Claim Jumper Salisbury Steak

October 24, 2007 | Reviewer: Nicole

Claim Jumper Salisbury Steak Price: $3.00 (on sale)
Serving: 1 package, 16oz.
Calories: 630 per serving
Fat: 55%, 36g
Cholesterol: 40%, 120mg
Sodium: 74%, 1780mg
Protein: 35g
Carbs: 14%, 43g
Fiber: 24%, 6g
Sugar: 7g
Weight Watchers Points: 16 points

Claim Jumper says: A giant ground beef steak grilled with a smokey flavor and brown gravy. Served along with it’s favorite side dishes, broccoli and macaroni and cheese.

Nicole says: I felt like Indiana Jones when I found this last night at the grocery store - a new brand of frozen food! More Claim Jumper reviews will be forthcoming. This meal is produced by a company running a chain of restaurant by the same name on the West Coast and into the Mid-West a bit. They are apparently known at the restaurant for their large portions. Yay, what a great way to get ready for a Winter of hibernating! All the meals I selected from this line last night are 16 ounces - that’s One LB., but unlike some sexist Swanson lines, Claim Jumper doesn’t feel the need to yell about size from the mountain tops or emblazon it in large letters across their packaging.

The preparation of this meal was on the caliber of a Marie Callender meal - the gravy packet was heated separately in a bowl (first time I’ve seen this in a Salisbury Steak dish), the broccoli had one tablespoon of water added before cooking, and both the meat/cheese/pasta plate section and the frozen bag of gravy had to be stabbed 2-4 times with a fork before cooking - when they say “to vent”, do they know I’m having a bad day at work? The cooking time is too ambiguous at “five to nine minutes”, so I chose the safe route - seven is central. Then I added ten seconds since I had a lasagna recently with a cool center. Bad decision. My macaroni burned on one edge :(.

Did I MENTION that the meal comes with Macaroni & Cheese? Large, thick, ribbed macaroni noodles make it feel homestyle and bright yellow cheese with a hint of Velveeta-ish flavor provide a devilishly tasty in the “I’m being a bad girl” way (versus the “Do you have any Grey Poupon” way). The broccoli steams pretty well - it could be a bit firmer, but it is far from mush and tastes as fresh and green as it looks.

And this thing they call “Salisbury Steak”. As if it’s not strange enough that the gravy is packaged separately, is not remotely gelatinous, and is offered in such a large portion that I, of all people, chose to discard a third - this meat has a tenderized but hearty, dense texture. You know how most Salisbury steak is a bit spongy? Which isn’t terrible, I mean, if it is manually tenderized, that can result. But this is just such an unusual, tasty, cut-of-meat versus reconstituted meat type texture. Not to say it’s not reconstituted (I’ll report back on that after I sneak into the Claim Jumper plant to do some research), but it doesn’t necessarily taste or feel reconstituted.

I am full, but I am not stuffed. And I feel like I had what could be described as a balance of healthy and tasty and super-fattening in my meal. Buy Claim Jumper food!

comments

19 Responses to “Claim Jumper Salisbury Steak”

So Good Blog/News Round-Up 10/24 | So Good on October 24th, 2007

[…] Heat Eat Review profiles the Claim Jumper Salisbury Steak. […]
Crow on October 24th, 2007

“Served along with it’s favorite side dishes, broccoli and macaroni and cheese.”

Oh my god, it’s a life-form.
Crow on October 24th, 2007

“…but unlike some sexist Swanson lines,”

Because “Hungry Woman” invites images of a giant whale with PMS.
MaryAnne on October 24th, 2007

Claim Jumper should know that they should employ a copy editor to check their descriptions: “…with it’s favorite side dishes…” Seriously? In this day and age of education and grammar checks???

Claim Jumper is such a weird name. I just found out that it is a chain of restaurants with a fairly tasty sounding menu. I also recently found out what salisbury steak really is. What makes it a steak? And how is different from meatloaf?
Abi Jones on October 24th, 2007

@Crow - Nicole is talking about the fact that Hungry-Man plasters boxes with exclamations of “One Pound of Food!” while Claim Jumper does not.

@MaryAnne - I know! I thought it was a typo, but that’s the actual text from the Claim Jumper frozen foods website.

Salisbury steak is grilled and in a patty form. Meatloaf is baked and in loaf form.
Andrew on October 24th, 2007

I’ve been seeing Claim Jumper stuff at my local grocer for the last month or two but it’s never on sale, so I don’t risk it. Plus, though I am a man, and I do get hungry, I tend to shy away from Hungry Man style cuisine because it usually ends up making me want to perform a stomach-ostomy on myself. Too much salt, cheese and grease makes Andrew a sick boy.
Giselle on October 24th, 2007

Claim Jumper frozen dinners have been around for a few years, at least here in California. Having been to the restaurant and eaten the frozen meals, I can testify that they’re pretty much the same: very large portions of *mostly* inoffensive standards. I still prefer Hungry People dinners.
Crow on October 25th, 2007

“Hungry People; when your world is ending, reach for that MRE”
Julie on October 25th, 2007

@Nicole - you remind me of my grandmother because she could eat tons of fattening unhealthy foods and remain rail thin.

She passed away when she was 71 from cardiac problems. I hate to be a bearer of gloom and doom but you might want to get regular check ups if you eat like this frequently. She avoided docs because they intimidated her. Just a quick listen to her heart would have discovered the problem.

