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What is it?
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It is 8 slices (250grams) of delicatessen-style corned beef from the chiller cabinet at Tesco. It is by their value range and comes in the blue and white packaging that we all know. The packaging has changed slightly from the picture shown, it now has smaller writing and a basic drawing of a salad filled bap. It states 'perfect in sandwiches and salads'. They advise to consume within 2 days of opening. It costs (give or take a few pence) around £1.00 per packet.

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The ingredients.
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The ingredients are fairly simple: south american beef, salt, sugar, and sodium nitrate. It is good to see there is no MSG added but a shame to see sodium nitrate added - it is an unnecessary additive in my opinion. I also worry about the fact the beef has come all the way from South America, surely this gives this food a particularly high carbon footprint?

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The flavour.
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It is not too salty in taste which is something I have noticed with a lot of the tinned varieties. It has a lovely savoury flavour and is light enough to enjoy in a salad but strong enough to jazz up your macaroni cheese. My partner and son also approve!

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The texture.
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For something on the economy end of the food spectrum, I was impressed to find no chewy bits of gristle. It is soft but not too mushy. It holds its shape when lifting carefully out of the packaging and the slices are not too thin or thick (about 2mm).

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The convenience.
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In my household, we always keep some cold sliced meat handy in the fridge for lunches, dinners, and snacks. Being on a budget, good quality ham is hard to find for less than £2.00 and cheaper options are full of chewy fat or bulked out with a lot of additives. Barring the sodium nitrate, this corned beef seems to be the lesser of the evils with regards to cheap cold meats. It has become a family favourite and until our income improves, we will probably be buying it on a weekly basis for a long time to come.
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