I have worked in a multitude of hotel & restaurants and I can assure that restaurant supply shops have lots of stainless steel/ aluminum inserts of various shapes & sizes. Look for a straight sided one, a bit smaller than your crock pot. That should be a good substitute for the 3lb. cans.
Oops hit the wrong key. Bake in soup cans … like this: https://food52.com/recipes/14934-steamed-brown-bread
The point is to steam the bread which I think you can more safely achieve in an actual baking dish, if you ask Google there’s lots of info out there and lots of soup can recipes
Thanks for your reply. The recipes call for a 3 pound shortening can, so soup cans would be too small. There are various bread and cake recipes in the book. I guess I could use soup cans and try to do adjustments to time and possibly temperature. A regular baking dish won't fit into my crock pots, so that's why I was hoping someone would have other possibilities.
I have a several recipes for this sort of thing. It's usually for Boston Bread and my recipes call for a large coffee can (not shortening) which if I remember correctly was more like a cardboard sort of container. Anyway, you might find a similar insert type item in a restaurant supply shop.
It's difficult to say for sure since we don't know what specific recipe you are referring to or which specific product you are using.
The food industry continually evolves its packaging. Things that used to be packaged in one material twenty years ago may be packaged in a totally different material today.
Here are several examples starting with the most obvious one. For decades, milk in the USA came in waxed cardboard boxes (don't forget that milk came in glass bottles for a long time). Today's milk is typically in plastic containers.
Likewise canned tomatoes used to be in tin cans. Today's tomatoes are in plastic-lined metal or sometimes metallicized Tetra-Paks.
Rice was often packed in paper or cloth bags, often secured with string. Today invariably it is packed in plastic bags, often with a resealable ziplock closure.
I would hesitate in following an old recipe that assumes a container material that is no longer in use. Moreover I would be highly skeptical (primarily for safety or health reasons) about cooking in plastic unless the packaging itself stated that the product inside may be cooked in the container.
I would likely utilize a utensil that is specifically designed for cooking. I have plenty of those in my kitchen. It would be up to me to use my best judgment on what to use to get an acceptable result.
Again, not knowing what specific dish you are referring to makes it impossible to give a specific recommendation. Look at the recipe and compare it to a contemporary recipe that uses more typical techniques of the modern kitchen.
Thanks for your reply, I'm sorry I didn't specify in my original post that I'm talking about a cookbook for crock pots. There are multiple recipes for breads and cakes which call for baking in a 3 pound shortening can. Rival (the crock pot company who put out the book) used to also make a cake/bread pan specifically for their crock pots but they aren't in production any more and are too expensive to try to get used ones online. I therefore was hoping someone might have info on whether or not a shortening can could still be used in a crock pot, but forgot to add that all-important "crock pot" term. Ooopsies... thanks again for your response!!
OK, now we have a lot of critical detail that was initially omitted.
Assuming you know A.) know the dimension of the discontinued Rival baking pan and B.) confirm it by taking measurements of your crockpot, I suggest you visit a local restaurant supply shop and look for a similarly sized baking pan.
Personally I would avoid baking in metal containers that aren't specifically designed for such tasks. Today's cans often have enamel or vinyl linings. Even if the metal is bare, that doesn't guarantee that its safe for repeated long exposures to high temperatures.
My post got cut off... now the cans feel like they're a heavy cardboard. Does anyone know if I can still bake in them? Of not, does anyone know of a good substitute? Thanks!!!
Sidenote. CRISCO site FAQ section tells how product was packaged in metal about 30 years (to 1942) but switched to glass then as metal was in great need for WW2 war effort.
Cool, I didn't know that! I had no idea they'd once been glass! I'm glad they don't do that any more, I'm not the most graceful person in the kitchen lol. Thanks!!!
14 Comments
Lead-sealed metal cans were not banned by the US FDA until 1991. The use of lead solder in food packaging was not fully banned in the USA until 1995.
It is not wise to assume that just because something was done in the Sixties by your relatives that it was safe.
You don't drive without wearing a seatbelt, do you?
Use your best judgment and make the call yourself.
https://food52.com/recipes/14934-steamed-brown-bread
The point is to steam the bread which I think you can more safely achieve in an actual baking dish, if you ask Google there’s lots of info out there and lots of soup can recipes
The food industry continually evolves its packaging. Things that used to be packaged in one material twenty years ago may be packaged in a totally different material today.
Here are several examples starting with the most obvious one. For decades, milk in the USA came in waxed cardboard boxes (don't forget that milk came in glass bottles for a long time). Today's milk is typically in plastic containers.
Likewise canned tomatoes used to be in tin cans. Today's tomatoes are in plastic-lined metal or sometimes metallicized Tetra-Paks.
Rice was often packed in paper or cloth bags, often secured with string. Today invariably it is packed in plastic bags, often with a resealable ziplock closure.
I would hesitate in following an old recipe that assumes a container material that is no longer in use. Moreover I would be highly skeptical (primarily for safety or health reasons) about cooking in plastic unless the packaging itself stated that the product inside may be cooked in the container.
I would likely utilize a utensil that is specifically designed for cooking. I have plenty of those in my kitchen. It would be up to me to use my best judgment on what to use to get an acceptable result.
Again, not knowing what specific dish you are referring to makes it impossible to give a specific recommendation. Look at the recipe and compare it to a contemporary recipe that uses more typical techniques of the modern kitchen.
Best of luck.
Assuming you know A.) know the dimension of the discontinued Rival baking pan and B.) confirm it by taking measurements of your crockpot, I suggest you visit a local restaurant supply shop and look for a similarly sized baking pan.
Personally I would avoid baking in metal containers that aren't specifically designed for such tasks. Today's cans often have enamel or vinyl linings. Even if the metal is bare, that doesn't guarantee that its safe for repeated long exposures to high temperatures.
But that's just me...