🥫EAT BETTER Things in Tins

If you’re here reading this right now, you probably already like tinned things. So I’ll skip the boring hard sell. But like, where did canned food come from? If you already know that too, great, you can just jump straight to exhibit a: Ortiz Bonito. 

Anyway. Humans have been pickling, smoking and preserving things forever (since caveman times) but did you know canned foods were invented per a French government competition held in the 18th Century? Spoiler alert: it was all about keeping armies fed for their numerous colonising sprees, go figure. The guy who won it was a young chef from Champagne, France, called Nicholas Alpert. His first trials had something to do with packing food into champagne bottles before sealing it off with cheese and lime, which is pretty gross.

Lucky for us, we now have sterilised cans that look nice and have somehow come from humble beginnings to being kind of fancy. Again, exhibit a: Ortiz. Also, thank you for our can openers and our peel-y lids, because once upon a time you may have needed a chisel or bayonet to get the party started.

Take this useless info and do with it what you will. An anecdote, maybe, to bring up next time you’re three glasses deep—because you ordered with PRONTO at 2pm on a Friday —and need to impress colleagues with the straight facts. 

Tin city, what is up. 

Ortiz Bonito
Yeah cool, we all know Ortiz anchovies are like that fishy designer handbag everyone wants, but have you ever had their Bonito in Olive Oil? It’s a wild scene. Also nice to know these are individually line-caught, not trawled, off the Bay of Biscay in Spain. Cooked in seawater and angel tears etc packed by hand in olive oil in 24 hours etc etc. Flaky, meaty, tastes good.
Get bonito

PEPUS Mussels in Marinade
Have you ever had a mussel on a chip? It will change your life. A regular old crinkle cut will do or these. Maybe some mayo, like the one below. These mussels are fried in olive oil then given a light pickle, are big and juicy, and made by a fourth-generation family in Spain. A lot to like. 
Get mussels

Gin Mayo
One of our most popular products. And from Denmark, a nation that loves to put things in tins, tubes and preserve food generally, for long winters. It’s not rocket science. Just gin + mayo. The botanical flavour is hard to describe but it is as interesting as it sounds. Put it on a chip then put a mussel on top.
Get gin mayo

Mutti Polpa
Seems random, but in case you hadn’t noticed you could literally make an entire pasta without having to leave this website. Salt, penne, olive oil, maybe LPs smoked sausage and Mutti Polpa—the best since 1971!!! As long as you’ve got parmesan and garlic at home you are good. 
Get tinned toms

Cuca Anchovy
Ortiz? Never heard of her. Cuca? They’re basically the perfect anchovy. Punchy, pongy, meaty, salty, a little sweet. All you need is bread and butter in the obligatory 1:1 ratio. The greatest snack of all time. Especially co-slurped with any wine you’ve got.
Get anchovies

Pollastrini Sardines in Olive Oil
This packaging, how good. Spicy Italian sardines, how good. Grilling bread and grilling lemons and putting those sardines on that bread with that lemon? 👍
Get sardines

St Ali Beer Nuts 
Would you like Korean-BBQ’d kimchi and gochujang-flavored peanuts or plain old salted and slightly smoky peanuts? We’ve got options that come in beer cans. The end.
Get beer nuts