Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Prairie Belt Sausage

My local grocery store, The Four Season's at C-Town (and yes, the bizarre grammar is verbatim), sometimes stocks items that just feel like they come from a different time and place. Occasionally I buy them simply because they are too interesting to pass up. This past weekend I came upon this wonderful can of Prairie Belt Smoked Sausages.


So wonderful. The hearty innocent american child so happy with his plate of tiny sausages. The illustration looks like it was painted in the 50's.


Turning the can around reveals some oddly specific ingredients. Mechanically Separated Chicken!? Mmmmmmm. Do I really need to know that the meat was handled by machines? It gets better: Chicken Skins, Pork Skins... Pork Spleens... Pork Stomachs.. Couldn't they just say "Pork" and be done with it? I haven't actually opened the can yet.

37 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:09 PM

    we always ate this as a child and it was and still is good to my grandma!!!!!!!!!!!

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    Replies
    1. Can i eat them right out of the can?

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  2. Anonymous12:17 PM

    I think these are the best canned meat around! But they are so hard to find! I was out of town one time and came across some in a old run down grocery store and I bought all the cans they had!

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  3. Anonymous9:12 PM

    I work at Dollar General, and we carry them. It's kinda funny though, we always have TONS of them on the shelves and ususally several cases on the truck. I never see anyone buy it but somehow it all gets taken off the shelves.. maybe someone's stealing it..

    the label makes me laugh every time I see it though >D

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  4. Anonymous11:26 PM

    Grew up with them as a kid. Great with saltine crackers and sandwich spread.

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  5. Anonymous7:59 PM

    I also grew up on this little can and I recently went back to Ferriday,Louisiana on vacation and sent myself as well, as my brother about tewnty cans apiece. We both live in California and would like to know where we can place an order to have sent to us. I looked up the company and there wasn't anything there. Where can I go to place an order? my email address is ajenkins10@yahoo.com

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    1. I just looked up maybe wal Mart

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  6. Anonymous2:04 PM

    I, too, grew up on the smoked sausages. They were sold plentiful in Georgia and we ate the sausages with crackers, pork and beans, and we put them between bread and made sandwiches with them. In Virginia, I haven't seen any of these little delectables in the grocery store; however, I did find the small cans at a Dollar General store and I bought several cans. They are still pretty good, but they don't taste quite as good as they use too. As with everything these days, I'm sure the manufacturer skimped on some of the previous ingredients. Nevertheless, I will still buy them.

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  7. Anonymous10:27 AM

    It is a treat when my parents visit and we have Prairie Belt Sausage in gravy over biscuits with fresh tomatoes and scrambled eggs. But last night I went to 3 stores to get a can and no one had any when it was on the shelf a month ago. Does anyone know why it is not being stocked?
    Pam at chrestp@nationwide.com

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  8. Anonymous4:19 AM

    anonymous said:

    "As with everything these days, I'm sure the manufacturer skimped on some of the previous ingredients."

    Yep. Definitely less spleen now.

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  9. Anonymous10:39 PM

    I've been eating Prairie Belt Sausages since I was 3 or 4, I am now 36. Back in the 70's the sausage was made from all beef and tasted a whole lot better, I could'nt stop eating damn things. I wish that i could contact the company and tell them they need to go back to the old receipe. They are located in West Pointe, MS

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  10. Anonymous5:32 PM

    I found about 12 18oz cans of the sausage in a discontinued basket at my supermarket yesterday. The store is no longer going to carry them. My concern is whether or not it is safe to eat them and they are not out of date. The use by date is in code. There is no phone number or website address on the can and the copyright date on the label is 2003. If anyone has any information on this I would appreciate a response. Mike at mhepersonal@comcast.net

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  11. I stumbled upon your blog because I was looking for the name of these sausages. I recently cooked and ate Chorizo for the first time and the taste reminded me of these sausages.I remember having them when I was younger, but could not remember for the life of me what the name was. I remember them being in a jumbo size can or value size as well. Oh, the nostalgia.

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  12. Anonymous8:16 AM

    I have been eating these things since I was a little kid in Alabama. I am an old kid in Texas now and can only find them at the Dollar General. They come in little vienna saugage cans now which is weired because back home they were aways in in big ole cans and the sausages were big too. I eat them straight out of the can and drink the juice. Yeah I'm a red neck. They are best when you use the juice as a base to gravy and heat them all up and serve over home made biscuits. Hope they NEVER stop making them.

