The Best Canned Beef Stew Is Not From A Powerhouse Brand

Canned beef stew, like canned chili, soup, and other ready-to-eat foods, is something that some may choose to sneer at, but we're decidedly not in that camp, We're pro food in general, whether it be exploring the latest TikTok trend or the delights of dollar store dining, so if canned beef stew is what's for dinner, pass the crackers! Still, you might as well find the best-tasting stew you can, though (okay, that was barely even pun-adjacent), and to that end, Mashed researched the reviews for various brands and came up with a worst-to-best canned beef stew ranking.

Sure, you can go read the entire article, we won't mind, but if you want the executive summary, here it is: The top-rated brand, from what we can see, is Mountain House. Yes, as in the survival food kit and camping supply brand. The stew does have a 4.7-star rating on Amazon, though, with many purchasers calling it surprisingly flavorful for freeze-dried food. Yes, it needs to be reconstituted with water before you can eat it, but the upside of this is that the company promises an unopened can will last for 30 years so it's perfect for stocking your doomsday prepper bunker. Being freeze-dried also means it's low on preservatives and other additives, which is always a plus. At the time of writing, a can sells for around $67. However, for this amount, you get 15 servings, which equates to about $4.50 per bowlful.

Even the number two beef stew on the list, a brand called Vanee, is also meant to serve a crowd as the can comes in at 110 ounces and seems to be a product sold mostly at restaurant supply stores. Needless to say, it does taste like the kind of beef stew you might get in a chain restaurant as it may well be the same stew, but it won't fit the bill if you just want a single serving. The number three and five spots are taken up by beef soups (Progresso beef pot roast and Great Value beef with vegetables, respectively), while the number four spot goes to a beef stew puree made for those unable to chew. It isn't until we get to number six that we find a single-serve can of what we typically think of as beef stew, that being meat and vegetable chunks in gravy.

Castleberry, coming in right at the midpoint of our 12-can ranking, is a brand that people have mixed feelings about, as some consider it to be on the thin side and feel the stew skimps on both meat and vegetables. Others, however, consider it quite tasty and it does rank higher than the potato-heavy Dinty Moore (number eight), Dollar Tree's disappointing Southgate brand, and Armour's not-so-classic Homestyle. This last-named brand, oddly enough, seems to be made with the decidedly un-stewlike ground beef, thus earning it a last-place finish.