Princes fit for a King (Princes Corned Beef)

Member Name: Nigel1

Product:	Princes Corned Beef
Date:	19/02/09 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Extremely versatile and delicious

Disadvantages: Almost impossible to open the tin

There are many different quality brands of corned beef on the market which also vary vastly in price. In my experience the old adage 'you get what you pay for' certainly holds true regarding tins of corned beef.

Amongst the top three brands, the other two being Fray Bentos and John West, Princes Corned Beef is reassuringly expensive at about £1.40 per tin. Slightly more salty than its rivals, with a more reddish colour to it rather than the customary light brown, it can be quite a work of art trying to open one of these tins, which you have to do by peeling off the attached church key and threading a small steel band through the eye of the key and twisting the key continuously until the tin has been 'peeled'. Having gone through this ordeal, things do not get much easier, as it still needs to be forced out of the extremely weird shaped tin which is no mean feat in itself. Why the manufactures seem so set on making their corned beef as 'hard to get at' as possible. is totally beyond my comprehension.

Having successfully opened the tin ( please count your fingers) and actually removed the block of Princes Corned Beef away from its imprisonment (of which Alcatraz would be proud), the corned beef itself has an appetising aroma of spices, salt and beef.

The taste of Princes Corned Beef is very appealing, with a nice subtle blend of those spices and beef all combining to give a full-flavoured meaty assault on the taste buds. Princes Corned Beef also has a good solid texture to its contents with a little fat around the edges which presumably is to keep the contents fresher and for the corned beef to slide out of the tin more easily.

I think it is very important to keep the corned beef refrigerated until needed, that way it slices perfectly, rather than just crumbles into a mish-mash of goo.

Princes Corned Beef is extremely versatile. Use it sliced in sandwiches, an ingredient for hash, a replacement for meat in stews, or simply just with chips, this product is the perfect accompaniment for almost anything!

Summary: A useful stand by food that can be made into a filling meal in minutes.