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Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 6:56:34 PM

Termyn8or

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The evolution of the can opener seems to paralell development in other areas in some ways. You may ask "What could be the possible signicance ?", or you might question my sanity, which is fine.

The invention of the modern "tin" canning process goes back quite a way. I am not talking about it as it related to mason jars and such, I mean metal cans of food. I eat very little canned food these days, but use it in cooking. It is too hard not to.

The equipment that cans food is large and heavy, but we don't need that. All we need is a device to open the cans when we are ready to use the contents. Thus of course the can opener was invented.

When I was a kid, we rented a house and usually a can opener was supplied. Yes, there it was hanging on the wall. Who knows how old, but the mounting plate had been painted probably a dozen times. It worked. You put the can up there, close the jaws and turn the crank and the can is open.

Then they started making them out of stamped sheet metal. Then later they supposedly improved the design and still blew it, now the jaws and gears wear out.

Things seem to be getting thinner, so much thinner all the time.

Now you lucky dogs with them thar fancy electric can openers, that's all fine and good. I could afford thousands of them, but do you remember the big blackout ?

Yes the lowly non-electric hand cranked can opener. Let's hope you are not reminded of it's importance. How many other things ? A hurricance blows the windows out and the power lines down and you can't board up the windows because your air nailer won't work. Even if you have a gas stove it will not work. You can light the burners if you have a lighter, but no more oven or anything like that.

Conspiracy theorists welcome.

T

Post #: 1

RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 7:02:13 PM

OneMoreWaste

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Hunger + screwdriver + hammer (or big rock)= open can.

I'm more worried about running out of toilet paper.

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 7:08:16 PM

slaveboyforyou

Posts: 3607
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From: Arkansas, U.S.A.
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I love canned food; I use them all the time. I probably eat Cambell's soup 3 times a week minimum. If you haven't bought any lately; you don't need a can opener for them anymore. They have pull tabs. I like the Chunky, non condensed brands they carry. I also eat Wolf brand chili rather regularly. Of course there is canned tuna, salmon, and sardines. Who doesn't eat canned tuna?

I have an electric can opener, and a small hand held one with the key. If all else fails, I have 3 or 4 pocket knives with can openers on them. So no problems in a natural disaster (as far as opening cans) for me.

< Message edited by slaveboyforyou -- 10/9/2008 7:11:16 PM >

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 7:08:51 PM

kittinSol

Posts: 16926
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The only thing I ever get out of cans is coconut milk. And tomato concentrate (for spagbol). I hate my can opener. This is my contribution to this thread. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to... blah, blah, and blah.

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 7:13:24 PM

shyhuzzy

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And for those of us that know how to use the can opener, we probably are wise enough to know the cans without the pull tab cost half the price....

resident tight wade here......

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 7:13:44 PM

MadAxeman

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From: UK
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Not really a conspiracy theory, but...
What use was the can opener before cans?
You cook canned goods, but don't eat them?

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 7:15:30 PM

MadAxeman

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Sorry, that was for Termny8or

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 7:17:54 PM

slaveboyforyou

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From: Arkansas, U.S.A.
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quote:

And for those of us that know how to use the can opener, we probably are wise enough to know the cans without the pull tab cost half the price....

resident tight wade here......

and for those of us that actually go to grocery stores, we know that some brands no longer give you a choice between having or not having the pull tab.....like certain varieties of Campbell's soup.

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 7:21:58 PM

LaTigresse

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I don't use many canned products, tomato sauce and black beans are two of the things I can think of. I've never had an electric can opener. Hell, I can open a can with a heavy paring knife if I have to.

I've got loads of old hand tools around and use them often. Here on the farm, we are used to losing power fairly regularly. We've got loads of candles, a wood burning stove and best of all, a bigass generator. It's not that big of a deal.

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 7:52:11 PM

CruelDesires

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I carry a Leatherman PS2 around with me every day. One would be surprised how much it comes in handy. From opening cans to sawing down small trees .

C-D

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 7:57:57 PM

Termyn8or

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Madax, I guess you could say I eat them, but not prepared. Let's put it this way, I don't eat a can of something, like soup of whatever. It is loaded with sodium, and most likely in bad forms. But if anyone tries to make a pot of chili, very few can avoid opening a can. Even a decent pasta sauce, unless you cook things down for like ten hours you will wind up adding tomato paste. I know, because I haved done without, once.

We grew some really good tomatoes, and I did want to make sauce strictly from them, which were grown in our own dirt that was so back you could plant a muffler and grow a Ford. The stages. As the harvest goes on, you are blanching and freezing. Then you get to the bigger batches, then you strain the seeds out, or grind them up, your choice but it makes for more scum. The final batches are combinations of other batches and then it finally gets thick enough. Then the spices go in and it is quite a few hours more, after the other spices and meat go in. It was a small garden and after reducing, I used about ¾ of the year's crop to make one decent sized pot of sauce.

