Don’t donate Frey bentos pies to food banks

[isitworthit124]

They need a special can opener to get into them

My DP favourite. He bought some in COVID as our "emergency food." Obviously they weren't needed as we managed fine keeping our distance in Waitrose. So now they are still in my pantry but now they out our "end of the world" emergency food. Personally I would rather die by a zombies hands than eat one, but each to our own.

You can use a metal spoon instead of a can opener, you just make a hole and lever round.

No, I agree - they are a lot easier and more accessible for most people, as long as you have the initial burst of strength to pull them, as they're often stiff. And they do usually splatter you with a bit from the top.

I'm just surprised at how quickly some people don't actually know about the existence of the old/standard type - especially as there are still plenty of them in production.

Laboutaine can opener..
D & G too blingy

Indeed they are! Slightly more than before, but the last one I had was 16% chicken and was labelled "Just Chicken". I think they're now 21% but they still should be labelled "Only Just Chicken - