Used my rotary can opener just this night to open the diced tomato can from Costco I used in the dinner I cooked. Have a church key also. I used to have an electric one a long time ago, but certainly wouldn’t bother with it now.
I have used the attachment on a knife to open cans when I was in Boy Scouts. I wouldn’t recommend it.
I can’t see how anyone who actually cooks (as opposed to restaurants, takeout, ramen, and frozen microwave meals) can get by without at least occasionally needing an opener. I have an electric and a backup manual.
Thinking about it, it’s been a long time since I purchased tuna and when I did it was in an envelope, and I’m on the tail end of boomerdom.
and a colander!
What’s “so sad” is that you apparently didn’t teach them how to open a can before now. People don’t magically just know how to do things. If a parent thinks a kid not knowing something they think is important is “so sad”, that is the fault of the parent.
Yes; 50-59. Can’t remember the last time I actually brought it out, most everything has pull-tab tops now.
I’m leasing one… with an option to buy. (Fletch!)
I did not own a can opener until about 40 years of age, when I had a baby and got a bit more realistic about food preparation.
I don’t use it for a wide variety of foods, but I have learned that the world does not end and the Gods and Goddesses of Food Snobbery do not come to your house and torture you to death if you use canned black beans instead of soaking and cooking your own. They are also tolerant of throwing canned corn or canned tomatoes into soups.
I was going to post that’s the conclusion I’d draw from that data.
I have a couple can openers. The one I use most often is the one that doesn’t cut the can. It just unpeels the glue at the top, called a safe-t can opener, like **Beckdawreck **mentioned. But I’ve gone for years not using them in the past, so I can see why people might not own one.
You are so right. I freely admit I babied her butt. My older kids rag me about it all the time. But, but she was my baby. I have no shame about it. She will learn all she needs to know eventually.
OTOH, those safety openers are a bit tricky to use.
Yes. I always considered myself youthful until…I wasn’t, and started realizing that it seemed there were very few people posting who were younger than me. I love our age and wisdom! But I would welcome more young people to tell us we’re idiots.
As for can openers…if you cook in any meaningful way you need one. I take Trader Joes as the benchmark–not the cheapest, but less expensive, decent quality food. Sure you can get microwavable meals there and no judgement, but here (CA) I think people are shopping to cook, and there are lots of items in cans that require openers.
Several styles; all hand powered. And I may be revealing something about myself but the one I use mostly is a good-ol’ P-38. Heck, I have one of those in my wallet at all times since say about 1972 or so. Even at home I just like the result better than the crank versions.
Ah, so that’s what that doohickey is. A P-38? I was wondering what in the hell everyone was talking about. My only reference for a P-38 is the Lockheed aircraft. My next guess was a pistol of some sort. No, it’s that tiny pain-in-the-ass can opener that you rock back and forth millimeter by millimeter to open your stuff.
I own several can openers.
A Electric one on the counter. Three or more manual ones in the drawers.
I have opened many cans with a p-38 on camping trips. I have a p-38 in my tackle boxes, camping gear and in several drawers. Not sure why they never get thrown away.
I’ve got one of those newfangled can openers that lifts the whole lid off the can, rather than cutting through the lid just inside the rim.
Two advantages: (1) the lid has no sharp edges after you lift it off, and (2) if you only use part of a can of something, you can push the lid back into place, no need for foil or plastic wrap.
Yes I own several. In a pinch you can use a knife or a screwdriver to open a can. I think the new pull-tab cans needlessly add an extra(if tiny) cost to a product.
I never saw a P-38 before and I have a dozen church keys around and the standard rotating stainless mechanical type. Also a few Swiss army knives and a Leatherman type knife.
My electric, under the counter one though is the one I use 99.9% of the time. This is my second one over a 26 year period. When it broke and during a really long power outages* is the only time I resorted to a mechanical opener.
I don’t know how newfangled that is. I’ve seen it at least as far back as the 90s, and I assume it goes much farther back than then, as it’s not really some crazy weird technology or anything. It just cuts in from the side rather than from above, assuming we’re talking about the same thing. The one I’m thinking of is a manual crank as well. Confused me at first because I kept wanting to align it vertically with the can I was opening, until somebody showed me you have to align it horizontally.
ETA: Huh. They are described as “new can openers” here. I swear I’ve used them as far back as the 90s. I don’t own one of these doohickeys, but I’ve used them first at least 20 years ago. Maybe it was when I was living in Hungary. But these are definitely not a new idea.
I have an electric opener on the kitchen counter and three or four manual openers in various locations, such as the utensil drawer and stored with the camping gear. Handy gadgets those openers.
Kids these day! Can’t even open a can of whoop ass. Why in my day, we had to go out to the garden and harvest some whoop ass that we grew ourselves, dagnabbit!
And if you’re using explosives to open a can, sure, it becomes technically “open”, but I’m not so sure you accomplished your original goal.
My first thought as well. Our logo needs to be a walker.
Wait a minute, new headline: Millennial are now killing message boards.