From the post-war home to the modern kitchen, canned food has been a staple of the American diet for decades. Here we delve into the cupboards and pantries of decades gone by to bring you some of the most nostalgic cans from your childhood. Get ready to take a bite out of yesteryear.
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1940s: Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli
While canned food has its roots in the Napoleonic wars (1803–1815) and appeared in American stores as early as the 1800s, it became a true staple of America’s diet in the 1940s. Brands such as Chef Boyardee (then Chef Boy-ar-dee) helped the Second World War effort by producing field rations. Chef Boyardee factories operated 24 hours a day during this time – their signature dish was beef ravioli in sauce which was described as being as “truly Italian as the Tower of Pisa”.
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1940s: Campbell’s Vegetable-Beef Soup
Another brand that thrived during and immediately after the war years was Campbell Soup Company, better known as Campbell’s. It too provided army rations, while housewives back home swore by the brand’s condensed soup range for quick and easy family dinners. A favorite pick was the hearty Vegetable-Beef Soup (alongside Tomato and plain Vegetable).
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1940s: Dinty Moore Beef Stew
In the 1940s, another canned legend burst onto the scene: Dinty Moore’s Beef Stew. This cockle-warming concoction of beef chunks, diced potatoes, carrots and gravy helped feed American troops during the Second World War and also served as a “whole wonderful meal quick” for families at home.
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1940s: Hormel Ham
Hormel Foods (then George A. Hormel & Company) is credited as the first ever company to put ham in a can, in 1926. This canned ham was also used to feed the nation’s troops. In fact, in the 1940s, millions of cans of meat per week were shipped overseas by Hormel for the US military. Back home, the ham could be bought in a range of sizes from “a banquet deluxe” whole ham to a 3oz (85g) tin perfect for “the lunchbox parade”.
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1940s: Hormel Chili
There were plenty more feathers in Hormel’s cap. Other 1940s favorites included Hormel Chili, dubbed a great option for lunch or Sunday supper. Hormel had such faith in the taste of its chili that the company offered a “double your money back” guarantee. The brand was also a purveyor of canned chicken and the legendary Spam meat (more on that later…).
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1940s: Niblets Brand Whole Kernel Corn
It wasn’t just meat that made its way into a can. Brands such as Niblets thrived in an era when having some vegetables available year-round was still a novelty and when convenience was king. Hawked with the line “the only thing missing is the cob”, this canned veg product promised an “old-time eating thrill” coupled with ease and speed.
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1940s: Del Monte Fruit Cocktail
Another 1940s hero was the Del Monte Fruit Cocktail, a sweet offering of pineapple, cherries, peaches, pears and grapes in a can. Eaten as a quick snack or whipped into a fruit dessert, the cocktail became a pillar of the American pantry during this decade. Del Monte even came up with weird and wonderful recipes for its popular cocktail from a Party Fruit Basket (advert pictured) to a Buffet Party Loaf with luncheon meat (yes, really).
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1940s: Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
What better way to finish off a fruit cocktail than with a glug of sweetened condensed milk – Eagle Brand to be exact. While the product dates right back to 1856, feeding troops during the Civil War, it gained in popularity through the 1940s. It was given to soldiers in both the First and Second World Wars, and served as a sweet and satiating snack for those back at home.
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1950s: Spam
By the 1950s, the Second World War was over but the canned food revolution had life in it yet. Many soldiers who returned from war had developed something of a penchant for hearty canned meats and warming canned broths and, with more women working than ever before, it was imperative that family meals were quick and simple. It was in this decade that Spam, an essential war food, sold its one billionth can.
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1950s: Prem
While Spam was the canned meat heavyweight in the 1950s, it wasn’t without some competition. Prem was another brand of canned pork and beef luncheon meat that was shipped to soldiers during the Second World War, and remained popular in the decades afterwards. Here it’s served pan-browned with jelly sauce and creamed potatoes.
