highest calorie/oz canned foods?

[Jamie]

Sardines packed in oil are pretty nutrient dense...

Peanut butter, spam, tuna, jerky, oil, jelly beans...all are pretty dense in their own ways...

Jamie

[Dark Cloud]

Hey! Beer!

Go to the thread about Preservation of Knowledge.

[JCD]

Well, I tried the Keystone Canned Beef today to make tacos.

It comes in a large 28 oz can, which is the one my store carries. Opening it, the smell of dog food wafted from the can. It's packed in water but there wasn't much fat, which I found surprising. Since any canned meat will smell like that, I decided to wait to see how things worked out.

The beef had a beeflike consistancy. It wasn't ground, but was small pieces the size of a crooked finger, i.e. about inch cubes. They were very tender, and I seperated the the pieces by hand to make the tacos. The chunks were like shredded beef. I used part of the water to cook the tacos as I figured there was quite a bit of flavor left in it.

It turned out decent tacos. While my supportive wife was mocking when I opened the can, she was pleasantly surprised by the flavor after it was cooked. The kids gave it a full thumbs up, so it will be one of our "stocked" foods (not buying anything we won't eat)

Next time, I'd rinse the meat, as it was a bit overly salty. Additionally, it's fat content was so low that it was a bit dry, but not something I'd complain about if I were hungry.

It's not a T-Bone, but it's eminently edible.

[scottiej]

I had a thought and did a little "googling" but didn't come up with much. Anyone know what the calorie content of "black pudding" is? and whether it comes in a can? I'll bet the UK ZSers can help out here.

[Allen]

I had a thought and did a little "googling" but didn't come up with much. Anyone know what the calorie content of "black pudding" is? and whether it comes in a can? I'll bet the UK ZSers can help out here.

Black Pudding (Fried) 100 grams = 400 Calories

http://www.weightlossforall.com/calorie ... -foods.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers!

[therm8]

Not exactly a canned food, but something you can do at home to pack liquid calories.

Simple syrup.

Add 12ish TBSPs of granulated sugar to (edit)1 cup of(/edit) boiling water.
Stir until disolved.
Cool and store.

That should give you somewhere around 65-70 calories per fluid ounce (a 12oz can of Mtn Dew has about 14 cal/oz). You could add sugar until it won't dissolve any further, but I'm not sure how much more could be packed in. It'd be handy to have for tea/coffee if you use it, and it won't ruin when it gets wet, unlike sugar packets. I add a small amount to water when hiking just to keep the energy up, sometimes. Replaces hard candy in that respect.

[Allen]

Not exactly a canned food, but something you can do at home to pack liquid calories.

Simple syrup.

Add 12ish TBSPs of granulated sugar to boiling water.
Stir until disolved.
Cool and store.

That should give you somewhere around 65-70 calories per fluid ounce (a 12oz can of Mtn Dew has about 14 cal/oz). You could add sugar until it won't dissolve any further, but I'm not sure how much more could be packed in. It'd be handy to have for tea/coffee if you use it, and it won't ruin when it gets wet, unlike sugar packets. I add a small amount to water when hiking just to keep the energy up, sometimes. Replaces hard candy in that respect.

How much water?

Cheers!

[therm8]

Not exactly a canned food, but something you can do at home to pack liquid calories.

Simple syrup.

Add 12ish TBSPs of granulated sugar to boiling water.
Stir until disolved.
Cool and store.

That should give you somewhere around 65-70 calories per fluid ounce (a 12oz can of Mtn Dew has about 14 cal/oz). You could add sugar until it won't dissolve any further, but I'm not sure how much more could be packed in. It'd be handy to have for tea/coffee if you use it, and it won't ruin when it gets wet, unlike sugar packets. I add a small amount to water when hiking just to keep the energy up, sometimes. Replaces hard candy in that respect.

How much water?

Cheers!

Oops, sorry.

1 cup 8)

[scottiej]

I just went to a new asian grocery that just opened in the west side of Knoxville (Sunrise Grocery, I think). I've been to many small asian groceries, looking for those hard to find stir-fry ingredients, but this new place.... wow. I felt like I was in China Town. Several varieties of 50lb bags of rice, but the canned goods... that's where it's at. Canned duck, canned chicken, CANNED BABY OCTOPUS.... I wouldn't call the stuff cheap, but neither would I call it expensive. If you want to add some variety to your PAW menu, you might want to consider picking up a few cans of eel, or quail eggs, or some things I couldn't recognize from the picture (mystery meat!). Anyway, just thought I'd add a post (and maybe keep this thread going).

side note: Also saw a big-ass can of Ovaltine. From what I can remember, it had more than 110cal/oz WITHOUT milk @ about 350cal/dollar. I'm pretty sure it wasn't air tight though, one of those reclosable lids (like a paint can), but I bet you could seal it with some wax.

[ArtfulDodger]

If you've picked any up, could you post reviews of some of the more unusual Asian canned goods?

Always looking to add new foods to my repertoire.

[smiffy]

I had a thought and did a little "googling" but didn't come up with much. Anyone know what the calorie content of "black pudding" is? and whether it comes in a can? I'll bet the UK ZSers can help out here.

