NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

April 8, 1999

Prairie Fare: Convenience in a Can

Y2K. This number-jumbled acronym-like symbol for the year 2000 has become synonymous with the potential chaos computers may ring in this coming new year's day. But I am not sounding a alarm here -- only a dinner bell.

Electronic life as we know it needn't threaten to end before we begin making -- and enjoying -- meals from canned food. When I was a college sophomore living in an apartment with two friends, one of our favorite meals came out of cans -- and canning jars.

The meal was meatballs and gravy. The meatballs were the homemade ones Mom had put up, and the gravy consisted of a couple of cans of water-thinned cream of mushroom soup with a package of dry onion soup mix thrown in. Whether on instant mashed potatoes or elbow macaroni, the meatballs and gravy disappeared.

My two roommates always did the dishes because I did the cooking, and they never had to put away -- any -- leftovers on meatballs-and-gravy night. Can there be a better arrangement?

Fruit salads also offer possibilities when your ingredient options are sitting on a shelf. For example, try combining sliced cling peaches and chunk pineapple with apple pie filling in a saucepan and then heat the mixture. When warm, toss in some of those toasted coconut marshmallows and continue heating until the marshmallows become soft and gooey. Or, stuff some pear halves with raisin pie filling and chopped pecans for a quick desert.

Appetizers from a can, or jar, anyone? How about some of those little Vienna sausages and sauerkraut on your favorite crackers? How about dried beef slices wrapped around thumb-sized kosher dills? How about Italian tuna salad on bagel bites? Combine tuna, chopped black olives, olive oil, and bottled lemon juice or white vinegar. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, garlic powder, crushed red pepper and crushed fennel seed.

For a quick snack ala shelf space, how about making poor man's petits fours? Spread peanut butter on chocolate-flavored miniature rice cakes. I suppose a favorite snack of mine from childhood could be called Cookies Neapolitan -- sandwich strawberry jam between two crunchy cookies, a chocolate chip and one that's vanilla flavored.

When it comes to cooking with canned food, your options are really limited only by they number of shelves in your pantry. The following recipe is just one quick and easy example of canned cuisine.

Canned Tex-Mex
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients:
2 15-ounce cans chili with beans
1 tablespoon dehydrated chopped onion
1 4-ounce can diced green chilies
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 15.5-ounce can yellow hominy, drained
1 4.5-ounce can chopped ripe olives
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Procedure:
In a large skillet, stir in chili, onion, chilies, chili powder, hominy and olives and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Add cheese, stirring to melt, and pour mixture into a 11 x 7 x 1½-inch baking pan that's been sprayed with vegetable oil. Bake at 400 F for 15 to 20 minutes.

What's Your Take on This, Julie?

Canned foods are probably the greatest innovation in the history of food preservation. During the Napoleonic wars when armies were starving, the French government offered a prize for a method to preserve food. Nicholas Appert won the prize by sealing foods such as meat, fruits, and vegetables in wide-mouth glass bottles and then heating the bottles in boiling water. Appert didn't know he was killing bacteria.

In fact it wasn't until 1860 that Louis Pasteur proved bacteria are associated with food spoilage and fermentation. In 1895, H.L. Russell devised specific time and temperature guidelines for processing food to destroy bacteria. Since then, numerous studies have led to the current USDA guidelines for home canning.

Foods hermetically sealed in jars and put in a boiling water bath can be dangerous if recommended time and temperature guidelines aren't followed closely. Some foods -- particularly low-acid foods such as green peas, beans, corn, meat, and most mixtures -- must be pressure canned to kill the spores that have the potential for producing the deadly botulism toxin. Untreated, botulism can lead to nausea, double vision, paralysis -- even death.

North Dakota has a place in the history of botulism outbreaks: 12 people, including five from a single family, died in Grafton in 1931 after eating a salad prepared with home-canned green peas. This tragedy underscores that produce must be properly put up. Current recommendations are available from all NDSU Extension Service offices.

Now that I've frightened some readers, remember that commercially canned foods, like those used in this week's recipe, are quite safe due to constant monitoring at the processing facility. Even dented cans, as long as the dent does not affect the seal, are safe to use. But don't eat food from cans that are leaking or bulging.

Canned Tex Mex is fairly nutritious and can be on the table in short order. A serving (one-eighth of the recipe) contains about 285 calories and 15 grams of fat, plus about 18 percent of the recommended calcium, 23 percent of the recommended vitamin A and 10 percent of the recommended vitamin C. Try using a lower-fat cheese, or less cheese, to reduce the fat content.

Some people look at canned food items with disdain since they're technically not fresh -- and fresh is the trend, at least from a food-marketing standpoint. But remember this: a half-cup of frozen, fresh OR canned fruits or vegetables counts -- the same -- toward the recommended five servings a day.

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Sources: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136 and Julie Garden-Robinson (701) 231-7187

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