The Mystery Canned Meat and Corn Beef Hash

I would first like to warn you that this is not going to be a pretty post and there will be plenty of canned corn beef bashing. Don't take it personal if you like this stuff, this is just my very opinionated opinion. Oh and vegetarians be warned you may want to look away.

This mysterious tin can has been in our kitchen cupboard for about 6 months (or maybe longer than I would like to admit to). We purchased it from a local English food specialty shop to use in ..... well I honestly can't remember. I have always had a biased opinion against canned foods like pastas or anything that contains meat "products". The exceptions to this would be most canned vegetables, some fruits, and tuna or other fish preserved in water or oil like tuna. Honestly it's not an issue of me thinking I'm above eating canned foods, it's more along the lines that I really do not like the taste.

So last week we finally decided to use it in something. I have eaten American deli style corn beef, you know those thin strips of delicious meat. But never have I tried this canned stuff, so I didn't know what in the world to cook with or in. But the first step was getting this annoying can opened. I nearly cut my fingers off because the little key thingamajig fell out of place and I couldn't keep turning it. Well finally got it opened and eewww! it looked so disgusting, it looked like dog food. As a matter of fact my dog used to eat food that looked like that, used to being the key word. I kept telling myself well I'm at least going to try it and not judge it by its looks, it was quite expensive after all. I gave my dog a little piece that he then quickly spit out, I mean the chunk went flying out of his mouth. Well this isn't a good sign I thought to myself, my dog is not a picky eater but he also wont eat just anything. So I began examining and removing this mystery meat out of its can, and the more I looked the more I didn't like it. Look what the heck is this? No wait I really don't want to know or talk about it.

Still trying to keep a brave face and strong stomach, I was still in the mindset that I would cook it and it would taste decent. As I consulted my friend Mr. Google it quickly became apparent that the safest and most common recipe would be Corned Beef Hash. In the photos I saw and looking at the typical ingredients I thought that sounds like something I'm going to like. So here is a pretty standard corned beef hash recipe.

1 can of corned beef
1 large green bell pepper,finely chopped
1 medium onion,finely chopped
1 large potato, cut into small pieces
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbs. vegetable oil or butter

fried egg to add on top of hash

1. Heat the oil in a large pan, fry the onion until translucent. Add the potatoes and fry for 5 minutes then add the bell peppers. Cook the vegetables until soft and stir often to prevent from sticking. While the vegetables are cooking try to cut the corn beef into small pieces. Once vegetables are cooked through add the corned beef pieces and stir to well combine. Sprinkle in the salt and pepper, stir well then cover and allow the corned beef to warm up. This should take about 8 minutes. Serve with a fried egg on top and toast on the side.

As I was cooking the hash I thought it didn't smell so bad, then I lifted the lid and got a big whiff of the hash and still thought it's not so disgusting. Then I tasted it - ran to the garbage and spit it out. OK, OK put on a brave face what kind of foodie are you if you won't even give it a chance. One more try, nope! definitely can't eat this, it's going in the garbage and Now! OK one last chance, I take a small sample to my husband asking if it was palatable to him. He laughed at my question then said , "Uhm its good" my jaw dropped to the floor in amazement of hearing those words, "Are you serious?!" OK! So I served it to him for dinner and I ate left over soup. He actually went up for seconds! WTH !

I had the nerve to actually complain (more like ranted) to our English friend about this disturbing and disgusting meat. Since it came from an English store and the brand comes up in many English sites, I figured everyone there eats up this stuff like it's their favorite thing in the world. So I would now like to apologize to English people for my ignorance and for blaming you guys for putting this stuff out in the world. That said I will never ever buy or allow a can, oh sorry a tin, of corned beef in my house!

What do you guys think? Do any of you like this stuff or am I the only ignorant one here?