15 Vintage Canned Foods You Might Not Remember

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Canned food has been around since the early 1800s. Over the course of centuries, we've gotten pretty broad and creative in terms of what we'll preserve in — and eat from — a can. Some canned goods are certainly a bit more unusual and less commonly consumed than others, and there are some that professional chefs absolutely won't buy.

Technically, all commercially canned foods are okay to consume directly from the can, no heating required. Some fare better direct from the can than others in terms of taste and texture, though. 

Many vintage canned foods have come and gone over the years — some never to be heard of again (except, perhaps, in nostalgia). For some of them, their demise was lamentable; for others, we understand a bit better why they were discontinued. Still other, more obscure canned products are actually still around, but they've been largely forgotten by consumers; you certainly wouldn't find them on the average home's pantry shelves.

From the funny to the forgotten, a backward glance through the history of canned foods can be amusing, nostalgic, and, sometimes, a bit eyebrow-raising. Crack open a can of SpaghettiOs or Campbell's soup (heated or not, at your discretion), settle in, and let's take a look at some tinned creations you may not remember!

Some of the very first commercially offered meat alternatives came from a brand called Loma Linda, founded by the Seventh-day Adventist church, which began crafting plant-based foods way back in 1890. The brand's canned products are still in production as of November 2025, with items ranging from a beef tips alternative called Tender Bits to a meatball alternative called Neat Balls and even a plant-based canned tuna called Tuno.

While it may be a vintage canned pork that no one buys anymore, Southerners have been enjoying dishes like scrambled eggs and pork brains for generations, and folks have also been known to eat them breaded and fried.

Classic cartoon sailor and renowned muscleman Popeye always got bursts of strength from gobbling up cans of spinach in comic strips, on TV, and in movies. But did you know this old-school animated hero has his own spinach brand in the real world? In the 1960s, the Steele Canning Company put Popeye's likeness on its canned spinach products to boost American consumption, which it did. The product is still available for purchase decades later — though marketed by a different brand.

New Englanders are familiar with a canned product that may register as unusual for those who have never heard of it: canned bread. Originating in the 1920s and offered in both original and raisin flavors, B&M Brown Bread somewhat resembles a quick bread and is ready to serve from the can. Traditionally, you pair the bread with baked beans and hot dogs, though it is also enjoyed like regular bread, toasted and topped with condiments such as butter and jam.

In 2006, Hormel released a limited-edition flavor of Spam (which isn't the same as canned ham) called Spam with Stinky French Garlic, promoting the theatrical run of Monty Python's "Spamalot." The flavor contained abundant garlic, making the "stinky" portion of the name quite literal. The maker's suggested use for the product was in recipes like Stinky French Garlic pizza, pasta, salads, or sandwiches.

Boiled peanuts have long been a staple of the South — but folks outside the Southern states may not be familiar with them. In those parts, it's known as "the caviar of the South." The canned snack consists of freshly harvested peanuts that are boiled raw and green in their shells with salt or other seasonings. Cajun-flavored boiled peanuts are especially popular in places like Louisiana, and various other flavored varieties also exist, like garlic and buffalo. 

Bacon, that beloved processed meat, has been a breakfast staple for generations, eaten sizzling hot from the frying pan, and it also makes a tasty lunch piled up on bread with lettuce and tomato (BLT, anyone?). Multiple brands offer it, and it can be eaten right out of the package, though one can also heat it first before consuming.

The SpaghettiOs brand is alive and thriving, and these days you can get it with meatballs or without. But, once upon a time, there was another protein source swimming in that famous sauce: hot dogs. Though it's now discontinued, we suppose the existence of SpaghettiOs with Franks validates Sheldon Cooper's favorite meal on "The Big Bang Theory," which was spaghetti with little pieces of hot dog cut up in it.

Speaking of SpaghettiOs, the canned pasta product has a near cousin that many don't realize exists: canned spaghetti (no Os). Various brands offer spaghetti in a can with tomato sauce, such as Heinz, Campbell's, and Chef Boyardee – and some have existed for well over a century. But, somehow, this product hasn't gained the popularity of its more famous canned pasta counterparts, like the aforementioned Os or Chef Boyardee's Beefaroni.

Snack Pack and other ready-to-eat pudding brands come in disposable plastic cups these days, but when Snack Pack first hit the market in the 1960s, it was packaged in aluminum cans. The tinned variety wasn't replaced by plastic containers until the 1980s, and Snack Pack was the first brand to make the switch.

Though less familiar to today's consumers, Underwood Deviled Ham is actually one of the oldest food products to be under continuous production in the United States. Developed in 1868, this cured ham spread was once very popular on toast and crackers. It's still manufactured by the Underwood company — the same brand that created it — and it has gained some canned companions on the company's product line over the years, including liverwurst spread and corned beef spread.

Most have eaten it from a box, but did you know macaroni and cheese also comes in a can? Brands like Heinz and Chef Boyardee still offer this canned dish, which is fast and easy to prepare (just open, dump in a dish or pan, and warm). There was also a version of canned mac and cheese that didn't survive the test of time — what amounted to a sort of macaroni-SpaghettiOs hybrid called MacaroniOs, from the Franco-American brand. It debuted in the 1960s but only survived a few years before being discontinued.

Okay, technically, it isn't a food, but the very first soda to hit shelves in an aluminum can was a diet drink called Diet Slenderella Cola, which made its debut in 1963. Very different from the thin, flexible, easy-open soda cans of today, this original pop can was much the same as an aluminum food can. Lacking the convenient pull tab that today's drink cans have, Slenderella had to be opened using a church-key-type of can opener, which punctured the can to create an opening.

A brand called Ambrosia, founded in 1917, has been offering canned rice pudding since 1936 and canned custard since the 1960s. The company was able to pioneer a method for creating packaged rice pudding that tasted good, which previous versions hadn't, by sealing milk and uncooked rice into cans and then cooking the rice in the package, rather than cooking it first and packaging it second. Though they originated in the U.K., these tinned desserts are also available in the United States.

Campbell's has been a leading maker of heat-and-eat soups for over a century, and plenty of flavors have come and gone in that time. One of them was a child-targeted variety called Curly Noodle, based in chicken broth with chunks of chicken, vegetables, and, you guessed it, plump rotini noodles that were entertainingly curly (it was my favorite soup as a kid growing up in the '80s, incidentally). Exactly when the food brand discontinued this flavor isn't clear, but it no longer appears among Campbell's currently available products on the company's website.