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1950s: Armour Star Corned Beef Hash
Lunchmeat aside, entire meals were still being canned across the States, ready to be heated up for a quick supper. Armour Star remained a front-runner through the 1950s, with its comforting Corned Beef Hash (a satisfying mix of corned beef and potatoes) a quick-dinner winner in this decade and beyond.
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1950s: Van Camp’s Pork and Beans
Beans were another essential in the post-war pantry and Van Camp professed themselves “the largest selling beans in all the world” in the 1950s. The brand’s perennially popular Pork and Beans were made with Van Camp’s Vienna sausage and served as a simple heat-and-go meal in busy households.
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1950s: Van Camp’s Chili Con Carne With Beans
While Pork and Beans was (and is) Van Camp’s signature product, the brand was no one-trick pony. Its meaty Chili Con Carne (pictured) was also a favorite during the post-war decades. Canned tamales sated America’s early appetite for Mexican-style food too.
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1950s: Chef Boyardee Grated Cheese
There was almost no limit on what companies would put into cans during the 1950s – leading brand Chef Boyardee even sold canned grated cheese, marketing it as the perfect accompaniment to its quick spaghetti dinner. It was also ideal for sprinkling on top of Boyardee’s canned ravioli which maintained popularity during this decade too.
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1950s: Veg-All Mixed Vegetables
The craze for canned veg continued with Veg-All’s Mixed Vegetables – a medley of carrots, potatoes, green beans, peas and more – leading the way. Also, more than ever before, canned food companies were sharing recipe tips, suggestions and even entire cookbooks as a marketing tool for their products. Here Veg-All suggests a Pie Plate Salad and a curious-looking tuna casserole.
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1950s: Oscar Mayer Wieners
Oscar Mayner was another brand that cooked up creative ways for consumers to enjoy its canned products. In the CookOut Fun cookbook, published in 1959, the brand professed that “fun-cooking never stops when you have Oscar Mayer meats”. It suggested grilling its popular sausages over a fireplace in the event that bad weather ruins a planned cookout.
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1950s: V-8 Vegetable Juices
V-8 Vegetable Juices was another nutrient-packed canned food that gained traction in the post-war era. Mothers concerned with their kids’ vegetable intake would swear by this Good Housekeeping-recommended drink, which was to be served for “lunch, dinner and in-between meals”. The veggie cocktail, still on shelves today, included celery, parsley, spinach, beets, lettuce, carrots, tomato and watercress.
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1960s: Campbell’s Oyster Stew Soup
Come the 1960s, America’s love affair with canned food showed no sign of abating. In the 1960s, pop art artist Andy Warhol memorialized the Campbell’s can in an iconic series of paintings that remain famous to this day. Innovative flavors such as Oyster Stew became popular alongside Campbell’s classics like Tomato and Vegetable.
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1960s: Campbell’s SpaghettiOs
This was also the decade that SpaghettiOs (known as spaghetti hoops across the pond) were invented. They were marketed (by the Campbell’s-owned Franco-American brand) as “the neat new spaghetti you can eat with a spoon”, and they were a quick hit with convenience-loving 1960s Americans. You could buy them with tomato and cheese sauce, with meatballs or little sliced franks.
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1960s: Campbell’s Alphabet Soup
The novel pasta shapes didn’t stop at hoops. While Campbell’s had sold a vegetable broth with pasta letters since 1915, it officially branded the soup The Alphabet Soup in the 1960s – a name it had already been given by families across America. Its popularity continued to soar in this decade and beyond with other brands following suit and selling their own versions.
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1960s: Chef Boyardee’s Beefaroni
A food guaranteed to feed your nostalgia is Chef Boyardee’s Beefaroni. While this comforting dish of beef and macaroni in rich tomato sauce had been on the canned circuit for a while, a hit TV ad in this decade cemented it in America’s food psyche. The charming black-and-white ad saw hordes of children running through the streets singing the virtues of Beefaroni, before tucking into bowls of the stuff at long alfresco benches.
