Have you ever wanted to try the classic British dish spotted dick, but you just couldn't get
over the name?
How about canned bread?
Keep watching for more surprisingly delicious canned foods that you need to try.
If you thought that canned bread was only invented for a throwaway gag in an episode
of SpongeBob SquarePants, get ready to have your mind blown.
Not only is this a real item that's been around for ages, it also tastes great.
B&M is a New England-based canning company that's famous for its baked beans, and back
in the 1920s, they also started canning Boston brown bread.
Like baked beans, brown bread has a strong molasses flavor, and it also contains whole
wheat flour, cornmeal, salt, leavening, and sometimes raisins.
People have reportedly been making this type of bread in New England since the 17th century,
although the canned variety is a more recent innovation.
Boston brown bread is uniquely suited to canning because unlike most bread, it's traditionally
steamed inside a metal container.
The result is very sweet and moist, and it's frequently served with another sugary New
England specialty in the form of baked beans, making for a dinner that's pretty close to
dessert.
It's also delicious when toasted and buttered for breakfast.
Yes, we know that spotted dick is a hilarious name for food.
But as it turns out, it doesn't mean what the most childish version of you thinks it
does.
"Spotted dick."
"[scoffs] Can you believe this guy?
I'm trying to get something to eat, he's asking me if I got the clap."
The "spotted" part describes how this dessert is speckled with dry currants, and "dick"
comes from the Old English term "puddick", which refers to pudding.
If you're from the United States, you might be thinking that spotted dick doesn't look
like the goop you find in little plastic cups in grocery stores.
That's because in British English, "pudding" either means any kind of dessert or a dish
that's steamed or boiled inside a container.
Spotted dick actually fits both of these definitions, as it's a steamed dessert.
In its recipe for spotted dick, BBC Good Food calls for the traditional ingredient of suet,
aka raw beef fat.
If you don't feel like trying to source suet and currants to make spotted dick from scratch,
Heinz has you covered with its canned version.
Simply microwave it or boil it inside the can, whip up some custard to serve over top,
and you're all set!
"Cod liver" may not sound super appealing to all palates, but it's actually a luxurious
snack that deserves to find its way onto more appetizer spreads.
It's often produced in Northern Europe, and you can easily order an Icelandic non-smoked
variety on Amazon.
If you've never tried cod liver before, think of it as the pâté of the sea.
Pâté made from geese or duck fatty livers is widely considered gourmet, so why not give
cod liver a try?
It's incredibly rich and creamy with a mildly briny flavor from the sea, and it's soft enough
that you can easily spread it on crackers or bread.
And it's also super good for you.
According to WebMD, cod liver oil is high in vitamin D, vitamin A, and healthy omega-3
fatty acids.
Northern Europeans have historically relied on fish oil for the vitamin D that they need
for the region's long, dark winters.
"He grew up in a land without sun!"
Unlike many of the foods on this list, canned deviled ham spread is pretty easy to find
at most grocery stores, though its appeal is still niche enough that plenty of people
have never had it before.
It's a canned version of a classic spread that you can make at home if you're in the
mood.
As for the devil in the name, that term reportedly originated in the 18th century and refers
to seasoning foods heavily with pepper or mustard.
Underwood deviled ham consists of finely minced ham mixed with seasonings.
Although canned meats have a bad reputation as mystery foods laden with chemicals, the
ingredient list of Underwood's product is reassuringly small.
It contains just two basic components: brown sugar-cured ham and a seasoning blend made
of mustard, turmeric, and other spices.
Deviled ham spread is rich, salty, and a little spicy, perfect for making party hors d'oeuvres.
"For good meat and good flavor, try the whole ham spread."
When you think of canned cheese, you probably imagine something that's spreadable or sprayable
like Kraft Cheez Whiz or Easy Cheese.
While these items serve their purpose, the bright orange cheese product in those cans
could hardly be considered gourmet.
But there is one manufacturer producing cheese in a can that you could happily serve at a
fancy party: the Washington State University Creamery.
Cougar Cheese is a product of 20th-century food science innovation.
Traditional natural cheese does not can well, as the bacteria that turns milk into cheese
produces carbon dioxide gas as a byproduct of the fermentation process.
Fermentation continues even after the cheese is canned, which can cause the cans to bulge
or even pop.
Washington State University figured out that by adding a newly-invented bacterial strain,
they could prevent the lactic acid bacteria used in cheesemaking from producing too much
carbon dioxide.
Although Cougar Cheese was invented as a way of extending cheese's shelf life, today it's
mostly enjoyed for its special flavor.
The original product, Cougar Gold, has a very sharp cheddar taste like what you would expect
from a high-quality aged cheese.
In addition to Gold, you can now find seven other flavors of Cougar Cheese on the WSU
Creamery website.
"Every flavor has its fans."
Although haggis might seem mysterious to most American consumers, it's an integral part
of the culinary tradition of its home country of Scotland.
It's made from sheep offal mixed with oats and boiled inside a sheep's stomach, and it's
essential for celebrating the Scottish holiday of Burns Night.
Sadly for American haggis enthusiasts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
banned the importation of traditional Scottish haggis in 1971.
American food authorities' beef with haggis stems from the use of sheep lungs in the original
recipe.
