I store my baked bean and raviolli etc tins upside down. Although it goes against my pedantic nature, it means that when I open the tin (the right way up), the beans (or whatever) just schloop out easily. The cheap, watery beans I buy make this easier.
With something a little bit gloopier, however, (such as macaroni cheese) I have to resort to wiggling around a knife to get everything started. This is because no air can get to the top (or is it bottom?) of the tin to replace the outfalling macaroni. Having to do so irritates me for no particularly good reason.
If I could, I would force macaroni tinners to design a tin which had a built on metal tube inside, built along one side of the tin. It would be partially open at the bottom, and completely at the top, but would NOT be filled with the macaroni - hopefully the sauce would be gloopy enough not to be a big problem either. This would allow a conduit for the air, so that my macaroni could schloop easily. I would hope, of course, that macaroni manufacturers would increase the diameter of the tins slightly to offset the empty volume, but if not, perhaps it can recover some of the additional tin-making costs.-- yamahito, Oct 09 2002 Canless tins http://www.starkist.com/pouch/pouch.html [DrCurry, Oct 09 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004] Canned lettuce http://importfood.com/rtpc4801.html [waugsqueke, Oct 09 2002] Beer can widgets http://www.howstuff...com/question446.htm [hippo, Oct 10 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004] Uhhmmm, you know I respect you, and all, but "Kraft Deluxe", has seperated the croni from the cheez for years. Did I miss something? Even comes in micro-waveable bags, from freezer to zapper to mouth.
I realize it's not "Chef Boyardee", but for about two cents more, you can heat it under warm tap water, or use the steam iron, as my daughter so told me her freshman year.-- blissmiss, Oct 09 2002 I'm not talking about Kraft "add water" macaroni cheese things, nor even about Mac'n'cheese per se, I'm talking about the cans themselves, particularly ones with gloopy contents.-- yamahito, Oct 09 2002 All food should be stored in caulk-like tubes and dispensed using caulking guns. That way, you can dispense it easily onto your food and always get that last bit of jelly, peanut butter, mayo, etc. out of the container.-- BinaryCookies, Oct 09 2002 Yah!
With the old style tomato sauce cans with the rim at both ends, I take off the top, flip it over, and poke a hole in the bottom. If I'm in a hurry and cooking for myself (or if no one is watching), I may blow in the hole to hustle things along. I've often wished the canners would pay attention to un-filling the cans.-- lurch, Oct 09 2002 Tin cans are so 19th century - the modern packaging method is the metallic pouch. Simply tear open and pour out. (See link.)-- DrCurry, Oct 09 2002 Yes, but those pouches are hard to stack in the pantry and if you keep the box they came in it takes up a lot more shelf space. I like cans and think that canned lettuce is especially good.-- bristolz, Oct 09 2002 Just stab the opposite end of the can with any sharp utensil to let air in.-- Gulherme, Oct 09 2002 Open both ends of the can.-- waugsqueke, Oct 09 2002 Make a tin out of a material that will sublimate at about 90 degrees C. Just sling this into your pan and apply heat!-- dare99, Oct 09 2002 waugs, gulherme, neither method saves me time and effort. I don't want either of those things, I want a tin that I open, and the stuff comes straight out.-- yamahito, Oct 09 2002 Use a thin rigid tube attached to a source of compressed air--perhaps even one of those squeeze foot pump thingies--and plunge it into the goo and blow it out.-- bristolz, Oct 09 2002 Or plunge in a flexible, accordian straw for blowing into the inverted can.-- FarmerJohn, Oct 09 2002 funny... at the recent Halfbakery Convention in London, I *thought* someone had been eating cheap beans...-- hippo, Oct 09 2002 What is needed is a piston in the can.
At the base of the can is a piston with a seal around it's circumference. It could be metal or plastic.
To extract the contents of the can, first remove the lid. Invert the can over the desired container. Then, use one of the following methods.
(i) Push a skewer-like tool through the preformed dimple in the centre of the base, pushing on the piston and expelling the contents. The skewer is ridged so that air can pass into the void created by the downward movement of the piston.
