Cooking with tins?

What's a hay box?

I've moved away from always using dried beans and chickpeas and the like because I reckon it probably uses less energy for a factory to produce lots of tins than each home to boil their own. And the costs seem to be about the same.
My guilty secret used to be treacle sponge in a tin :)

You would have to include the energy that goes into mining/processing the ore and creating the tin, then recycling the empty tin.

Having said that, it isn't that easy to compare.
Tescos have 4 different cans of red kidney beans for example that seen to be roughly the same analysis at 30p (Aldi equiv.) 55p own label 79p organic and 85p branded.
240g drained weight 268cal per tin. The organic ones were less calories.

2 dried beans, both branded:
500g  266cal /100g£1.40
2kg   337cal/100g  £4

So avrg of the 2 dried beans is about 90g for 268cal.

which costs 25p or 18p depending on the pack size - no Aldi equiv. price for dried beans.

Then of course energy you use at home would depend how cooked. A pressure cooker is far quicker and cheaper than in an ordinary pan.

And of course the energy to transport filled tins would be greater than packets of dried! Certainly the costs were lower, to buy not boil, but having switched to an efficient modern electric hob from gas, and added more solar panels I'll have to look again.

As an aside, I was appalled to discover that the fridge freezer my mum bought in 2020 was less efficient than the one we bought a decade previously :(

As an aside, I was appalled to discover that the fridge freezer my mum bought in 2020 was less efficient than the one we bought a decade previously 

Is that going by the efficiency rating listed on the label? They changed the rating system in the UK in 2021, getting rid of the A+++/A++/A+ to D system and replacing it with A to G. Now an appliance which was A+++ will be a B or C. Most freezers are now E or F, with some better ones at C or D, and a few much more expensive ones at A.

Perhaps we should have his discussion around electric cars that the world and his wife seem to lauding as eco friendly, notwithstanding the whole life environmental cost of mining, manufacture and recycling. I'm no expert and haven't delved deeply into it but with an old diesel car (bought when the government were encouraging diesel cars) doing about 3K miles a year I'm not in the market to spend out on an expensive leccy one.

^^^ "Then of course energy you use at home would depend how cooked. A pressure cooker is far quicker and cheaper than in an ordinary pan."

How does that compare to a slow cooker? So many variables!
Maybe we need to go back to Hayboxes?

Are slow cookers not a bit dangerous when cooking beans? Aren't they supposed to get up to a high temperature to kill off botulism? Just saying.

Think it's only kidney beans which you shouldn't cook from dried in a slow cooker, not due to botulism but instead a protein which makes you sick.

I find canned beans much harder on my stomach, presumably because they don't soak them before them canning process.

I caught a bit of The Food Programme today - about Eco-labelling. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014648
They asked someone to choose which was the more Eco-friendly - rashers of bacon from UK pigs or plant based "meat" made from soya grown abroad. I may have this wrong as I was driving at the time!
The Eco-labellers take all sorts of things into account - like transport costs, how much water is used in production, whether a fruit grown abroad (where conditions are right) and flown to the UK is better, or worse, than a fruit grown close to home but in a heated greenhouse. (I may have made that last bit up).
I can't help feeling that the most eco-foods are the ones we grow in our own gardens where we have control over the input and no need to use additives.

I would love to find that report....I've a friend that bangs on about plant based....nowt wrong with beans if you don't want meat.


I don't use many tins to be honest. I've not bought tomatoes for years....I love beans but I always use my own. 
What I do use is sweet corn, chickpeas, tuna and I couldn't live without sardines!!!
I also buy tinned rice pudding  the boys take it windsurfing for carbs. It's so easy in a packed lunch

I caught a bit of The Food Programme today - about Eco-labelling. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014648
They asked someone to choose which was the more Eco-friendly - rashers of bacon from UK pigs or plant based "meat" made from soya grown abroad. I may have this wrong as I was driving at the time!
The Eco-labellers take all sorts of things into account - like transport costs, how much water is used in production, whether a fruit grown abroad (where conditions are right) and flown to the UK is better, or worse, than a fruit grown close to home but in a heated greenhouse. (I may have made that last bit up).
I can't help feeling that the most eco-foods are the ones we grow in our own gardens where we have control over the input and no need to use additives.

I would love to find that report....I've a friend that bangs on about plant based....nowt wrong with beans if you don't want meat.


I don't use many tins to be honest. I've not bought tomatoes for years....I love beans but I always use my own. 
What I do use is sweet corn, chickpeas, tuna and I couldn't live without sardines!!!
I also buy tinned rice pudding  the boys take it windsurfing for carbs. It's so easy in a packed lunch

Dunno about that, you can't wack a home made rice pudding.........especially the skin!

"wack a home made rice pudding"????? Doesn't it get stuck on the walls, in your hair and in dollops on the floor??

I caught a bit of The Food Programme today - about Eco-labelling. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0014648
They asked someone to choose which was the more Eco-friendly - rashers of bacon from UK pigs or plant based "meat" made from soya grown abroad. I may have this wrong as I was driving at the time!
The Eco-labellers take all sorts of things into account - like transport costs, how much water is used in production, whether a fruit grown abroad (where conditions are right) and flown to the UK is better, or worse, than a fruit grown close to home but in a heated greenhouse. (I may have made that last bit up).
I can't help feeling that the most eco-foods are the ones we grow in our own gardens where we have control over the input and no need to use additives.

I would love to find that report....I've a friend that bangs on about plant based....nowt wrong with beans if you don't want meat.


I don't use many tins to be honest. I've not bought tomatoes for years....I love beans but I always use my own. 
What I do use is sweet corn, chickpeas, tuna and I couldn't live without sardines!!!
I also buy tinned rice pudding  the boys take it windsurfing for carbs. It's so easy in a packed lunch

Dunno about that, you can't wack a home made rice pudding.........especially the skin!

I make it very often- but if they decide to go first thing in the morning it takes too long to cook.