Jump to content
SASS Wire Forum

I have been pondering canned spaghetti


Alpo

Recommended Posts

How do they put it in the can?

 

Somebody on here (I think it was Marshall Mo Hare) has told about working on the ration line  for C rats. Meatballs and Beans.

 

The can would stop under a spout, and get filled half full of beans. Then the conveyor belt would move it in front of a worker who would put exactly 7 meatballs in the can of beans. It would then move to another spout where it would be filled up with beans. This guarantee that there were always 7 meatballs in the can.

 

It seems like they would be conglomerated it in the middle, though. So I don't think that's how they do it with canned spaghetti and meatballs, as the meatballs are scattered throughout the can of spaghetti.

 

So how did they make sure you get enough meatballs. With your normal 15 oz can (there is no such thing as a 1 lb can anymore, but that is a rant for another day), the specification calls for (making this up as I go along) 5 oz of meatballs, and 10 oz of spaghetti and sauce.

 

How did they make sure they have the ratio correct? Why don't I open one can to find so many meatballs there's hardly room for spaghetti, and open another can that only has one meatball in it?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is no such thing as canned spaghetti, its canned but it isn't spaghetti.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The canned spaghetti was one of my favorite C-ration meals.  But, I don't remember any meatballs in it.  Some kind of meat sauce as I recall.

 

Heated my C-rats spaghetti by cutting slits in the C-rat box and setting the can in the box.  Light the box on fire and by the time the box has burned down, I had hot spaghetti.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

The Man, the legend, the Chef!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef_Boyardee

That's interesting. It said he got his start with customers asking him for the recipe for his spaghetti sauce so he sold the sauce.

 

His spaghetti and meatballs has one flavor sauce. The spaghetti with jumbo meatballs has a spicier sauce. The mini spaghetti with mini meatballs has a thinner sauce. And the spaghetti rings, and dinosaurs, and abc123 have a sweeter sauce.

 

I can understand a different sauce for his lasagna or for his ravioli. But why does each version of spaghetti come with a different flavor sauce?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, MizPete said:

Don't eat any of them.

You MEAN we're suppose to eat them???? Oh Poo, we can say Poo can't we, or is that too much like the other word? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I remember correctly, you create a slurry with the sauce and use several fillers to meter set amounts of each ingredient in each can and and then use a can seamier to put the lid on. I went to can seamier school in LA, CA for putting lids on Coke cans. There is also a process called retort that I think is the name for the cooking process. Basically, you fill the can and then cook the can and check it for leaks. I have toured a cat food plant and where they made cans of cat food and I have also been in a canning plant that made chili if I remember correctly. The process is basically the same for any canned goods. The third video is the one that shows the best process, it is the same process for pet food as human food. I have worked in food plants for about 30 years, it a wonder I can eat anything and there are things I will not eat.

 

This video shows part of the process: 

 

 

Retort Process

Pet food processing

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Alpo said:

That's interesting. It said he got his start with customers asking him for the recipe for his spaghetti sauce so he sold the sauce.

 

His spaghetti and meatballs has one flavor sauce. The spaghetti with jumbo meatballs has a spicier sauce. The mini spaghetti with mini meatballs has a thinner sauce. And the spaghetti rings, and dinosaurs, and abc123 have a sweeter sauce.

 

I can understand a different sauce for his lasagna or for his ravioli. But why does each version of spaghetti come with a different flavor sauce?

Good question about different sauces, the only thing I can guess is that is a little difference in taste from spaghetti, to rigatoni, to shells etc. even though it's all macaroni. I haven't had Chef Boy Ardee in ages, some of it actually not bad. It's not any worse than Ragu or  Prego or worse yet Paul Newman's sauce! I used to like the Spaghetti O's!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread has caused me to contemplate Beefaroni - a bowl of classic comfort - much better than the militarized incarnation of a canned spaghetti-like pasta-sauce-meat dish....

 

We're having Beefaroni

Beef and macaroni

Beefaroni's full of meat

Beefaroni's really neat

Beefaroni's fun to eat

Hooray for Chef Boyardee!

 

 

...or as kids in my day might sing:

We're having Beefaroni

Beef and macaroni

Beefaroni's full of meat

Beefaroni smell my feet...

Hooray - for Beefaroni

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don’t ask how sausage is made, please.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

 

There was a time I was rather fond of Spaghetti MREs.  Long time ago and a Galaxy Far Far Away. 

I’m thinking MREs were the basis for Lean Cuisine spaghetti.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember C rats like it was yesterday. Especially liked the ham and mother f*&%*ers which I doctored up with cheese and the hottest little local peppers I ever et in Nam.

Anyway a cold can of Beefarones eaten cold at the wheel in the middle of an F8/9 storm for 4 days tasted pretty good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/11/2020 at 9:04 PM, Alpo said:

That's interesting. It said he got his start with customers asking him for the recipe for his spaghetti sauce so he sold the sauce.

 

His spaghetti and meatballs has one flavor sauce. The spaghetti with jumbo meatballs has a spicier sauce. The mini spaghetti with mini meatballs has a thinner sauce. And the spaghetti rings, and dinosaurs, and abc123 have a sweeter sauce.

 

I can understand a different sauce for his lasagna or for his ravioli. But why does each version of spaghetti come with a different flavor sauce?

 

Those are sweeter because they are targeted towards kids. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I figgered that. Don't understand why those are thinner, though.

 

His regular spaghetti sauce is about the consistency of melted ice cream.

 

That kiddy spaghetti sauce is about the consistency of a melted popsicle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best C-rats I ever ate were Ham & Lima Beans - I used to trade the disgusting turkey loaf and scrambled egg things for them.

Sometimes you would get Ham and Butter Beans - that was outstanding.  Darn mess Sargent was collecting them and he made chili out of them.  That was pretty good also, but it cut down on my supply.

 

STL Suomi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.