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1960s: B&M Brown Bread
From beef and macaroni to brown bread in a can – this is one for anyone in New England. While canned bread may seem an odd concept to many across the country, B&M’s offering has been a favorite with New Englanders for decades. And several company ownership changes through the 1960s did little to dent its enduring popularity. You can buy the bread plain or with raisins, and New Englanders pair it with beans and ham or franks for a hearty breakfast or satisfying supper.
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1960s: Franco-American Gravy
The 1960s also saw many brands build on their established offerings, bringing out new canned foods and flavors with twists on already well-loved classics. One example was Franco-American’s new gravies. While its beef gravy was already a perennial favorite, it wasn’t long before 1960s Americans were topping their fried chicken with Golden Chicken Gravy or swamping meatloaf in a savory Brown Mushroom Gravy.
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1960s: StarKist Tuna
Many fun, foodie mascots launched in the 1960s and Starkist’s slick Charlie the Tuna was one of them. Ads throughout the decade showed Charlie the Tuna’s quest to become a StarKist Tuna, only to be knocked back time and time again. “Sorry Charlie” became the brand’s enduring catchphrase and, naturally, StarKist cans flew off the shelves.
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1960s: Chun King Chow Mein
By the 1960s, Americans had developed a taste for canned Chinese-style food and the now-defunct Chun King, founded in the 1940s, was the market leader. Sales surged through the 1950s and 1960s, and Chow Mein with chicken or mushroom was the brand’s top dish.
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1960s: Dole Hawaiian Sliced Pineapple
Pineapple upside-down cakes were a go-to sweet treat throughout the 1960s and that meant canned pineapple slices often graced shopping lists. Leading brand Dole also sold its sweet pineapple in all manner of other ways: chunked, crushed, juiced and even in neat little spears, perfect for dessert at the 1960s dinner table.
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1970s: Chef Boyardee Spaghetti and Meatballs
The 1970s were dominated by creative ads and weird and wonderful recipe suggestions. These all helped cement Chef Boyardee Spaghetti and Meatballs’ status as a decade favorite. In this 1970s ad, the warming canned dish is piled high like an ice cream sundae – apparently a ruse to get kids to tuck into their dinner.
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1970s: Campbell’s Chunky Soup
Another canned classic to make its debut in the 1970s was Campbell’s Chunky Soup. While the brand’s condensed soup range had been popular for decades, this hearty offering was touted as a meal in a can – or “soup so chunky you’ll be tempted to eat it with a fork”. Seventies shoppers could choose between chunky chicken, beef, turkey or vegetable.
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1970s: Progresso Soups
One of Campbell’s Chunky Soups’ main competitors in the 1970s – and indeed still today – was Progresso, who had long sold chunky, ready-to-heat-and-serve broths. The brand had many popular flavors including Chicken Noodle, New England Clam Chowder, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, and Minestrone.
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1970s: Hunt’s Manwich Original Sloppy Joe Sauce
The taste for meaty mains straight from a can continued throughout the decade. Hunt’s Manwich Original Sloppy Joe Sauce was invented right at the end of the 1960s and proved popular through the 1970s. For a quick evening meal, cooks would add the tomatoey sauce to ground beef and pile the mix into a hamburger bun – and voilà, a classic sloppy joe. You can still buy the mix in grocery stores today.
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1970s: Old El Paso Tortillas
Tex-Mex was another food trend to take off in the 1970s with writers such as Diana Kennedy, author of 1972’s The Cuisines of Mexico, shedding light on the term. Old El Paso, actually founded in the 1930s, is credited with popularizing the cuisine during this decade and the brand had plenty of canned foods available so cooks could whip up quick Tex-Mex-style meals at home. These included tomatoes, pinto beans and even tortillas.
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1980s: Loma Linda Nuteena
In the 1970s and 1980s, there were more conversations around healthy eating and vegetarianism than there had been in previous decades, and brands like Loma Linda (now La Loma Foods), which has roots in the 1890s, helped lead the charge. Canned meat alternatives such as Loma Linda’s Nuteena, a veggie loaf made from peanuts, graced kitchen cupboards.