(ii) Activate the tiny CO2 cartidge in the base of the can, which forces the piston down by gas pressure.
(iii) light the fuse on the base, which starts a small pyrotechnic gas generator which likewise pushes down on the piston.
(iv) attach a compressed air line or bycicle pump to the valve on the base of the can. Procedure as abaove.
Or you could make a can-emptying centrifuge.-- 8th of 7, Oct 09 2002 bris, 8th (i)/(iv): the whole point is not to use another implement, just the can and the can opener.
8th(ii): I like; but how is it operated? Push button? could be a problem when I drop my shopping...
8th(iii): Heheheheh...-- yamahito, Oct 09 2002 DrCurry, I buy my catfood in pouches and find I am usually left with a smear of food on the edge where the tear off bit stays attached. I can guarantee that this will not conveniently wipe off on the edge of the bowl without ending up on my fingers, and if I leave it then it will detach itself en route to the bin and end up on the floor.
How about using one of those widget things you get in cans of beer? When you open the can, the drop in internal pressure pops the widget which aerates the contents reducing the gloopiness enough to allow the contents to flow freely. At the moment my favoured method is to open the can a minute or so before I need it and leave it upside down in a dish. Most foodstuffs exhibit dilatant behaviour, so the shear action of gravity will free up the contents*. Unfortunately this doesn't work for catfood.
*Oh, sorry, you already said that.-- egbert, Oct 09 2002 Oh shit, it's gonna happen eventually anyway, let's just insist all food be pureed before packaging, and we can just pour and drink all our food.-- blissmiss, Oct 09 2002 egbert: My cat's food comes in single serving plastic cans with peelable lids, and the food plops out instantly under the effect of gravity. The aspic (smelly liquid stuff) still gets on my hands, though. So propose a catfood squeezy bottle dispenser.-- DrCurry, Oct 09 2002 Combine the non-hydralic wood splitter idea with the false bottom can idea and get a can the fires the contents into a bowl when struck on the bottom.-- phoenix, Oct 09 2002 Put a pulltab on the bottom of the can to let air in.-- bristolz, Oct 09 2002 // Put a pulltab on the bottom of the can to let air in //
Like a beercan ringpull, but on the base ? Yes - simple, effective, uses existing technology .......-- 8th of 7, Oct 09 2002 Yes, best idea yet, and so obvious. Many of the tins I buy have ring pulls that pull the entire top off (and take a slice out of your finger if you're not careful, but that's another story). Just do this at either end of the tin, and emboss "open other end" on both lids. Hours of endless amusement.-- egbert, Oct 10 2002 er,... [egbert]: please help me out, here. In your previous post you were mentioning widgets in beer cans... well, ya' see, I don't drink beer and don't know much about the stuff. I always thought they just had Clydesdales pee in a cup or something. Is it really so "gloopy" that it has to be areated to come out of the can?-- lurch, Oct 10 2002 [lurch] See link.-- hippo, Oct 10 2002 // they just had Clydesdales pee in a cup or something //
That's for "premium" lager. The cheap stuff isn't quite so nice.-- 8th of 7, Oct 10 2002 Thanks for the link, hippo, I must admit I didn’t fully appreciate how a widget works. So now I can propose what I thought was happening as a new idea, thus disguising my ignorance as genius.
Include within the can of gloopy foodstuff a widget similar to those found in canned bitter and stout. This widget will be pressurised slightly above atmospheric and have a weakness engineered into it. The can of foodstuff will also be slightly pressurised, so that when the can is opened, the widget ruptures and aerates the contents sufficiently to allow free pouring. Behold, instant schloop.
I still prefer bristolz (bristolz’s? bristol’z?) idea.-- egbert, Oct 10 2002 I just reread this and all the schooping and glooping made me laugh! +-- phundug, Nov 13 2003 The title alone got a bun from me. The idea is great too. I think dare99's suggestion is pretty nifty also.-- dbmag9, Aug 17 2006 Canned lettuce?-- bungston, Apr 08 2007 random, halfbakery