5 Canned Items To Buy At Aldi And 2 To Skip, According To Customers

As anyone with a crammed schedule, demanding family life, or budget constraints knows, canned food can be an immense blessing. A means to obtain nourishment in a pinch, canned food can be transformed into gourmet dishes that will wow everyone at the table. That is, if you grab the right cans off the shelf.

Some products on the market may have you wrinkling your nose and gagging on their mushiness. All too often, canned food tastes like the can it comes in, and there's no denying that fresh produce is usually (but not always) more flavorful than canned ones packed for long-term storage.

You'll find both shockingly wonderful and disappointingly dreadful canned foods at Aldi. We set out to discover which is which by reading customer reviews online. Since over 90% of Aldi's products are private-label, it's no surprise that all the products listed are unique to Aldi. Many customers vouched for the recommended products, while a crowd of folks expressed abhorrence for the products we suggest you breeze past. You can find more information on methodology at the end of this article.

When it comes to kitchen prep, tomatoes are among the more tedious vegetables to chop. Depending on the kind of tomatoes you're working with, as well as how ripe they are, your meal prep session can turn into a juicy, messy affair — and not the kind you like to read about in romance novels. You need to wash your tomatoes, select the right knife, and sometimes separate the seeds and pulp. It's much easier to just buy canned tomatoes. As a matter of fact, some recipes even turn out better if you take the convenient path.

Luckily, customers rave about Aldi's Happy Harvest tomatoes. One Redditor said that the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste are excellent additions to homemade sauce. Indeed, we've had great experiences with the diced tomatoes in our taste test of foods you can find at Aldi for $1 or less. They're neither mushy nor hard, and they hold their own in recipes starring other striking flavors.

Meanwhile, on Facebook, customers lauded the crushed tomatoes, saying they use them for chili and sauce alike. One pleased customer mention that these crushed tomatoes are excellent in marinara, where their sweetness shines. The fire roasted diced tomatoes are also said to be phenomenal, with customers recommending they be incorporated into salsas, summer squash stir fries, chilis, soups, stuffed bell peppers, and more.

Brookdale sloppy Joe sauce has generated a great deal of online buzz, and it's no wonder. In theory, all you need to do is brown ground beef, then add this mixture of tomatoes, vinegar, bell pepper, spices, salt, sugar, and corn syrup. Ladle it over buns, and you'll have a stick-to-your-ribs dinner that can gratify the whole family.

Customers said that this product is a worthy competitor to that offered by Manwich. Not only is it more affordable than the mainstream brand, but one customer reported that it's less sweet, while another praised its additional thickness. Folks are happy with its high quality and often mentioned keeping a few cans of Brookdale sloppy Joe sauce on standby for a quick, satisfying meal. Stocking up is wise, too, since this is a seasonal product.

To branch out further, try using this product in something other than sloppy Joes. One Facebooker suggested adding it to pasta, another was partial to meatloaf, and someone else recommended pairing it with baked chicken. Reviews indicate that you might find this product needs some supplementation, but that's par-for-the-course with canned sloppy Joe sauce. Folks have recommended adding minced onions, mushrooms, peppers, brown sugar, leeks, and potatoes. These are just a few of many ways to upgrade canned sloppy Joe sauce.

Not much information is available regarding where Aldi sources its whole olives, so we can't vouch for whether these large black olives actually spent any time in a Tuscan garden. Plus, while the brand's "Tuscan Garden" name sounds romantic, customers relayed that these olives are anything but. Indeed, they are one of several Aldi products that Redditors say you should avoid buying. Their brine has been described as repulsive and occasionally oily, and the olives have also been condemned for what ranges from a waxy to a metallic flavor. One Facebooker revealed that the olives are sometimes reminiscent of cardboard or taste like the can they are packed in.

These olives don't bring much to the table in terms of texture either. Multiple customers said they are mushy, while others said that it's like a game of roulette; you never know whether you're going to open a can of hard or mushy olives. And let's not forget the matter of safety. One Redditor warned that despite being labeled as "pitted," they found five unpitted olives in a single can.

If you already have a can of these olives in your pantry, you could theoretically find a use for them. Sprinkle them on top of pizza, suggested one customer, but don't try to make them shine on a charcuterie board; fresh olives are the way to go if they are going to play anything more than a minor supporting role in your dish.

Lest you forget that Aldi is a German brand, the store's Deutsche Kϋche soups will rope you in with their comforting flavors and textures. Imported from Germany, these soups come in varieties like fall harvest vegetable soup and lentil and chickpea soup, both of which are customer favorites. Another popular variety, the German bean soup, earned an admirably high ranking in our recent taste test of Aldi soups. It's subtly smoky, speckled with vegetables, and remarkably filling.

