Do they have a liner in the can? A lot of canned tomato products seem to have a white (plastic, I assume) lining in the can, probably to avoid just that problem.
I used to love SpaghettiO’s but when I get that craving these days I substitute boxed macaroni and cheese, but use condensed tomato soup (lower sodium version is better) to create the sauce. Some condensed soup, a little milk to help thin it, and the cheesy powder. When I don’t want something so intensely processed (only somewhat), I go with canned chopped tomatoes in the mac-n-cheese.
I could eat Ravioli-Os and Spaghetti-Os when my taste buds were messed up. I don’t normally like to eat these things. Usually the only other thing I could eat was bread cheese and milk. Most stuff tasted like it had sugar dumped all over it, so think of eating a hamburger if you dumped a couple tablespoons of sugar on it. There were some other weird taste things going on too.
I always hate the meatballs, and I normally don’t like Spaghetti-os, but once every three years or so I get an inexplicable craving for either Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (not real mac and cheese, mind you, only the boxed stuff) or Spaghetti-os. I have no idea why. There can’t possibly be some nutrient those things have that I’m not getting in my normal diet (unless “excessive salt” is a nutrient; I generally eat a normal amount of salt).
It’s bizarre, and it can’t just be Spaghetti-os; they have to be LOADED with the Kraft grated Parmesan (real won’t do). Just the thought is making me queasy and hungry at the same time.
We’ve begun to buy a few cans of ravioli each week in order to keep the teenagers alive. (If they have to actually exert themselves to the point of making a sandwich, they’d rather starve. If they’d starve quietly, that’d be one thing, but Nooooo.) All I ask is that they don’t talk about it or eat it in front of me.
One of them actually eats it cold out of the can, but she’ll do the same thing with a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. barf
Count me in on the ‘need them every few years’ crowd. Except I tend to like the nasty little meatballs. Sprinkling oregano on top helps some too. And some Tony Chatere’s.
Ever ate a canned tamale? That is some canned crap, right there.
I started to post something about this as well, then stopped myself. I figured someone would be along to do just that. Some aficianado would flame lev, “Hey, that’s like saying, ‘I tried a dented can of generic foie gras that was just one day past its expiration date, and I don’t see why everybody loves this stuff so much!’ No, you gotta have the REAL thing before judging it, man!!!”
Generic Spaghetti-o’s: “When nothing but a mediocre imitation of a mass-produced spaghetti-like product in a sauce of dubious provenance will do!”
I bet some Ripple would have improved the dining experience dramatically. Bust out the Chinet—we don’t eat like this EVERY day!
Huh. I have at the moment somewere around 5 or 6 cans of Spaghetti-Os in the house as well as another 10 assorted cans on Chef Boyardee stuff (the Pepperoni Pizzarolis are awesome). Not only do I love me some canned pasta product, my favorite part is the meatballs. I wish they would sell a can of just the meatballs and sauce. Mmmm…nasty gristly balls. Now the kind with the “hot dogs” cut up in it, well, that’s just disgusting.
I don’t eat a ton of this stuff (c’mon it’s got like 600% of your daily requirement of sodium) but when my girlfriend either works late or insists on having something I won’t eat for dinner, my cans are there to comfort me. I love dipping Ritz crackers in there too. I take mine with loads of tabasco and fresh ground black pepper, but I can do them plain no problem.
I can remember my Dad driving us past the Underwood plant in Arkansas on our way to vacation in Texas when I was a kid. I’d tell him we should stop and get a tour and maybe they’d give us free samples, too! We never had it at home (too expensive), but sometimes they had it at our cousins’ house while we were there on vacation. drool…
I’ve never liked Spaghetti-O’s. Even as a child, I couldn’t get past the thin sauce and grody meatballs. If there was ever any hope for me to like them, it died the day I watched a young relative douse his spaghetti-Os in mustard before consuming them.
Potted meat products… I can’t believe my parents fed this to me. When I got old enough to bother looking at the ingredients and the first or second thing labeled was beef hearts I wanted to retch. Second item I think was beef lungs or mechanically separated meat.
You probably don’t remember how much trouble you gave your parents when they tried to feed you anything else.
I can’t believe people are busting my balls over eating a can of store-brand Spag-O’s vs. the $1 more per can “good” stuff. Why on earth would I pay more for that stuff?
Sorry, but Spaghetti-Os are one of those things where the generic doesn’t cut it. Lord only knows what they’re holding out on to keep the price down, but whatever it is it’s important.
My surrogate grandma was our Italian next-door neighbor who insisted on making pasta and sauces from scratch. I think if my mom had ever served pasta from a can grandma would have reported her for child abuse. In any case, I only had spaghetti-oh’s once at a friend’s house, and I remember thinking they were foul even as a ten-year-old.
That’s the (old) Armour recipe, burned into my mind from having seen it on the shelf daily for the past 9 years at work. They recently changed it – I think they dropped the partially defatted beef fatty tissue.
