A Harte Appetite: Dinner is in the can

It's the bane of alley cats, de rigueur decoration for newlyweds' cars, and the primary device behind many children's first telephone. But, according to The Wiley Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology, it's also the greatest influence ever on the food habits of the civilized world. It's the tin can, and this year marks its 200th anniversary.

For those of us used to modern conveniences, it's hard to imagine what life was like before the invention of the tin can. Can is short for canister and tin is a misnomer: the typical can is at least 99 percent steel with just a thin layer of tin.

Life without cans was not appetizing. In the winter months, for example, people had no access to seasonal fruits and vegetables. Consumers bought food from bulk containers into which dirt and bacteria could be easily introduced. Soldiers and sailors were forced to subsist on food that was, by today's standards, downright rotten. One ship's account relates how before they would eat salted meat, the crew would place a raw fish on top of it to draw out the maggots.

All of that started to change in 1810 when English inventor Peter Durand was awarded the patent for the first tin can. Just two years later the first commercial canning factory opened in Bermondsey, England.

But it was here in the United States that the tin can really got rolling, thanks to William Underwood -- he of deviled ham fame -- who was the first to introduce the concept to this country. Today we manufacture more than 600 sizes and shapes of cans, and if you took all the tin plate used annually in their production and soldered it into a foot-wide strip, it would circle the earth more than a dozen times.

Clam linguine, a dish good enough for company, begins with canned ingredients. (Tom Harte)

Though the English invented the tin can and the Americans popularized it, the father of canning was actually a Frenchman. He was Nicolas Appert. A skilled cook with experience in brewing, distilling and pickle making, he sought to win the 12,000-franc prize offered by Napoleon for the development of a method for preserving food for his armies. (The Little Corporal, after all, had seen his men starve retreating from Moscow.) Appert received the prize from the emperor himself, but his technique did not involve cans. He used glass containers, initially champagne bottles.

These days canned foods suffer from a reputation for being second rate, but that's unfair. There are lots of canned foods -- like beans, pumpkin and tomatoes -- that are perfectly acceptable for cooking. In the case of tomatoes, canned varieties are actually better than fresh in the off season. According to a recent expose in the Wall Street Journal, canned foods are even relied upon by gourmet chefs at high-end restaurants.

Donna Hay, the Martha Stewart of Australia, says the key is not to depend on canned goods entirely, but to think of them as your basic cooking wardrobe, using them in judicious amounts with fresh ingredients as accessories. If you do that, there's no reason why a recipe that uses tinned foods can't be uncannily delicious.

Clam Linguine

This recipe, adapted from the Mealtime.org website, puts four different canned ingredients to use in a classic pasta dish that's good enough for company.

1 pound linguine

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 chopped garlic cloves

2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes (no salt added)

1/2 cup white wine

1 (2.25-ounce) can sliced black olives, drained

1/2 of a 2-ounce can of flat anchovies, drained, oil reserved

2 (6.5-ounce) cans chopped clams, drained, juices reserved

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 cup thinly sliced green onions

1/3 cup chopped basil

Heat oil over medium heat, add garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, wine, olives, anchovies, reserved clam juice and pepper flakes and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes. Add clams, anchovy oil, onions and basil. Simmer until heated through. Cook and drain pasta and toss with sauce.

Tom Harte's book, "Stirring Words," is available at local bookstores. A Harte Appetite airs Fridays 8:49 a.m. on KRCU, 90.9 FM. Contact Tom at news@semissourian.com or at the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, MO 63702-0699.