Canned Foods That Built Classic American Meals (And Are Still Around)

Culture

Food History

Canned Foods That Built Classic American Meals (And Are Still Around) By Felicia Lee Sept. 13, 2025 1:19 pm EST

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Cooking from scratch can be a rewarding process with a huge payoff, but there's no shame in cooking with canned foods. Indeed, they've been a part of American life longer than you may think. The first commercial cannery in the U.S. opened in 1812, and homemakers have long canned their own fruits and vegetables. Some familiar canned foods also have long histories, like condensed milk, which was first introduced in 1856 . Other canned items became popular as far back as the Civil War.

Canned and other prepared foods are so deeply embedded into American cooking