Reviews Take Two: Take One Tin

In my last post I tried out some of the recipes from Jack Monroe's Tin Can Cook, which was published last year but has come back to attention of late given the current situation. It is, however, not alone in that respect: there have been two other tin-based cookbooks published even more recently - but still before anyone could have dreamed how events would pan out in 2020 - whose profiles are also benefiting from the current surge in interest in, and need for, storecupboard-friendly recipes. This time I will be taking a look at Take One Tin by Lola Milne.

A Tin-dred Spirit: Tin Can Cook review

If you are the sort of person who watches lots of cooking programmes on television, reads the food pages in the weekend newspapers, or maybe even (whisper it) follows the bizarre flights of fancy of food bloggers now and again, you may have noticed a significant increase of late in articles focusing on the big theme of the moment. Features such as "Recipes to make the most of your storecupboards", "Use up all those unloved spices" and "No flour? No problem! Alternative baking recipes" are popping up left, right and centre, and there has been plenty specifically focusing on tinned foods too. In the same day, I read one website's "Top 10 Tinned Tomato Tips" - providing ideas for those who panic-bought in the lead-up to lockdown and now don't know what to do with all their tins - and another site's article on "The Best Pasta Sauces that Don't Use Tinned Tomatoes", for those who've been less lucky and found the supermarket shelves empty.

It's no surprise really; all writers, commissioning editors and broadcasters want to make their work relevant and up to date, but it does feel like a slight jumping on the bandwagon. Both the tinned tomato articles mentioned above featured fairly standard, not particularly exciting recipes that just happened to include (or not include) a fairly common storecupboard ingredient - and you suspect that pretty soon the writers will be returning to more normal territory, where tins and so on don't get much of a look in. I have a lot of time for Jamie Oliver, but I feel his recent TV series "Keep Cooking and Carry On" at the start of the lockdown was a similar case in point. In the four weeks' worth of daily programmes, he offered up "incredible recipes, tips and hacks, specifically tailored for the unique times we're living in, and how to make the most of kitchen staples", but it didn't seem all that different to his usual output, aside from giving suggestions of what to do with leftovers, and alternative ingredients if you couldn't find the ones he specified. Even that was quickly parodied online though:

More flamin' tuna? Yes please!

For a few weeks last month it was near enough impossible to find either tinned foods or toilet rolls in the supermarkets as people had a bit of a pre-lockdown panic and demand massively outstripped supply. Thankfully things (and indeed people) have calmed down a bit now, with both shops and shoppers getting used to the new normal.

Which is a relief, because if you've got a tin of tuna and a toilet roll, plus a lighter and some outdoor space, you've got the basis for an extraordinarily tasty meal. Sound bizarre? Yes it is, but let me explain.

Taking Stock (3)

And finally in the stock cupboard trilogy...the beef stock.

I actually remembered to shake the tin before opening this time, but in this one there seemed to be practically no fat at all to be dispersed. Except, weirdly, for this one yellowish clump, about the size of a bean, floating near the surface:

Taking Stock (2)

Next up from my stock cupboard...the chicken stock.

Taking Stock (1)

After my last post, I'm going to try not to dwell too much on the current Corona-situation, as distractions from the news are always welcome at times like this. It may still be the starting point for a post - and that is the case this time, I'm afraid - but I promise I'll get onto the tins as quickly as I can.

In recent days many people will have been paying more attention to the food they have at home, making use of what's in their cupboards and hopefully restricting new purchases to what they really need. Now is certainly a good time for a bit of a sort-out - I have had a couple of very productive and strangely therapeutic afternoons taking everything out of my various cupboards, noting down what I've got, what needs using up first, removing anything that has gone too far past its best and putting everything else back in a more orderly fashion.

It's a good thing there isn't a law that we all have to declare publicly the contents of our kitchen cupboards though, as anyone looking at mine would probably accuse me of mass stock-piling of tins. As it happens, I've not actually bought any since the coronavirus situation kicked off - I've just been slowly amassing them over the years this blog has been in existence, but not really using them up at the same rate. So, there are quite a lot of them. To the extent that having found myself with good supplies of some of the more standard tinned items (tomatoes, chickpeas etc), I took a few a long to the local foodbank collection so that someone who's really in need at this time can hopefully benefit from them.

The more unusual items I have held onto, and will do my best to work my way through over the coming weeks. Some tins I have little memory of buying, and/or are already well past their use-by dates. For example, while doing my stock-take, I discovered that I had not one, not two, but three tins of, errr, stock: fish, chicken and beef, from the John Lusty brand. All were very much out-of-date, but in my defence, they probably were when I bought them, as I think I got them at the posh food shop nearby, where everything is so overpriced that I very rarely buy anything that's not in their bargain box and hence nearing its best before date.

The Road back to normal life will be a long one...

Wherever in the world you might be reading this, you won't need me to tell you that these are dark and uncertain times we find ourselves in. There are few corners of the globe that have not been hit by Coronavirus to some extent. It has changed the day-to-day lives of billions of people and had a devastating effect on lives, livelihoods, communities, healthcare systems and economies. How long everyday life will be put on hold for, no-one quite knows. Here in the UK, like many countries, we are now effectively under a lockdown, after a fortnight or so of seeing fears and precautions grow little by little - perhaps too slowly, and perhaps we will pay for that in the long term.

The more stringent measures do seem to be having the required effect, with people staying at home, and observing 'social distancing' when out in public, and even the panic-buying seems to have subsided, or at least the supermarket shelves are staying full for longer than they were. We're so used to supermarkets always being able to give us an enormous amount of choice as to what we buy and eat, that when that is no longer the case, it feels hugely disconcerting.

One day last week, after returning from several shops that had been stripped of toilet paper, long-life foods and cleaning products, I saw a homeless person shuffling along, pushing their possessions in an old trolley, and was suddenly reminded of Cormac McCarthy's 2006 novel The Road. It felt like the end of times. I had to put some happy music on when I got home, to remind myself that it isn't.