The U.S.D.A.
doesn't allow livestock lungs to be served to humans, as the agency considers them a
food-safety risk.
The good news for Americans hoping to celebrate Burns Night is that some companies make haggis
in accordance with U.S.D.A.
guidelines.
Caledonian Kitchen, for example, makes both large haggises cooked the traditional way
as well as smaller canned versions if you don't need to feed a crowd.
This haggis might be a good one to try if you're squeamish about the abundance of different
organs in the traditional recipe, as it's made from a blend of beef or lamb meat with
a little bit of liver.
Lurking next to the tuna and sardines in your grocery store's shelf-stable fish selection
is another type of canned seafood that might not be quite as popular.
We're talking about smoked oysters.
If the idea of smoky mollusks in a can turns you off, you're missing out on a delicious,
flavorful snack opportunity.
Oysters are an undeniably divisive food, but the smoked version might just be able to convert
some haters to the other side.
One aspect about raw oysters that repels many people is their gummy and gelatinous texture.
Since canned smoked oysters are cooked, they're significantly firmer than raw oysters, with
a texture similar to cooked clams or mussels.
Their powerful smoky flavor also covers up some of the briny, fishy taste that some eaters
may find objectionable.
Plus, they're also pretty healthy, as they're high in vitamin B12, protein, omega-3 fatty
acids, and minerals.
Not bad for something you can eat straight out of a can.
Now we're getting luxurious.
Truffles have a reputation as the bougiest of ingredients, and with good reason.
Depending on the variety, fresh truffles range from several hundred to several thousand dollars
per pound.
Despite the high expense, plenty of gourmands believe that these fancy fungi are worth it,
since their irreplicable earthy aroma elevates any dish.
The smell even reportedly affects us at a primal level as it's similar to the scent
of reproductive pheromones.
How romantic!
"First you gotta do The Truffle Shuffle."
"Come on!"
"Do it."
"Come on!"
"Do it!"
If you want to get a taste of this indulgent ingredient but can't afford to blow an entire
paycheck on highfalutin mushrooms, canned truffles are the answer.
You can snag a small can of black truffles for as low as about 10 bucks.
In addition to the reasonable price, canned truffles have the extra advantage of a long
shelf life, which lets you enjoy them even when they're not in season.
However, there is a downside, as preserved truffles don't have quite the same intensity,
odor, or taste as fresh ones.
Nevertheless, with such a steep price difference between the canned and fresh varieties, it's
hard to argue against the cans, unless money means nothing to you.
On the opposite end of the fancy food spectrum are boiled peanuts, though they are on the
same high end of the deliciousness spectrum.
If you live outside of the Southeastern United States, you may have never tried this regional
delicacy, which is made by boiling green fresh peanuts in their shells.
Boiled peanuts are sold all over the South during the growing season when fresh peanuts
are readily available.
Elsewhere in the country, peanuts are typically dried and roasted.
But when they're boiled, they taste much more like beans.
This makes sense since they are both in the legume family rather than being actual nuts.
Fresh boiled peanuts can go bad very quickly, so they haven't historically been widely accessible
outside of the peanut-growing regions of the country.
Fortunately, now you can buy canned boiled peanuts from Peanut Patch, no matter where
you live.
Available in several different flavors, they're sure to satisfy homesick Southerners and tickle
the curiosity of adventurous eaters everywhere.
Home-cooked tamales are undoubtedly a labor of love.
In many families with Mexican heritage, Christmas means gathering everyone together for a traditional
communal tamale-making party.
Dividing the work between a crowd helps the labor-intensive process of making homemade
tamales go at least a little bit more quickly.
This process usually involves slow-cooking meat, making masa, wrapping the tamales in
corn husks, and steaming them.
But what if you don't want to host your entire family to make tamales?
That's when you call canned tamales into action.
While we certainly can't claim that they hold a candle to the homemade version, they're
still pretty tasty in their own way.
They come packed vertically in a can, wrapped individually in waxed paper, and smothered
in chili sauce.
You simply dump the can into a pan, unwrap the tamales, heat them up, and they're ready
to eat!
If you feel like putting in slightly more effort, Hormel suggests throwing another canned
food into the mix to make a simple casserole.
All you need to do is pour canned chili into a baking dish, nestle in the unwrapped tamales,
top with cheese, as well as chopped onions if you're feeling ambitious, and then bake.
It might not be something you'd show off for company, but it's still satisfying comfort
food nonetheless.
We mostly think of rattlesnakes as dangerous creatures, but humans are much more dangerous
to them than they are to us.
These reptiles aren't putting smoked human meat into cans to eat, after all.
With that in mind, rattlesnake meat is absolutely worth trying if you're an adventurous eater.
It has a mild gamey flavor that can be similar to chicken.
If you'd like to try cooking this deadly creature at home, MeatManiac.com suggests using the
canned version to make soup or gravy.
While rattlesnake's flavor is nothing to be scared of, eating snake does present certain
practical difficulties.
If you've ever seen a snake skeleton in a natural history museum, you know that these
critters have a ton of small bones.
Canned rattlesnake meat comes packed with all those tiny bones, so you'll have to spend
a long time picking them out of the meat before cooking.
That is, unless you're fine with fishing them out of your mouth after every bite.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Mashed videos about weird foods are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.