Freeze Dried Ground Beef - 1.7 Pound Can

Recently decided to try a can of this freeze dried hamburger, primarily to see if it would be consumable before adding it to my long-term food supply. My first question before purchase was how do I relate 1/2 cup serving size to a familiar measurement (1 lb hamburger). I would have to say without anything more than a measuring cup and my eyeballs and my favorite skillet that 2 cups of product made what looks to be about a lb of hamburger after reconstituting. I measured about 10 cups of product in can, which comes close to their claim of 23- 1/2 cup servings. Reconstituting was simple following their instructions. As to taste, I made Manwich mix, and it tasted fine. The consistency was a little wetter, and I think next time I may fry it some in the pan to remove more water before adding sauce. Experimentation will undoubtedly help. The stuff is pricey, I recon about twice the cost of grocery store hamburger, but in all honesty we aren't buying it for that, are we? If faced with a situation where frozen or refrigerated hamburger is not possible I feel this product would make a welcome substitute. Now that the can is open, I will probably play around with some hamburger helper and such. I don't know if the consistency will lend itself to forming a burger that will hold together over a fire, but we'll see. The other alternative would be canning, but I have had no experience with that.

Does not have much flavor and does not reconstitute well. I do not recommend this product. Honeyville has a lot of fine selections for long term foods for storage but pass on this.Terry McDonald

You know, this gets grainy and chalky when you re constitute... I would recommend you go with the frozen fake beef and dehydrate instead. That has worked much better for me.

We love Honeyville products. They keep and store well.

Well, at any form of comparable food like this, you end up with one of two choices - either Ranchers Cut Freeze-Dried Ground Beef, or Libby's Seasoned Beef Crumbles (vacuum-sealed foil pouch, ready-to-eat).The Rancher's Cut is good - but does take a bit of 'experimentation' to get the water right for the end product, and you do need to season it to taste. The Libby's Seasoned Beef Crumbles is about what you would end up with after cooking your own fresh beef in a skillet and crumbling it. It is seasoned to taste already, and no water required. It comes in a foil pouch you could tear open a bit and boil in a pot of water, if in a hurry.As for cost, The Rancher's Cut FDGB is approximately $10 per pound of ready-to-eat meat (about 10-cups of product in a can, and it takes about 2-cups to make a pound of cooked meat in the end). The Libby's is already 'wet' in the pouch, with a pouch weight of 6-oz per, then two pouches can generally replace a pound of equivalent beef (remember, cookdown on 80/20 beef will NOT leave you with 16 ounces of finished meat), then you are looking at about $5 per pound of ready-to-eat meat from the Libby's Seasoned Beef Crumbles. (I have found the Libby's pouches locally for $2 a pouch - but you may pay higher per pouch, depending on your source).While a big fan of the Honeyville brand in general, I wasn't totally impressed with this product. While good, edible food; price point is a tough one on this item, compared to the alternatives (home jerking of meat, Libby's alternative, and home canning, to name a few). The one upside to the Ranchers Cut FDGB is that it has a shelf-life of approximately 15-years (the advantage of most dried and vacuum-sealed foods), while the Libby's Seasoned Beef Crumbles only has a shelf-life of about 2 years. Both products have great taste, but the LIbby's is ready for you now, where the Ranchers you have to season for yourself. Both are perfect consistency to make tacos or sloppy joes or spaghetti sauce with meat, in record time.In the end, it really depends on your pantry plans. I have both, myself - but find that the Libby's is a lot easier to grab and toss in a skillet, in a pinch, than working up the Freeze-Dried stuff. Then again, the Freeze Dried stuff can last a LONG time, so buy a can, set it back, and forget it until you need it. Overall, I gave it a 4-star rating, due to the high price being almost double of it's competitor.

Honeyville Ranchers Cut Cooked, Freeze Dried Ground Beef is lean and reconstitutes quickly. Unfortunately there is a fair amount of gristle. It has a bland, raw flavor (even though it is cooked), partly because it is lightly seasoned only with salt - which is fine, I prefer to add my own seasonings - but also I miss the browned flavor that you get from pan frying ground beef. The pieces vary in size from ½-inch diameter to powder, making it difficult to measure by volume, and difficult to pan-fry.The directions on the can say to mix ½ cup freeze dried ground beef with 1 cup boiling water, however, much less water is actually needed; ¼ cup water for ½ cup ground beef. I’m mixing the ground beef half-and-half with Ranchers Cut Sausage Crumbles (which are excellent) to use it up, and will try a different product next time.My 5.6 oz can (purchased direct from Honeyville in May 2014) lists ingredients “Freeze dried cooked beef, salt”. On the Honeyville website, It looks like they are replacing the "Ground Beef" with a new (and hopefully improved) product, “Cooked, Freeze Dried Beef Crumbles; ingredients: Cooked ground beef, salt, rosemary extract”.

just great to make dehydrated spegetti

Product listing is misleading. It says 1.4 pounds. It is actually 1 pound 4 ounces, which is 1.25 pounds (at least it is at sea level).