At the beginning of the month, Mercadona announced the relaunch of one of its most popular products for years, the precooked meatballs canned in its two varieties, in sauce and chicken. With the idea of adapting more to the customer’s taste (the “bosses”, as the company always says), the recipe has been renewed for improve quality and make them lighterseeking a tastier finish inspired by traditional cuisine.
With the rise of deep-frozen pre-cooked products and, increasingly, fourth and fifth-range fresh or semi-cooked products, which are increasingly present on the shelves of food stores, it has almost some nostalgic charm check that the format of the jar or metal can is still present and that it also remains one of the best sellers among consumers.
The company claims to sell more than 11,000 units per day throughout Spain of its cans of meatballs in sauce, figures that are not insignificant for a product that almost seems old-fashioned but that, it must be recognized, can save you more than one hurry. Its fame is evident when the company has taken the trouble to adapt its formula more to the current trends of healthier and “natural” food, for which there was curiosity to do a tasting.
The canned food was a revolution that solved the serious problem of food preservation, giving way to industrial food. Today we rely on the proximity of any shop or the safety of our fridge, but post-apocalyptic fiction reminds us that, in an emergency, there is nothing like the almost indestructible cans of food to survive.
If the format has been abandoned, it is because the other conservation systems mentioned offer more attractive results; Admittedly, however practical the cans are, the food that comes out of them not the most appetizing of the world. To remain a bestseller, they have to have some meatballs that even in Mercadona itself we can find refrigerated or deep-frozen.
Presentation and format
The format of the product does not have much mystery, since it is a metal can like any other of this range of foods. It is a common cylindrical jar, with a paper label in its central body, which opens at the top by means of a ring. It is appreciated that cans that require the use of dangerous can openers are being abandoned, and we have been able to open it without problems.
Each unit has a net weight of 420g what has cost us €1.40, so they come out at 3,334 euros per kilo. It is assumed that each can offers two portionsfor two meals or to share between two people in a more complete menu, or for a single portion for someone with a good appetite.
Ingredients, nutritional composition and manufacturer of meatballs
Both these meatballs and the chicken ones are made for Mercadona, under its white label Farmer, by the same supplier, Totaler Industrias Frigoríficas del Louro, in O Porriño (Pontevedra, Galicia). Frigolouro is the center where the coren brandwhich appears on the label itself with its characteristic logo, processes the pork for its products and makes more than fifty canned references.
The rest of the information that the label presents, on its back, corresponds to the obligatory list of ingredients and their nutritional composition, in addition to offering preparation details. The legal commercial name of the product is “Meatballs in sauce”, as there is no more mystery or confusing advertising games. It is what it is, and it doesn’t lie.
This is the complete list of ingredients, in order from greatest to least amount:
Meatballs (pork and beef, water, gluten-free breadcrumbs [harina de arroz, dextrosa, fibra vegetal y emulgente E-471]soy protein, egg, starch, salt, parsley, garlic and spices).
Sauce (water, tomato, sugar, starch, onion, red pepper, aromatic salt and spices) and peas.
They are certified as a product gluten free and lactose freebeing therefore suitable for allergic and intolerant of these substances.
In general, the ingredients are the same that we could find in a collective professional kitchen (health centers, residences…) or even in the home kitchen, removing a couple of common additives to gluten-free bread industrial. What annoys us the most is that they have to resort to Soy protein instead of using only animal meat, although it is a common practice in prepared food, as we have already seen in chicken gyozas.
AVERAGE NUTRITIONAL VALUES | PER 100G | PER SERVING OF 210 G |
---|---|---|
Energetic value | 138 calories | 291 calories |
fats | 8.8g | 18.5g |
of which saturates | 2.9g | 6.1g |
carbohydrates | 5.3g | 11.1g |
of which sugars | 2.2g | 4.6g |
protein | 9.0g | 18.9g |
Dietary fiber | 1.0g | 2.1g |
Salt | 1.18g | 2.5g |
The most objectionable could be the lack of detail of the specific type of meat that has been used (nothing that we did not expect, on the other hand), and the amount of sugar which we already suspected might take the tomato sauce. Even so, both the sugar and the fat that these meatballs originally had in their original format have been reduced. Refering to Saltit could take less, since it is close to 1.25 g per 100 g considered excessive in cooked dishes.
BRA Efficient – Low saucepan with glass lid and silicone handles, 16 cm
We tried them: minimal complication, acceptable taste
Like almost all precooked canned goods, these meatballs could be eaten as they are by simply opening the can, but obviously they will be very tasty. more appetizing if we heat them and we serve them as a more decent meal in your casserole or dish.
The manufacturer indicates that they can be heated in a container suitable for microwave -never insert a metal can into this appliance-: for this you have to program two minutes at maximum power, stir and reheat for the same time and thus distribute the heat more evenly.
The other option, which has been our chosen one, is the plate, which gives us a somewhat more apparent result like fake home cooking. The consistency of the content when poured cold is not the most appetizing, but gains a lot by heating it in a saucepan, and it emits a more pleasant aroma. Over medium heat it will be ready in about 5-6 minutes, stirring gently.
And are they good? They are not to rave about nor will they make you cry with emotion, but they could serve you in a menu of the day of an ordinary neighborhood bar or in any road cafeteria and you were not going to be surprised either. They have that aftertaste of canned food that is difficult to forget without being completely bad, and although the meatballs seem less industrial than other pre-cooked meatballs, they do have a bit more chunks inside, hence the sauce is reinforced.
we would have liked to find more peas and less sauce, which is also too sweet for our taste, which means that it will surely be liked by the majority accustomed to this type of commercial product. We recommend taking them with white rice to take advantage of the sauce and divide each can into two servingsthus leaving a more balanced menu if we accompany it with a light salad.
In short, Mercadona’s meatballs in sauce are a product more than acceptable to resort to it occasionally and perhaps as an emergency resource. Anyone who has lived in an isolated country house with frequent power outages will know how nice it is to have canned food in the pantry.
In DAP | We tried Mercadona’s new frozen chicken gyozas: they make dinner for you in less than ten minutes
In DAP | Homemade meatballs in sauce: the easiest recipe is also the tastiest