You know the pull-tabs that some canned foods (like soup) have that make it much easier to open them? (I still need a knife, but at least I don’t need a can opener). If that technology exists, why doesn’t every canned good have it?
The question was asked and, to at least some extent, answered in a more limited context in this old thread: Tuna cans
Because it costs more.
I am glad every can doesn’t open that way . I find the cans hard to open and I am more likely to cut my finger trying to pull the lid off. I rather use a can opener . I also feel the food is safer to eat in a classic can.
I didn’t see a very convincing answer in the other thread. It would seem that the pull-tab cans are more expensive, as zombywoof said, but that’s the direction the industry seems to be going, and not all canneries have made the switch yet. Just today I bought Kroger brand canned pears and canned mandarin oranges. The pears are in pull-tab cans and the oranges need a can opener. Obviously the cans are coming from different suppliers/canneries (the oranges are from China, and the pears are from the US).
Historically canning of individual fruits and vegetables was a very local industry (pet food or prepared soups and such is a whole other ballgame). Regions with the right produce would have a cannery in nearly every town. It was also rather seasonal work, one that was routinely done by farm wives. What I don’t know is how far away the canned good were sold, and how they were branded. I imagine that nowadays, while not quite as local as it used to be, it’s still rather regional. Individual canneries (whether independent or part of a conglomerate) simply change the labels for each customer, whether Kroger, Wal Mart, Del Monte, Green Giant, or whoever.
One thing I didn’t see in the other thread either, but that I have heard mentioned somewhere before, is the amount of pressure the can is able to withstand. A pull-tab can is weaker, and could be more likely to pop open during the cooking process. Highly acidic foods like most fruits (especially tomatoes) and pickled vegetables can be canned in simple boiling water, but meats and other vegetables need to be canned under pressure so their temperature can be raised significantly above normal boiling point for proper sterilization. Could this process require the stronger traditional cans? Same goes for shipping. I would imagine pull-tab cans can break open easier when dropped or going through rough and long shipping routes. Maybe traditional cans are preferred for items shipped further?
Turn the can over and open the other end with a can opener.
Pretty sure that current Campbell’s soup cans are rounded on the bottom so that they stack better and don’t have an edge to be opened by a traditional can opener.
In a lot of cases the bottom is rounded and won’t accept a can opener.
My electric can opener is almost redundant. The only cans I regularly open with it are pilchards and sometimes tomatoes, which are always the same brand, but clearly come from different canneries.
A regular can opener might still work on one with a pop-top lid. I know for sure that my side-cutting opener does. (And the side-cutting one leaves no sharp edges with which to cut yourself.)
Bozeman, MT used to have a cannery that mostly canned peas. Every year, when the canning season was over, there was a big festival. After the cannery closed down, locals decided that they liked the festival so much that the Pea Festival turned into the Sweet Pea Festival, an annual arts event.
Sort of. DelMonte and Green Giant own their own facilities, although I’m sure they’re happy to also supply private labels. Independent canneries seem to have worse luck because, when the crop is bad in their region, they don’t have facilities in other areas to prop them up.
This should take you to a J-shaped tab top opener. I found mine at a thrift store but I think it still must be sold somewhere.
The slot at the end of the J pulls up the entire tab until it “pops”. Then you move the slot to the smaller ring on the tab and the top peels off. I couldn’t open pop-tops without it.
Mark me down as another person who dislikes pull-tabs. I concede they are useful in their context - people can buy a can of soup to eat at work and not have to worry whether the staff room has an opener - and campsites can sell them to underprepared campers - and for very small cans such as sardines or anchovies, they are at least no worse than the old key-style cans.
In most cases though, it seems that a standard can opener can be used. I think I’ve only come across one example that could not - so that’s what I do - even on square cans - the opener goes around the corner OK. This is me opening a rectangular pull tab can with a standard opener, and this is me opening a round one.
WRT safety, I’d say the opposite is true. With can openers, a lot of times, right as your about to finish with the opener, it will plunge the top of the can into the food stuffs. So whatever bacteria that was on the top of your can, is now in your food. Pull tabs don’t have that issue.
For added fun, a bunch of people every year sever their fingertips by poking their finger down into the can (in exactly the situation you describe) and trying to pull the lid back up - as it comes back up, the gap between the lid and can wall closes to nearly zero, chopping off Peter Pointer.
(I’m afraid this, and your perfectly valid point, still don’t make me like pull tabs)
You know that thin “neck” left at the top of the can left after you pull the tab? It leaves behind a can entrance just large enough for a cat to stick it’s entire head into but just small enough for the cat (or a person holding the cat) to not be able to get its head out again, and you have to end up cutting it off (the can, not the cat’s head) with pruning shears.
Theoretically. Not like it happened here this Monday or anything.
Time to get your cat a bowl. Suppose the edge of the can cuts his little tongue?
Never said I gave him the can.