Gobble this one up! (Ye Olde Oak Turkey Roll)

Member Name: GentleGenius

Product:	Ye Olde Oak Turkey Roll
Date:	05/01/09 (234 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tastes like turkey, easy to slice, long shelf-life, high in protein

Disadvantages: High in salt, rather bland in a sandwich on its own

YE OLDE OAK TURKEY ROLL

VERY APPROXIMATE COST: £1.80 for a 200g can

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION (per 100g which is half a can):

Calories: 245
KJ: 1015
Protein: 11.5g
Carbohydrate: 9.5g
Fat: 18g
- of which saturates: 6g
Fibre: 0.5g
Sodium: 0.7g

INGREDIENTS:

Turkey, water, mechanically separated turkey, potato starch, turkey fat, vegetable oil, milk protein, salt, turkey collagen, herbs, spices, sodium polyphosphates, monsodium glutumate, sodium isoascorbate, flavouring, sodium nitrite

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NB: The cost I have given above has to be approximate, as I didn't buy my tin - it was part of a Christmas hamper I received. I have been unable to find an exact cost on the internet, but have estimated it by comparing it to other Ye Olde Oak canned meats.

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Though the picture above is blue, my own tin of Ye Olde Oak Turkey Roll came in a 200g size covered in a darkish green label. The front of the label bears the "Ye Olde Oak" standard logo in white, with the words "Turkey Roll" underneath in yellow, and at the bottom is an image of some rather nice-looking slices of turkey roll, garnished with tomato and lettuce. The other side of the tin label bears exactly the same wording and image, and the side gives the nutritional information and ingredients. Just to the right of the front of the tin is an instruction to chill before use for easier slicing, a seal of quality, and manufacturer's contact details.

Each Christmas my brother in Canada very kindly sends me a huge hamper - so I know that when I see the DHL man's van drive up a day or so before Christmas Eve, there will be a parcel of edible goodies for me. It's great fun to undo the large box, and fish around inside (amongst masses of straw) for mostly rather wonderful items of food. The mixture of food items changes from year to year, and Xmas 2008's offering contained (for the first time) a tin of Ye Olde Oak Turkey Roll. I had never eaten this before, so I was looking forward to trying something new.

Last night before bed, I got the munchies quite seriously. It was far too late to think about cooking anything, yet I didn't want cereal or chocolate - the "I must have something savoury" bug was upon me - so I foraged through my cupboards to see if there was anything I could make a quick sandwich with. My eyes fell upon the tin of Ye Olde Oak Turkey Roll that had come in my Christmas hamper from Canada, so I fished it out of the cupboard and opened it.

Despite the picture on the front of the can showing solid turkey roll slices, for some weird reason I expected it to contain stuffing in the middle, but it didn't - it was just pure turkey roll. I didn't feel it necessary to chill the tin before opening, as advised on the can wrapper, because it's freezing cold in my kitchen anyway.

On opening the tin, I was greeted by a pink coloured roll of meat, stuck fast to the sides, and I had to run a palate knife around the edges - even then the meat wouldn't come out of the tin, so I had to perform a gouging motion by sticking a knife in the middle, and lifting the whole piece out - it took a few times before even that worked. All the same though, I was delighted to see that the product wasn't surrounded by layers of that awful aspic jelly.

I placed the roll of meat sideways onto a plate, and began to carve - the knife slid through quite easily, and I could see from the fibres that it was only partially re-constituted turkey. Also, it seemed more like the real thing, rather than one of these spam-like tinned meat products with a high cereal content. I managed to cut some fairly neat (for me!) slices, and proceeded to make a sandwich. As I was slicing the meat, there was a quite nice turkey-ish, vaguely smoked smell wafting up, which was reasonably appetising.

The turkey as I bit through it was fairly tender, but also a little on the dry side. The turkey flavour was quite pronounced, but somewhat saltier than suits my own palate - all the same, it made a more than halfway decent pre-bedtime munchies slayer. I didn't notice any synthetic under or after taste that is often present in some processed tinned meat products, but the experience certainly wasn't like eating fresh roast turkey - but I didn't expect it to be, bearing in mind it's a processed, canned product.

I used white bread for my sandwich as that was all I had, but after I'd eaten it, I felt it would have tasted better with wholemeal bread. Also, I think some pickle or tomato - maybe a bit of lettuce and/or cranberry sauce would have perked the whole thing up. For mayonnaise lovers (I hate it myself), no doubt that'd be a brilliant thing to smear over the turkey pieces inside of the sandwich.

I personally wouldn't say that Ye Olde Oak Turkey Roll is suitable for eating as the meat part of a main meal, because although it was somewhat realistic, it wasn't entirely. I feel this is solely a sandwich meat, and that as said in the last paragraph, would make a better sandwich with some kind of flavour and texture enhancing accompaniment.

The meat seems very lean, but considering it's supposed to be turkey, is rather high in fat - the addition of sodium to the ingredients makes it a little too salty for my own palate, but I feel that a smear of something like cranberry sauce or pickle would counteract this.

I consider this kind of tinned meat to be a Christmas thing; and not an item that I'd normally buy at any other time of the year.

Overall verdict: Quite a nice flavour, rather high in fat, difficult to get out of the tin, easy to slice, a little on the salty side, makes a better sandwich than it would a main meal.

Thanks for reading.....and, if you're thinking of using this next year for the main turkey part of your Christmas dinner, you might be disappointed - but, use it for sandwiches the next day with some kind of accompaniment, and you may be nicely pleased.

Summary: Reasonably enjoyable...something to eat as a snack rather than a main meal