Prior to this taste test, I was under the impression that I kind of liked canned corned beef hash. I’ve eaten at plenty of crummy diners in my day, and they frequently serve hash from a can (the perfectly cubed potatoes and the mealy, pasty quality of the beef are dead giveaways). But, wow, sitting down to seven sloppy little helpings of the stuff really tested me. Yes, it’s my job to tell you what the best canned corned beef is, but, hey, maybe I could find another job? Or maybe a meteor is sailing toward Earth as we speak and I won’t have to taste all of these after all?
Incidentally, corned beef feels like an end-of-the-world food. In fact, if you’re reading this, maybe that meteor did strike and you’re boning up on which canned meats you should loot from your local abandoned grocery store. Congrats on surviving (so far)! Or maybe, just maybe, you simply like canned corned beef hash. I know I just went off, but there’s truly no shame in that. It’s cheap, filling and, I imagine, nostalgic for plenty of people (especially really, really old people who also remember eating dust soup in a Depression-era Hooverville). Unless the apocalypse comes sooner than later, I don’t see myself voluntarily eating canned hash again, but here’s what I was looking for: tender potatoes and good beef flavor—I shouldn’t have to actively consider what ground-up part of the cow or its insides I’m eating. Also, in a perfect world, corned beef hash shouldn’t taste like a can.
In the end, I can only really recommend a couple of the seven varieties I tried. Every brand I tasted was very similar. I couldn’t detect a huge difference in things like meat-to-potato ratio or overall quality of the meat (these are all more potato than meat). But, hey, you should bookmark this list of the best corned beef hash for the end times all the same.
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- Libby’s Corned Beef Hash
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To my eye, the can of Libby’s corned beef hash has just a little more beef than some of the other brands. If a little bit of very, very finely ground pink meat is going to give one brand an edge over another for you, buy Libby’s. This also had a little bit more of an intense beef flavor than our top pick. My recommendation: Cook this in a skillet if you’re making it at home—heating isn’t enough. Corned beef has to be browned to escape from dog-food territory.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Hormel Mary Kitchen Low-Sodium Corned Beef
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If the briny salinity of corned beef is too much for you (or your blood pressure), Hormel’s low-sodium corned beef is a totally decent option. It looks and tastes almost exactly like regular Hormel—which, spoiler, took the top spot on this list—but with a smoother, less jarring saltiness. It has everything you like about canned corned beef hash, with just a little less salt.
Credit: Merc / Ralphs
- Hormel Mary Kitchen Corned Beef Hash
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While being the best canned corned beef hash is sort of like being named the best toe to stub, Hormel wins all the same. The can is packed with finely ground meat and itty-bitty cubes of potato. It’s salty and filling and it doesn’t taste like can. It doesn’t taste all that much like corned beef either, but, like I said, it’s salty, so they have that in common. (I will say if any corned beef hash brands are considering going back to the drawing board, including some corning spices to amp up the corned beef flavor would be an excellent move!) In the meantime, Hormel has all sorts of ideas about how you should be using corned beef hash in non-apocalyptic situations. Remember when Sam Neill’s character plucked out his own eyeballs at the end of Event Horizon? That’s me after looking at hash recipes on Hormel’s website.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
Best Beef Flavor
Best Low-Sodium
Best of the Best
Other products we tried: Hormel Mary Kitchen Roast Beef Hash, Armour Corned Beef Hash, Signature Select Corned Beef Hash, Brookdale Corned Beef Hash
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