One Redditor had few words for the Deutsche Kϋche soups, instead summing up their feelings for this product line by likening them to the fire flame emoji. It's worth mentioning, however, that folks typically regard these soups as mildly spiced, and so you may wish to sprinkle in a handful of flavorings. As a few Facebookers have noted, German cuisine often falls on the blander side, so consider this trait a sign of authenticity.

Despite their popularity, customers said that the availability of these soups is inconsistent among stores and that their inventory is unpredictable. Although you'll likely find them in stock alongside many other must-try German items when Aldi's recurring German week rolls around, the rest of the year can be hit or miss. In fact, according to one Facebooker, some varieties are only offered during German week, while other varieties are more frequently in stock. For example, a few customers shared that the fall harvest and harvest potato varieties are year-round offerings at their local Aldi, but we've found that's not the case everywhere.

On paper, it sounds like Dakota's Pride original baked beans are comprised of a solid, promising list of ingredients. Each can contains white beans, sugar, and brown sugar, cured bacon, a handful of spices — including mustard seed, onion and garlic powder, turmeric, and paprika — and other ingredients. Unfortunately, customer reviews indicate that all these ingredients don't live up to their potential. We agree, having given them poor marks in our taste test of canned beans at Aldi.

Not only do folks critique the appearance of these baked beans — often comparing them to chili, or worse, dog food — but they also report that they are dissatisfied with their flavor. Many folks said they would rather pay for Bush's than purchase Aldi's version of baked beans. One customer, who said that budget baked beans are usually palatable after some doctoring up, suggested adding molasses to this product. Nevertheless, another customer responded that molasses will do nothing for the beans' mushy texture.

Dakota's Pride maple and cured bacon baked beans don't have great reviews, either. They're said to be lacking in flavor and similarly mushy. In fact, customers often explained that baked beans (and canned beans in general) are among the only products they don't buy at Aldi. If you can devote five minutes of prep time, we suggest making our slow cooker baked beans recipe instead of relying on a store-bought product.

If standing over the sink peeling potatoes sounds like your idea of a good time, then please come over and cook dinner for us. Otherwise, here's one more Happy Harvest product to add to your grocery list. Many shoppers have vouched for Aldi's private-label brand of canned potatoes, which come in both whole and sliced varieties. These 15-ounce cans contain nothing more than potatoes, water, salt, calcium chloride (for firmness), and — in the case of the whole potatoes — calcium disodium EDTA (for firmness, as well as color retention).

Aside from being budget-friendly, customers described these potatoes as impressively shelf-stable. To that point, multiple shoppers expressed appreciation that they didn't feel pressured to use these potatoes in a jiffy (who hasn't looked at a sprouting potato with a mixture of guilt and disdain?).

Plus, these potatoes are extraordinarily versatile. The sliced variety is said to be excellent for frying, though others prefer baking their potatoes or air frying them instead. Soups, stews, and potato salads are naturally on deck, and multiple customers shared that they serve these potatoes alongside eggs and bacon. We also agree with a few Facebookers that these potatoes needn't be restricted to the kitchen; they're superb candidates for campsite meals. Perhaps you can incorporate them into one of these tasty camping recipes to make on your next trip into the wilderness.

Some of the best memories of kids around the world involve sneaking spoonfuls of sweetened condensed milk out of the refrigerator, though the brands we grew up with vary widely. In the United States, Carnation, Eagle Brand, and Nestlé La Lechera are household names. We found that Aldi shoppers often compared Baker's Corner sweetened condensed milk to the Baker's Corner version, noting that it's just as delicious, if not better. Some customers even believe that Eagle Brand is behind this private-label product, with the only difference being the label (and, of course, the more affordable price tag).

According to shoppers, this top-of-the-line alternative will work wonders in baked goods, fudge, banana pudding, and coffee creamer. More than anything else, though, customers reported that they use this sweetened condensed milk to make homemade caramel. Not only is the texture up to par, but one customer mentioned that the lack of a pull top on these cans ensures that caramel-making is more convenient. Once you've got a can in your hand, follow our instructions here to make cheater caramel sauce.

We used websites like Facebook and Reddit to gather customer feedback on each product. In order for a canned good to receive our recommendation, it needed to have overwhelmingly positive reviews from a large number of customers. Meanwhile, the items we warned against needed a clear consensus among shoppers. This large sample size helped rule out the possibility of one customer getting a good or bad batch of a certain food. Customers regularly described product flavors, aromas, and textures, all of which we have relayed in this article.

While we could have curated a list purely encompassing the wide varieties of beans or canned vegetables offered at Aldi, we sought to represent a broader selection of canned goods. This includes both sweet and savory items, which you can find stocked across several aisles. Some of these are single ingredients, while others are meals unto themselves (or just about). Finally, availability varies across stores and seasons, so check online or call ahead if you want to know whether a specific product is currently available at your local Aldi.