Cooking repeatedly from food tins

[MikeLA]

Help needed

I Can’t remember if it’s safe or not to reuse man6 times and cook over an open fire using old food tins/cans. eg soup, bean tins etc.

Something about the inner metal or not being safe ?

 

[Janne]

All modern metal cans are lined with a plastic. They should be fine unless you boil it dry. Most cans are heated up during the canning, and the content is safe, so I think repeated boiling will do you no harm!


You can always burn out the plastic, but then you will expose the metal, which can taint the food if it is acidic. Plus it will rust.

Aluminium cans ( think Coke) are lined too I believe. They will not rust of course if you burn out the plastic, but the can might melt in the process!

 

[MikeLA]

Thank you, thought they were lined just couldn’t remember if it was safe or not

 

[Robson Valley]

All too easy to get that very thin metal very hot and melt off the plastic coating to mix into the food.
Not in my camp, no matter what the heat source happens to be.
I just have no appetite for the coating to season my food.
I have thick metal junk pots that spread out the heat load.

I don't approve of burning the tins in the fire either.
The logic is to burn off the coatings so the iron can will rust away more quickly.

Most soils are deficient in sulfur, one of the 6 most important plant nutrients. ( C, H, O, N, P, S).
That, of course, eventually feeds the herbivores.
The rusting iron can sucks sulfur out of the environment, making insoluble iron sulfides.
So if things weren't bad enough, now they are even worse.

You packed it in, you pack it out.

 

[Janne]

I see no real benefit of using a food can several times.
You need to remove the sharp edge, create a handle or hanging arrangement.

A lot of work, very little gain.
Trangia make excellent cooking pots. All from responsibly sourced, Organic, Free Range Aluminum.

One thought: the tins with an attached lid top and bottom, if you burn off the plastic, will that not create an unhygienic void between the wall tin and bottom tin roundel?

In my teens, I used to have tinned food with me when weekend fishing.
In those days they were ‘tinned’ inside.

I did not put them in the fire, but under a rock. Squashed flat.
Happy, carefree days!

 

[MikeLA]

More thinking of cooking food out of the tin, if I didn’t not have a pot ! Or re-using it to boil water if ever needed. Not that I would use it that way “ But asking if possible and safe to do so.

 

[Janne]

Yes, safe if used on gentle heat.

If some of the plastic should come off, it will not harm you.
Use wood to stir it.

 

[Woody girl]

Most cans now have an acrylic and polyester lining nowadays as bpa was found in the plastic lined can foods as it leached into the food during storage. Acidic foods such as tomatoes have the new lining. The lining is needed to stop the cans reacting with the food causing illnesses and poisoning. Glass jars are a better bet for everyday foods such as veg and beans. Not easy to find
In Germany I often found baked beans and peas and carrots in jars rather than tins. Wish it was more common in uk.
I would not cook using a food can. You will be ingesting a certain amount of plastic unless you burn it off before using. I still wouldn't trust I'd got rid of it all after burning anyway.
Just take a pot mate.
Few facts...... bpa has gender bending effects.
Plastics ingested can cause cancer.
A stainless steel pot is 100% safer.

 

[Janne]

Useful knowledge in an emergency though.

Important how to use a fire though. Most people cook on ‘ large flames’ thinking it is the correct way. Uncontrolled heat. Can burn Aluminium.
Use the edge of the fire. Preferably hanging low over coals. Keeps the outside of the pot clean.

 

[Hammock_man]

Cook in a tin over an open fire ??
Came out without any gear.... bought a tin of grub from a shop that is near houses not woods..... walked into wood, just on a whim, and gathered firewood.... using some method that requires no gear at all, started a cooking fire. Cooked said tin of grub! Why ???
Surely it does not take much pre-planning to start out with the minimum of kit.
Most tinned food is cooked in the tin its sold in, so I can not see warming that food in the tin, sat in water, being an issue. Heating the food in its opened tin sat in water does not require a huge amount of kit. Don't get the idea behind heating food in the tin over an open fire where the plastic melts and part of the food burns.

 

[Janne]

The best way is to rake out some warm coals and place the tin on top, and heat it to eat temperature. Warm, not red hot.
Or place tin on ground and rake warm coals around it a cm or two.
Think Dutch Oven principle)
(Food was seldom cooked over big flames in the past, contrary to what many think.
The coals or indirect heat ( flames rising behind the cooking vessel) were used.
Reason - exposed food gets easily burnt and sooty, and cooks superfast on the surface but not in the middle.
Cooking vessel gets incredibly sooty on outside and you burn the food on the inside)

If you open the lid but leave about 1.5 to 2 cm attached, after bending the lid away you can then ‘double’ it by bending half of it back towards the tin. Gives you a semi decent handle.

You need a certain level of manual dexterity, slipping might mean stitching.....

 

[tiger stacker]

If boiling water with tinned food inside a pan, a dented tin will pop back to normal when food is ready….amazing what the army teaches you…..they also teach you to buy macaroni cheese to vary irish stew and other curried meats...

 

[Janne]

Yes , the pressure built up inside will do that. I guess you have to wait a bit before you open it?

I personally always opened the tin before warming.

Heating a can in a bain marie is a bit waste of energy if you use an alcohol or gas burner. Unless you are ok with the taste of the glue they stick the label on with.

In my unit we had freeze dried food 99% of the time, only tinned food was liver pate. Wintertime we had to warm it up, but as all Swedish army tins were green painted we did it in the coffee water.