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  13. Anonymous11:19 AM

    Some food show on TV once informed me that Mechanically 'Separated' or 'Reclaimed' refers to the process by which some 'meat' is reconstituted out of protein mush. Basically they grind up all the bones, feathers (yes feathers), tubes, feet, ears, bumholes and anything else that can't be sold as 'real' meat cuts then smush it through a fine mesh, bleach it white then dye it the right colour and flavour it before reforming it into vaguely meaty shapes. That spongy-textured pseudo-chicken you get in cheap-brand nuggets is a classic example. Mmm.

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  14. I just spent an hour trying to remember this brand of sausage. I was almost ready to give up. My last ditch search "old time brands canned sausage" brought me here. My grandmother loved it and I used to sneak a few late at night. She's gone now but remembering the things she cooked and/or liked to eat remind me of her. Thanks so much for this post. Now off to the store!

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  15. Anonymous9:39 AM

    Man....this is some good stuff. I use to eat them when i was a boy, and recently i can accross some and this old lady was gonna take all 4cans they had left. So what i did was started talking to the old lady and walked her around to another section of the store and i ran back and got 3cans and left her one. I know thats mean but hell...i love the lil Prairie Belt cans , they make me go crazy

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  16. Anonymous6:49 AM

    I work where they make these, and they are still available in the larger size, although I don't know where. I was told that these are mainly sold in the south.

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    Replies
    1. Hey.....we're these originally called, "REX" sausages? I am on a hint and I MUST find them! Lol

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  17. Anonymous6:43 PM

    I saw these in the Nirvana music video for 'COME AS YOU ARE" Kurt Cobain at one point is holding a can of these in his hand.
    15 years later I saw these at a conveinant store and had to buy them. WOW they taste exactly like smoked hot dogs.

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  18. Anonymous6:44 PM

    It was actually the Nirvana : Sliver music video,
    sorry!

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  19. I love these sausages.... the ones in the small cans from Dollar General aren't near the 'real' ones... the ones in the big cans R hard to find, but I found some at a discount store.. I bought all they had! I heat mine in a skillet, swap'n sides til they get really hot. put 'em between some fresh bread & YUM!!!! I love 'em!!

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  20. hi my father in law is looking for the bigger can of smoked sausages....by prairie belt of course! does anyone know if we can order from the company? i tried looking up the name on the can but got nothing! We live in MS

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  21. Anonymous4:25 PM

    Hello. And Bye.

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  22. Anonymous6:59 AM

    I love stumpypencil.blogspot.com! Here I always find a lot of helpful information for myself. Thanks you for your work.
    Webmaster of http://loveepicentre.com and http://movieszone.eu
    Best regards

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  23. Anonymous4:54 PM

    You can order the small and large can at this website: http://www.buythecase.net

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  24. Anonymous5:09 PM

    They used to be called Rex's sausages too!

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  25. In Chicago, IL, in the 1980's, they were packaged as “Red River Sausages” and sold in little convenience, AKA LIQUOR stores (all run by Arabic men, who all, somehow, inexplicably settled on the store name “Three Stooges”. ?) I understood that my mother was a greedy SOW but she totally stretched the limits of vulgarity by buying and eating these disgusting wieners, produced in Satan’s kitchen! So these are, apparently, a NEW recipe based on “Chicken". The ones from the 80′s were made from whatever was left of cows after the normal people got done with them… INGREDIENTS: Beef hearts, beef spleens, tripe, beef lips… That’s right, BEEF LIPS! What. The. FUCK! When I read that, as a kid, I imagined a guy going up to some unsuspecting cow and ripping it’s lips off! HIDEOUS!!!!!!!

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  26. Anonymous8:27 AM

    I can only find these at Dollar General. Back in the day when i was like 8 or 10 they sold the big family size can that you can no longer get. Now its just the small cans and I fear that one day they will no longer exist. from reading the previous posts, they don't contain the most healthy ingredients, but this nostalgic brand brings me back to childhood.

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  27. As a kid loved them and still to this day I eat them straight from the can like a real man should.

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  28. They sell them at Walmart here in Atlanta. $1 a can.

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  29. They sell them at Walmart here in Atlanta, $1 a can. I have a pantry full :)

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  30. Love LOVE these few up with them, kids and grandkids note came find them as Dollar General doesn't have them anymore ;(

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  31. You can order these on line from Amazon, Walmart, K-Mart, and several other places.

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  32. Is there anywhere that you can buy these today?

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  33. Well I can't say I am actually seeking them out. But it looks like Walmart carries them: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Prairie-Belt-Smoked-Sausage-9.5-oz-Pack-of-12/17254618

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  34. Just finished a plate with scrambled eggs. Been eating them 47 years! They are a delicacy. As for the ingredients or taste, nothing has changed with the taste. We love them!

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