Another thing I'll use is canned corn. In a decent beef soup, that corn goes well, but you put it in at the end, it is already cooked.

So yes, I don't eat it but I use it.

SB, that Cambell's is chock full of bad sodium. If you like to eat soup, you should make it. You can do alot better, and you can freeze it for later. That means nukable. I got veggie/beef and split pea right now in the freezer. If you make anything with peas or beans, freeze the extra right away, when it sits in the fridge it gets too thick.

Freeze ? Nuke ? This all requires electricity.

Those dern conspiracy theorists just leave you holding the bag sometimes don't they ?

T

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Post #: 11

RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 8:12:29 PM

sub4hire

Posts: 6775
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I don't like the electric ones. I have the old fashioned type.
By the way I've been noticing more cans with flip tops lately.

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 8:30:32 PM

TheHeretic

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From: California, USA
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A nice electric on the counter. A manual in the drawer, and another in the camping gear, and a few of those really annoying p-38, army jobs in the emergency kit. They cost like a quarter, in a surplus store.

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 8:45:41 PM

slaveboyforyou

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From: Arkansas, U.S.A.
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quote:

SB, that Cambell's is chock full of bad sodium. If you like to eat soup, you should make it. You can do alot better, and you can freeze it for later. That means nukable. I got veggie/beef and split pea right now in the freezer. If you make anything with peas or beans, freeze the extra right away, when it sits in the fridge it gets too thick.

I know it is Term. What's worse is I add salt to it most of the time. It's convenient, and I do like soup. I do make homemade soup sometimes. But it's time consuming; even when I use my slow cooker. I'm single, so I don't make huge amounts of anything. I do freeze things, but my freezer space is limited. I also know how to can things; my grandmother taught me. But I won't do it; it's a pain in the ass.

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 8:47:15 PM

DomKen

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From: Chicago, IL
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I just bought a very nice new manual can opener, oxo which I would recommend to anyone shopping for one. I also keep a couple of the old military ones around for emergencies.

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Post #: 15

RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 8:55:19 PM

hizgeorgiapeach

Posts: 1672
Status: offline

I've got 2 manuals in the camp equipment, 1 in the emergency gear that doubles as extra camping equipment, 2 and an electric in the kitchen. None of 'em get used very often, simply because I don't use canned stuff very much in my cooking - the exception being tomato sauce if what I've got in the freezer is running low.

While my electric can opener and microwave aren't all that important to me, and see almost no use, there are Other pieces of equipment in my kitchen that are used Frequently - like a couple of different blenders that are used to make various sauces - and a lil electric chopper/grinder, though it can take batteries as well. (Yep, it goes with me in the camp kitchen as well a lot of the time, since it Does have battery power available rather than having to be plugged in!)

Hmmmmmmm... that reminds me.. need to go out in the garage and go through my camping "kitchen box" to make sure everything is ready to go.... hittin the lake one last time before the weather starts getting ugly...

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 10:10:34 PM

Bethnai

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Joined: 11/8/2007
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Fuck it. I give.

I have a manual opener.

As an aside, I usually make my own soups but I did try to grab a couple of those Cambell Cream of Broccoli soups that you can heat in the microwave at work. It looks like its in a bottle. I discovered that I need to actually see soup before I eat it. I can't seem to sip from a cup with chunks of broccoli in it. It just leaves me continuously questioning what it was. Its just bad wrong.

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Post #: 17

RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/9/2008 10:20:32 PM

AScentofDarkness

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Joined: 8/22/2008
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I think my can opener has an inch of dust on it. I rarely eat anything out of can, and when I do, it usually has a pull tab anymore.

Same with the toaster.

I just don't have the patience.

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/10/2008 3:07:10 AM

Aneirin

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From: Tamaris
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Being single like Slaveboyforyou,I live on canned food, so a can opener is an important item in my kitchen, and yes it is either the can is getting tougher, or the opener is not that good, that is the geared type. I have gone backwards in search of an opener that will perform and last, the old type, where you stab a blade through the tin and manualy crank the blade up and down to open the tin. When I am away from my home, I also always carry a Leatherman, the Juice Xe6, a device sourced because it had one very important item on it, a corkscrew, a pocket knife is useless, if you can't pull a cork. The can opener on it works very well. I had the Leatherman PST 1, but after eighteen years of use, it wore out, well, the more useful parts of it, so I gave it my sister, with her it will get used, but only as a last resort.

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RE: Sign of the times : the lowly can opener - 10/10/2008 3:41:43 AM

pixidustpet

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Joined: 6/4/2008
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quote:

ORIGINAL: MadAxeman

Not really a conspiracy theory, but...
What use was the can opener before cans?
You cook canned goods, but don't eat them?

it wasnt invented till several years after the cans were invented. you were supposed to use a hammer and a cold chisel to break into the cans.

kitten

(in reply to MadAxeman)

Post #: 20

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