SouthernBreeze
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Did you rehydrate the beef crumbles before using? If so, did you use water or beef stock?
Both of those things could drastically affect flavor. And a trick I learned with something else is to let it soak in a batch of stock or broth to add flavor back in. Not necessary with everything but hasn't hurt anything so far. And I could see meats needing it.
And I've learned to always have leftovers available on days where I experiment. Because some things just don't come out as expected.
I have also canned ground meats before and had mixed results. The very first batch was horrid texture wise. It had the texture of those canned dog food loaves.
I have done it since with more success by par cooking the meat beforehand. But at this point, the only time I'll do ground meat is if it is a batch of taco meat that is par cooked.
I may try chili at some point, but not right now. Mainly because, for us, chili is made with venison, and venison is not plentiful. I've been doing some experiments with a mix of lamb and pork. So that might be tried with chili. Although I think plain pork might work for that.
When I opened the can of ground beef, it came out of the can in one chunk that looked like canned dog food. It was also wrapped in a thick layer of cold grease that I had to scrape off. When breaking it apart, it was more like ground dog food than ground beef. The texture was awful. If the texture of my home canned ground beef changes over time, I'll not be canning any more of it, either. Right now, it's all ok, but I've got about a year's worth canned up. We like the frozen ground beef better. My home canned is tolerable, though, unless the texture changes over time.