Althouse: "7 Disgusting Retro Canned Foods That You Won’t Believe Existed."

July 29, 2013

"7 Disgusting Retro Canned Foods That You Won’t Believe Existed."

Beginning with Oscar Mayer’s “Sack O’ Sauce in a Can O’ Meat."

32 comments:

Captain Ned said...: Has no one been to Lileks' Gallery of Regrettable Food?

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html; 7/29/13, 6:47 PM
JHapp said...: Why are these labeled disgusting? Canned foods can be a life saver.; 7/29/13, 6:52 PM
Chase said...: Eww.

All of them are meats of some form.
Likeks has of course had the jump on this for years with his "Gallery of Regrettable Foods". My vote for worst: any Jello mild with meat inside. Especially green jello.; 7/29/13, 8:46 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: What happened to liver? My grandmother gave me a copy of a cookbook put together by residents in her assisted living facility, and liver is heavily featured. I never hear about people eating liver now.; 7/29/13, 9:09 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Liver was considered very nutritious. Note the reference to B vitamins in the ad.

People forced their kids to eat it. It was hated, and Baby Boomers failed to carry on the tradition, perhaps after reading some things about the concentration of... I'm not sure what... but in the liver.; 7/29/13, 9:25 PM
Ann Althouse said...: The baby food looks like the same stuff people have no problem serving the baby from a jar.; 7/29/13, 9:26 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I have to admit that I'm rather impressed with the whole chicken in a can, even if I don't want to eat it.; 7/29/13, 10:22 PM
Moose said...: Disgusting why?; 7/29/13, 10:36 PM
cubanbob said...: It all looks like Spam. I suppose one could mash up the stuff or run it through a blender and fool yourself into thinking you're eating pate. Especially the liver. A good bottle of champaign would really help with that illusion.; 7/29/13, 11:34 PM
chickelit said...: Ann Althouse said...
Liver was considered very nutritious. Note the reference to B vitamins in the ad.

Liver extract and its winnowing down to the discovery of Vitamin B12 has led to at least four Nobel Prizes and possibly will lead to a fifth:

(1934, Medicine): George H. Whipple, George R. Minot, William P. Murphy for their discovery of liver extract as a cure for pernicious anemia, which until then was a fatal disease.

(1964, Chemistry): Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin for solving the molecular structure of B12 using computer-aided X-ray crystallography. Vitamin B12 was the most complex molecular structure solved at the time (1956); it also contained a novel surprise: a cobalt-carbon covalent bond.

(1965, Chemistry): Robert Burns Woodward received his prize for his life’s work, but he died in 1979 while working of the total synthesis of Vitamin B12, inspired by Hodgkin's structure.

(1981, Chemistry) Roald Hoffman co-developed the so-called Woodward-Hoffman rules for predicting and explaining the stereochemistry of chemical reactions. Much of this theoretical work was inspired/developed by problems solved in collaboration with Woodward's B12 synthesis.; 7/29/13, 11:34 PM
chickelit said...: People forced their kids to eat it. It was hated, and Baby Boomers failed to carry on the tradition, perhaps after reading some things about the concentration of... I'm not sure what... but in the liver.

No it's because nowadays you can go to most any drug store and buy vitamin B12, the essential cofactor responsible for the cure for pernicious anemia.

A couple years ago there was a quasi-famous case wending it's way through the courts concerning a Vitamin B12 patentability issue. SCOTUS refused to grant cert and I lost track of it.; 7/29/13, 11:40 PM
chickelit said...: I crave liverwurst once a month or so. I don't take B12 supplements, so maybe my body is telling me something.

We also use liverwurst to give the dog its monthly flea-pill -- wrapped inside a ball of it.; 7/29/13, 11:47 PM
SteveR said...: I would eat any of it in a pinch but its an era that I'm glad to have mostly missed.; 7/30/13, 12:06 AM
gadfly said...: It takes a lot of balls to make (and drink) Wynkoop's Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout.; 7/30/13, 12:17 AM
Anonymous said...: A couple of those sounded tasty.

Re: Liver

When I was a kid we had liver at least once a week. Nasty stuff, even buried in ketchup.; 7/30/13, 12:42 AM
Darrell said...: Althouse dandies! Canned food is great for camping and other times when you can't do fresh. I've had lots of those products (or similar ones) and they hit the spot. Most had their own unique good taste, too, and best of all--they were safe and dependable. If some fucker labeled it in French and charged you $30 for the can, you would have it on automatic order from Amazon.; 7/30/13, 1:44 AM
The Scythian said...: Our ancestors canned meat to keep it from spoiling! And they canned different meats in search of variety! What dopes!

Sometimes I hate the era in which I am forced to live.; 7/30/13, 3:46 AM
Ann Althouse said...: We used to eat Underwood Deviled Ham. We mixed that stuff with a little pickle relish. I'd still eat that on white toast.; 7/30/13, 6:56 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I mean, why do we accept canned tuna? That should be considered more disgusting than canned chicken.; 7/30/13, 6:57 AM
Ann Althouse said...: They used to can lobster, back in the days when it was considered low-class crap.; 7/30/13, 6:58 AM
Sam vfm #111 said...: "People forced their kids to eat it. It was hated, and Baby Boomers failed to carry on the tradition"

Damn right we did.; 7/30/13, 6:59 AM
Meade said...: John Stamstad, who grew up in Madison, WI and is a member of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, was also known to eschew energy bars during 24 hour races in favor of Spam - the canned meat.; 7/30/13, 7:32 AM
Anonymous said...: Spam made me gag. I remember summer camp and a spam sandwich.; 7/30/13, 8:44 AM
raf said...: Compared to c-rations, these don't look bad at all. Except maybe the hot dogs, but then, hot dogs are just inherently disgusting.; 7/30/13, 9:03 AM
cubanbob said...: We used to eat Underwood Deviled Ham. We mixed that stuff with a little pickle relish. I'd still eat that on white toast.

You are right about that! I had forgotten about it. When I was single that was on my menu. On Saltines or water crackers. Great TV food. Since my culinary skills as a single man extended to buying deli meats, spreads, tinned fish and spreads and boiling water for spaghetti with bottled sauce and microwaveable meals....... Thank God I'm Married To The Best Wife In The World! Can I trademark that ?; 7/30/13, 9:49 AM
Meade said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/30/13, 9:51 AM
Meade said...: "Thank God I'm Married To The Best Wife In The World! Can I trademark that ? "

Too late.; 7/30/13, 9:53 AM
Sigivald said...: Whiners.

What's wrong with any of those?

(Do they realize that "spork" is just a SPAM competitor?

Or that you can still buy both canned chickens and canned tamales?

I would totally try the canned ribs, in a heart beat.); 7/30/13, 11:58 AM
Sigivald said...: (Also, I like liver.

Probably because I was never forced to eat it as a child.

Chicken livers fried in bacon fat, as part of this nutritious breakfast?

Yum.); 7/30/13, 12:00 PM
TML said...: "Armour Potted Meat Food Product." That's the actual name and I believe they still make it. Uck.; 7/30/13, 12:22 PM
Portia said...: Spam is apparently a 'hot' item in Hawaii, I've heard that Spam and Eggs are great, as in Tony the Tiger GRRRREAAAAT!

Yay for Spam, the best meat around.; 7/30/13, 2:47 PM
Portia said...: I guess my comment went into the ethersphere, no?; 7/30/13, 2:48 PM