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1980s: Loma Linda Sizzle Franks
Loma Linda’s meat-free alternatives also came in the form of veggie sausages called Sizzle Franks. They were even dubbed “a real improvement on an American tradition, the hot dog” and held up for their lack of added preservatives or MSG. Today La Loma still sells an array of canned goods, from nut meats and Vege-burgers to a plant-based seafood alternative called Tuno.
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1980s: Campbell’s Healthy Request Soup
The health-conscious cans continued with big dog Campbell’s and its Healthy Request range, then called Campbell’s Special Request. The line launched in 1985 and was focused around heart health with lower saturated fat and cholesterol levels. Flavors included favorites like Tomato and Chicken Noodle, and the range is still sold today.
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1980s: Allens Popeye Spinach
Canned spinach was another pantry staple, with canned food brand Allens using muscly cartoon character Popeye as a mascot and product name. In fact, in the 1980s, Alma in Arkansas, dubbed itself the “Spinach Capital of the World”, since it was the location of the Allens company and its mounds of canned spinach.
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1980s: Van Camp’s Beanee Weenee
Despite all the ‘healthier’ alternatives, there was still plenty of room for some good old-fashioned meat and beans in a can. Van Camp’s Beanee Weenees – baked beans with little frankfurter chunks – remained popular throughout this decade, especially for a quick TV dinner.
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1990s: Campbell’s Home Cookin’ Soups (Homestyle)
When it came to cans, soup still reigned supreme through the 1990s and Campbell’s was still king. In the 1980s, the mighty soup company introduced Home Cookin’ Soup (later Homestyle) – hearty meat and veg broths designed to match a home-cooked meal. The range remained popular through the 1990s and actor Jimmy Stewart even did the voice-over for the 1990s TV ads.
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1990s: Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Broccoli Soup
Campbell’s didn’t rest on its laurels though – in the 1990s, the company introduced another decade favorite and saw its “most successful new introduction in 55 years”. If you entered an American kitchen in the 1990s, you could bet you’d see Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Broccoli Soup in the pantry. A creamy bowl of the stuff was – and is – perfect on a cold evening with a hunk of crusty bread.
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1990s: SlimFast shakes
While you were unlikely to have drunk a SlimFast shake as a child, you may well have seen one lurking in the kitchen cupboard. Diet company SlimFast, still in operation today, surged in popularity through the 1990s, with celebrities waxing lyrical about the effects of its products. The meal replacement shakes in a can were among the most popular products.
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1990s: Chef Boyardee Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pasta Shapes
Come the 1990s, competition was always on the up and brands had to think outside the box to keep customers coming back. Chef Boyardee knew just the thing. In 1991, to tie in with the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and feature film, the brand introduced canned pasta shaped like the crime-fighting cartoon characters. Needless to say, it was a hit with the kids.
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2000s: Chef Boyardee Overstuffed Ravioli
Age-old canned favorites prevailed throughout the Noughties, though often bigger was better. Chef Boyardee’s Overstuffed Ravioli, for example, ruled cupboards and was held up as a nutritious option for those with bigger appetites, especially kids. Italian Sausage Ravioli was the canned pasta of choice.
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2000s: Chef Boyardee Jumbo Spaghetti and Meatballs
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2000s: Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup
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2000s: Amy’s Kitchen soups
Springing up in the late 1980s, Amy’s Kitchen thrived in the Noughties, offering an organic alternative to the biggest-selling soups on the market. Increasingly health-conscious customers filled their cupboards and pantries with Amy’s Kitchen’s organic Lentil Vegetable, Split Pea and Cream of Mushroom soups and continue to do so today.
After her mom died suddenly in her early 60s, Adyre Mason thought a lot about how to “help other people’s mom or sister or grandma be here longer.” It was 2017 and Mason was 10 years into a career as a weapon systems engineer on Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal. But food […]