She had no overt signs of any health problems and acted perfectly healthy and normal the day before she never woke up again.

I’m by far no health food eater but my grandma was very important to me and I expected her to be with me for until at least her mid 80’s being her mom (my great grandma) lived to 95.

So anyway…I guess that’s all I have to say. Take care.
Rose on October 25th, 2007

mmm, this looks delicious. I’m a big fan of fattening, cheesey, and possibly heart clogging foods. bring it on.
Nicole on October 26th, 2007

@Julie:

Sorry for your loss - I had a similar one in August, but it was cancer.

Thanks for your concern. Personally, I’m not planning on procreating, so I won’t have anyone to take care of me into my mid-80s, unless I start being a cougar. If this vessel lasts me until 70 and I have a quiet passing, I will be quite pleased!
Crow on October 26th, 2007

“If this vessel lasts me until 70 and I have a quiet passing, I will be quite pleased!”

Get a newer, sleeker vessel. Or augment your current model.
demitasse on November 11th, 2007

I am completely amazed that there has been no comment on the largest sodium content I’ve ever seen on a frozen food label! That is scarey.
Abi Jones on November 11th, 2007

If you really want some scary sodium levels, you should check out the Hungry Man Reviews.
lorraine on February 23rd, 2008

I “found” this brand today at my local store and bought the fried chicken,mashed potatoes, small ear of corn & gravy because it looked so good on the package.
The corn was fresh tasting, the potatoes and gravy were passable. The chicken did not look like the picture of the chicken on the package at all, it was a chopped, formed piece of “something” that was supposed to be chicken. It did not look like chicken, it did not taste like chicken, I did not eat it. I will not purchase this brand again. With deception they made one sale, I will pass the word on this though. It really quite unpleasant.
wesley on March 6th, 2008

I have just had one of your frozen dinners, turkey medallions , gravy , dressing and broccoli.
I have never had my intelligence insulted so much. Do people actually but this and not complain?

1. 3-4 pieces broccoli florets, (veg. is cheap you can aim for at least 5-6 florets to trick the brain into the fill effect with the stuffing)
2. stuffing, lots and lots of it. (which by the way tasted pretty good)
3. turkey,, it must have been a miniature turkey, less than one ounce of meat, believe it or not. Medallions is just a fancy name of leftover bits of turkey about 4-5 tiny “medallions” .
There is more food in a weightwatchers box. (not enough for a teenager let alone an adult)

I never complain about products but this one took first prize for embarrassment , i always take it for granted the “Greed ‘ factor of companies. If you are aiming for return business, you will probably be very disappointed,, unless they are crazy about stuffing.

If I wanted a bowl of stuffing I would have bought a box of Stove top and had stuffing for 3 days in a row for less than what this thing cost.
We had a gathering of neighbors each bring their own dinner, and we all had a good laugh at the contents of my “Claim Jumper” Turkey Dinner.
One word for you.. CRAP. never again, me or my neighbors and I will have a great time describing the contents to anyone that comes along.

You should really be ashamed of yourselves trying to cheat people. I feel really sorry for those poor single moms that have a family to feed on a limited income. Kids go hungry, what do you care, as long as yoru bottom line comes in.
SHAME ON YOU.

Wesley Moran.
Companies like this make a laughing stock of our country.

pop number 7-297-p6147 d4

Please make sure this gets to the right company, I know you are just a distributor, I will email the company also,
Becka on March 6th, 2008

Wesley - they’re not a distributor for this company, this is simply a[n] [awesome] website where they’re reviewing frozen meals. They obviously have nothing to do with this company other than being a consumer, just like you…did you even look around this place before leaving your comment? I just thought I’d let you know this since you seem confused and I coincidentally just found this [months old] review on the day after you wrote this.

Also…no intelligent single mother is going to be feeding her kids this stuff, nice attempt at a guilt trip though, haha.
Ian on March 23rd, 2008

Becka, you are bang on. Wesley…ok, I’ll quote Picard…”Shut up Wesley.”

Now on to serious business. Nicole, very nice review. These frozen dinners just appeared on the scene here in Virginia. It was late, my wife sent me out for things from the grocery store and I was tired of the same old stuff. I didn’t even know until I did an online search that this was a spin-off from a chain restaurant. So I picked up the exact meal that you reviewed.

Now, I am currently trying all of the ones on sale here. NO! Not all at once! I mean spread out over a few weeks. So far I have tried all but one. (The only one remaining is the “Chicken Fried Steak-with corn and mashed potatoes).

All of the meals have been inexpensive, easy to prepare, and of excellent quality. Most “microwave dinners” have way too much sodium; these, aren’t that bad at all. Also it seems to me that the quality and quantity of the vegetables is very good as well.

I will let you know how the last one works out. I do a lot of cooking and I always use good, fresh ingredients. But, when you are in a hurry ( or just feeling worn out) these are better than your average frozen fare. Especially the Swanson/Birdseye variety.

Good Night All,

***end***rant***here***

#30#
mark on April 23rd, 2008

Let me just step in and add my take on those “claim jumper” microwave meals. They were on sale locally in my area and i bought 4 of them. One was a chicken Marsala or something like that and it was absolutely horrible, and i’m a fat guy. Let me explain, if a fat guy won’t eat it, it needs to leave the market. What was most suprising was how salty the sauce was. I’ll end my discusting comments now and will never buy one of those again. I’m sorry claim jumper people, but just because you have a restaraunt doesn’t mean that you can cook.