According to professionals, upscale canned crushed or diced tomatoes are actually *better *than most fresh tomatoes for use in sauces and the like. They’re usually canned the same day they were picked, which makes them fresher than supermarket or grocery store tomatoes.
I really enjoy creamed tomato soup. I have tried every brand I could find but never found one better than Campbell’s. Creamy and delicious.
I also second canned beans and condensed milk.
I may add more to this list later on.
Canned pineapple is the only fruit I use in cans. Delicious.
The OP and title made me immediately think of this 1985 computer animation (which showed during the Superbowl that year). I had it on a tape of computer animations that has since deteriorated (scroll down to “Sexy Robot”):
https://www.artofthespot.com/studio-profiles.html
In response to the OP, I will, myself, eat corn stored in cans, but it definitely affects the flavor – I can tell if my corn came from a can. But I’m used to the taste, so I don’t mind. My wife won’t touch canned corn. She was raised on dried corn (which has an altered taste, but it’s different) or frozen corn.
I generally don’t have an issue with canned foods, especially if it’s processed (Canned soup or stew is fine. So is “Chef Bor-ar-dee”-type spaghetti and the like.)
Recommend you save everybody a lot of grief and just make sure you finish the whole can before going to bed…
I was going to list that as “horrifying”, but here you go.
On a recent episode of the new “Good Eats”, Alton kept going into the fridge, as usual. On every shot, there was a canned whole chicken in the fridge. I thought it was just a dumb joke, but near the end of the episode he revealed that’s where he hid some highly valuable and rare ingredient.
Hijack:
I used to rent VHS tapes from Blockbuster Video in the mid-80’s of what was then cutting-edge computer animation shorts set to New Age electronic music. I fell in love with the medium. Lots of ray traced chrome, as I recall. One of my favorites featured a chrome T-rex running around to a thumping electronic bass line.
I liked it so much, 3-D modeling and animation became a hobby of mine for a while (nothing to do with my career). I learned 3-D Studio Max and Rhino 3-D and got pretty good with them.
In the 80’s my ex was a SVP for Bank of America and they contracted me to produce a 10 minute animation which they played at their corporate conference that year. They loved it (I made it funny) and paid handsomely for it. I’m pretty proud of that. I wish I went into computer animation instead of medicine.
But, what I really enjoyed was playing those VHS tapes for my dad, who was in his 80’s in the 80’s. He was blown away by them and even liked the New Age music (not bad for a guy who mostly listened to talk radio and Mel Torme). I even got him into Pink Floyd! Mom just covered her ears (I had a powerful sound system back in the day) and just wanted to watch shows like People’s Court with Judge Wapner.
…canned ham is pretty good, too.
All the basics like tomato paste, chili beans and such.
Not very hot on canned soup. My Wife and I make a lot of homemade soup, so I guess I’m a bit biased.
One thing that I only like from a can is green beans. Don’t like fresh at all.
The Horrifying: While I enjoy fresh salmon and tuna, I cannot eat either from a can. Especially the tuna.
Canned soup is usually “okay.”
Can’t think of anything canned that’s really good. Maybe spam.
Yes! Very tasty; sticks to your ribs. Gotta watch that sodium content, though, I can feel my BP rising just looking at a can.
We cook a lot, and generally speaking, most of our canned goods are ingredients, particularly tomatoes or unusual vegetables. Canned diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste are pretty common in our pantry, as are water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and bean sprouts. So are prepared ingredients that you can’t really make yourself, or that are better from a can- anchovies, coconut milk, canned tuna, sloppy joe sauce,sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, canned chipotles in adobo, pickled jalapenos, various Thai curry pastes, etc…
Only a few canned complete sides or dishes are typically in there- a few cans of soup and stuff like canned chili (Wolf brand) or cranberry sauce for when we don’t have homemade on hand. And canned beans/chickpeas make appearances from time to time- mostly when we’re making a dish or soup or something that has beans, but isn’t bean-centric
Oh and canned/boxed stock. While we make our own when we have leftover beef/chicken/turkey parts, we use enough to require us to buy the commercial stuff.
I remember being forced to eat canned peas. Disgusting!
What kind of a parent would force canned peas on their kid?
All we are saying is – Give Peas a Chance
See page 16 in this link:
Or about page 40 in this one:
https://www.perspicuity.com/
Canned potatoes have only one role: Home fries cooked over a camp stove.
I like canned corn and canned green beans, some home-y dishes just cry out for a canned 50’s veg (not peas or carrots!) Not Veg-All…I don’t know how it’s possible to ruin a can of innocuous mixed vegetables, but the Veg-All company did it.
I think of the canned pasta, mac & cheese (though steam cooked to a mush) and cheese ravioli (also steam cooked to a fare-thee-well) are borderline edible. Can’t bear anything with that orange ‘tomato’ in it.
I still look for those tiny silvery sardines, packed in oil in two layers in a can. Sometimes I’ll buy any old cheap brand just because, and to my horror, there are sometimes 3 or 4 big ugly honkin’ dark fish in there. Eww.
It’s now in single-serving packets, one minute in the microwave, kablooie. I have low BP. I need salty foods to maintain the systolic/diastolic. More miso soup!
Many canned “mixed” vegetables are pretty wretched as-is. They’ve fine in stews when spiced adequately. I prefer jarred to canned sauerkraut and other pickled produce. Canned corn should be well-mashed and added to cornbread. (And try lasagna with polenta instead of pasta.) Canned corned beef and Spam - well, they’re for desperation. Some canned sardines scare me. But I can somehow handle Hormel chicken tamales.
Although the intent of the OP seems to refer to commercially available canned foods, I thought I’d talk a bit about home canned foods. (I do a lot of canning.)
I break down the universe of foods into 3 groups:
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Foods that cannot be successfully or safely canned in the home kitchen. You might be surprised that some of these can be safely canned by commercial canners. For example, the home canner is warned against canning any pasta product (so chicken soup is fine, but not chicken noodle soup), dairy products (so no evaporated or condensed milk or New England Clam Chowder), and certain other products (like pureed pumpkin). Plenty of people do can these, but I stick with the National Center for Home Food Preservation guidelines.
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Foods that can be canned, but shouldn’t. This is personal preference. I despise canned peas and asparagus (although pickled asparagus is quite nice). I have canned green beans – the texture isn’t great, but last time I made a batch of lemon garlic green beans and one of balsamic green beans, both of which were tasty. Pickled green beans are of course wonderful.
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Foods that are great canned. I do tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, soups, pickles, jams on a regular basis. I occasionally make chili, chicken, BBQ pork and the like. I’ve canned some fruits that were really good, maybe because the recipes I used typically call for a shot of liqueur. Home canned applesauce is great. I make a kickass cranberry sauce.
I’ve heard that tomatoes can be better canned than fresh depending on the time of the year. The ones they use for canning are more naturally ripened vs getting “fresh” ones in the store in off-season. Any truth to that?
We Are The Whirled.
The dislike of canned corn is unexpected. I get Kirkland organic, and the kernels are pretty nice: a pleasant crunch and sweet flavor. But now I think I should compare to frozen corn, in case I’m missing something.
And I did forget sardines/anchovies. I’m not a huge consumer of either, but I’m not averse to having a can or two (or six, if I buy at Costco) around.
Home canned stuff is a different animal, to me. To me there is a huge aesthetic difference between opening a can and opening a jar. I always feel like I can taste the metal just a little bit. Anyway, I agree with **Anny Middon’s ** post - home-canned chutneys, jams, and so on are fantastic. (I make a mean chutney myself but am too lazy to can, so just freeze it.)