Tushonka

Tushonka (Russian: тушёнка, IPA: [tʊˈʂonkə], from тушение, 'braising') is a canned stewed meat especially popular in Russia and other countries of the former Eastern Bloc. It has become a common name for different kinds of canned stewed meat, not all of which correspond to the strict GOST standards.

Tushonka can be used and preserved in extreme situations, and therefore is a part of military food supplies in the CIS. For the people of the Soviet Union, tushonka was a part of military and tourist food supplies; at some extreme periods of time it could be bought only with food stamps.

Unlike many Western canned meat products, tushonka has separate pieces, chunks of meat. It is mixed with lard and jelly. This makes it closer to holodets than hash, bully beef, or spam.

Products sold only under the name тушёнка "tushonka" are commonly cheaper versions full of jelly and maybe using offal. High quality tushonka can be found as cans of govyadina ("beef") or svinina ("pork"). The same goes to average tushonka, where the ratio between meat and lard+jelly is close to 50:50.