heard of round the worlders dipping their cans in varnish to stop them from rusting.
Howard [ Just Imagine ] 10-Oct-2008