Someone else linked you the calorie count, but it's problematic as a survival food.

When you slaughter a pig, you generally bleed it. In a peasant/survival culture you want to get every calorie you can out of an animal you kill. Here the blood is used for food. I'm not sure whether the blood is left to clot (or indeed encouraged to do so) allowing a clear serum/plasma fluid to be poured-off leaving a thicker concentrate, or whether whole blood is used (I think my mum explained black pudding and blood transfusions to me on the same day, when I wasn't very old. Such is life with a physician who's also from northern England.).

British Black pudding is a natural casing filled with the blood-derivative, lumps of hard animal fat and occasionally oats or pearl barley. I usually only eat it once or twice a year, generally when visiting my mum's relatives in the north. (The scots offered it to me a lot when I was up there, too.) The flavour is very intense, and I don't know whether the indigestion I get for several hours afterwards is down to the fat-content, the salt-content or the iron-content.
I have never seen Black pudding sold canned, frozen or at room-temp. Only ever on a butcher's slab or a supermarket chiller-cabinet. I've never been served it cold either, but Wiki says this is OK.

For all my misgivings, it seems an awful lot of cultures do blood-sausage, from Ireland and Portugal to China and Korea (via Germany; Blutwurst), so there must be something in it, even if it's just efficient animal use.

[Jacob Creutzfeldt]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't air tight though, one of those reclosable lids (like a paint can), but I bet you could seal it with some wax.

Some sealed metal cans have a plastic lid attached for use when the metal can has been opened.


Black pudding has 250-300 kcal / 100 gram. But as smiffy said: it's not sold in cans.

[by-the-throat]

I haven't seen canned fruit mentioned yet.

Packed in syrup, it has a really high calorie yield and is usually pretty cheap and tasty. We keep a variety of #10 cans of fruit with our bug in supplies.

Also, +1 on the rubbermaid tubs; usually going to Big Box and getting a tub and filling it with food is under 50 dollars. Then you load it in the car and write up an inventory with dates for everything and you are good to go. It also helps if you need to haul food for a vehicle bugout because you can just grab the tubs and go.

[hatterofmaddness]

well, Spam definitely is the best of the canned meat products, coming in at *TIP* : Stock up on canned coffee, in various sized cans. Some time into the PAW, coffee will be worth it's weight in gold.

+1 Been stocking up on coffee myself lately. I figure I'd buy while I can still afford it, and it would be a good trading item. As well, the caffeine helps keep you awake, should you find yourself pulling guard duty.

[ogreboy]

Real mayonnaise, 200 Cal/oz.
You can find it pretty cheap.
Mix it with you can chicken or tuna and it helps bump up the calories per oz.

[Jaybow]

I love cheap big cans of beef stew. they also have canned bacon now.

[Dark Cloud]

I love cheap big cans of beef stew. they also have canned bacon now.

Canned bacon = win

[scottiej]

B-T-T, thanks for the addition of canned fruit. I think I may have mentioned it in passing, but it deserves more attention. Fruit in cans seem to be packaged in water (in my experience) but the preserves in glass jars do appear to be high calorie (probably preserved in sugar/syrup like you said). An added benefit, fruit preserves which are high in vitamin-c would stave-off scurvy, and potentially keep the vitamin-c viable longer than "vitamins" in pill form (just a guess).

While at the store I found a couple items to add to the list:

Idahoan instant-mashed potatoes in the plastic/foil bags: 440 calories/4oz bag (110 cal/oz) @ $1.00/bag (440cal/$)
the bags aren't rodent proof by a long shot, but the thermo-plastic seal should stay good for quite some time

Canned powdered goats milk: 1680 cal/can (140 cal/oz) @ $8.75/can (192 cal/$)
not as good of a deal, but would be good to have around in case of youngins' showing up (single male here, correct me if I'm wrong here)

[ArtfulDodger]

I've found very few canned fruits that were just in water.

Most are either in syrup (if you are going for maximum calories, choose "heavy syrup") or in fruit juice.

Read labels carefully... I'm finding more and more are adding splenda to the mix.

[acropolis5]

Anyone know the shelf-life of Nutella? It's not mentioned on the website.

[Jacob Creutzfeldt]

Nutella? About the same as peanut butter, I would guess. 12-18 months from manufacturing to best before date. Should last longer if stored properly.

[ArtfulDodger]

Nutella? About the same as peanut butter, I would guess. 12-18 months from manufacturing to best before date. Should last longer if stored properly.

That sounds about right. I just checked the jar I bought the other day, and it shows a sell-by date of September 09.... so, safely add a couple months onto that?

[Medic Nemec]

http://www.calorieking.com can help you find calorie values per oz of stuff if you don't want to do it at the store.

[benEzra]

Regarding Ramen noodles, be aware that the palatable shelf life of Ramen noodles is relatively short. The flavor packets last practically forever (I assume), but the oils the noodles are cooked in become rancid rather quickly, and while the noodles are still edible, they become rather yucky over time. Ramen is great for stocking up for a short-term crisis (hurricane on the way, and such), but storing them for longer than a few months can be disappointing.

If you sealed them in a gas-impermeable container with O2 absorbers, the noodles might not degrade so quickly, but I've never tried that.