Canned Bacon & Cheese

[CalicoKatie]

I have a case of Yoder's canned bacon that I thought was hitting the ten year mark. When I searched the info on the date stamped on the can, it looks like it was manufactured in November of 2003. !! Clearly, it's been longer than I thought since I bought it.

Here is a web page with the info on manufacture date. https://www.campingsurvival.com/yodersbacon.html

My cans were stored in my house so weren't exposed to any extreme temperature changes. They're clean with no dents or swelling and look like I just bought them off a store shelf yesterday. Sometime in the near future, I'm going to open a can and cook all the bacon in the oven to crisp it. I'll taste test it then.

About the same time that I got the bacon, I got a case of the Bega canned cheese. I still had two cans of that left and I opened one yesterday. The cheese was somewhat dry but it still had the sharp flavor I remembered. I made a couple of quesadillas in the microwave and it melted pretty good. I left the unused cheese on a saucer and a few hours later I saw that it had started turning brown from being exposed to the air after all this time.

Here's what I found on the shelf life of the Bega cheese.
https://preparednessadvice.com/food_storage/self-life-of-red-feather-butter-and-bega-cheese/

For those who use canned bacon or cheese, what is the oldest that you've eaten and how was it?

 

[Caribou]

I can't help you with canned bacon or cheese but the oldest (home) canned salmon that I've eaten was 20 years old and tasted really good. I'd trust the bacon and cheese as long as the cans were in good shape and the contents looked good.

 

[Dani]

I have canned cheese at home before. As long as it still smells good you are fine. If it has an off smell I wouldn't eat it. Cheese will age the longer you keep it so if it was mild it will become sharper. No way around that. I still have canned cheese that I canned 4 years ago that we are still using.
As for bacon, that is still on my to do list, but I have had other meats canned up which do fine a few years later like deboned chicken, pulled pork and hamburger meat.
I've always used commercially canned goods as long as the cans were not showing signs of spoilage, like bulging.