Ready-made meals from the butcher: braised dishes in a can

Ready-made meals are fully prepared dishes that you only need to heat up. This category features meat dishes from the Benz butcher shop in Köngen in Swabia – dishes that would take hours to cook at home, such as beef roulade or braised pork cheeks. They come pre-cooked in a can, have a long shelf life when unopened, and are ready to serve after a few minutes in a pot.

What makes a good ready-made meal in a can

A canned meal is cooked, filled into the can, hermetically sealed, and heated. This preservation method does not require refrigeration. Therefore, quality is determined primarily by the recipe and the raw ingredients: how much meat is inside, where it comes from, and how the sauce is created.

Canned meat or ready-made meal?

Canned meat refers to any preserves where meat is the main ingredient. A ready-made meal goes one step further: the sauce, vegetables, and spices are already included, so only the side dish is missing. Unlike a stew, which combines everything in one pot, Benz's dishes leave you the choice of whether to serve them with dumplings, spaetzle, noodles, or mashed potatoes.

Meat content and sauce

A look at the ingredient list reveals the meat content. The prime beef goulash contains 50% beef, the pulled pork contains 60% pork, and the Bolognese contains 30% pork and beef with 49% tomatoes. The butcher reduces the gravy for the goulash and pork cheeks for 24 hours – that is where the depth comes from, for which you would otherwise spend an entire Sunday at the stove.

Ingredients you recognize

The Bolognese contains no sugar, the beef roulade no flavor enhancers, and the prime beef goulash no preservatives. According to the manufacturer, the pulled pork, pork cheeks, Bolognese, and goulash are gluten-free and lactose-free. You can find the exact ingredients and allergens on each product page.

The Benz butcher shop from Köngen

All dishes in this category come from the Benz Feinkostmanufaktur, the Benz butcher shop in Köngen in Swabia. The braising is done in the butcher shop itself: the beef for the beef roulade comes from the Stauferland region; the roulade is classically filled with bacon, onions, and gherkins and braised in gravy. For the pork cheeks – three pieces per can, with braising vegetables of carrots and onions – the sauce is also reduced for 24 hours. The pulled pork is smoked over natural wood and sous-vide cooked before being canned with homemade BBQ sauce.

How to serve the dishes

To heat them up, pour the contents into a pot and let them warm up slowly over medium heat. In the meantime, prepare your side dish fresh:

• Pork cheeks: with mashed potatoes made with milk and butter or with ribbon noodles.
• Beef roulade: with apple red cabbage and bread or potato dumplings – a Sunday meal on a Wednesday.
• Prime beef goulash: with spaetzle, ribbon noodles, or mashed potatoes.
• Bolognese: ready for spaghetti, lasagna, or stuffed peppers after ten minutes in the pot.
• Pulled pork: on a toasted bun with coleslaw; one can is enough for two burgers.

With a little fresh parsley, a dollop of sour cream, or grated Parmesan, a canned meal quickly becomes a dish that looks homemade. For guests, the Bolognese is worth using as the base for a lasagna: layer by layer with pasta sheets and béchamel in the dish, cheese on top, and into the oven. And the pulled pork also fills wraps, tacos, or a baked potato with herb quark.

Buying and storing ready-made meals

Store the cans in a cool, dry, and dark place in your pantry; the best-before date is on the bottom of the can. Having a few cans in the cupboard is worth it for days when there is no time to cook, for a vacation home, a weekend in a camper, or as a supply for students. Transfer leftovers to a bowl, cover, and eat within one to two days from the refrigerator. Each can contains 400 or 410 g. To get started, it is best to try the pulled pork or pork cheeks, our two bestsellers in this category. For stocking up, a mix is worthwhile: one can for pasta, one for the evening with dumplings and red cabbage, one for burgers.

More from Cooking & Enjoying

Meals are part of our Cooking & Enjoying category. As a starter before the roulade, the ready-to-serve cans in Soups & Stocks, such as a clear festive soup, are a good fit. And for the Bolognese, you can find South Tyrolean ribbon noodles from the Eggerhof under Pasta.

Order ready-made meals online

Whether it's roulade for Sunday or goulash after work: at Leni & Hans, you can order ready-made meals from the butcher online, and your package will arrive in 1–3 days.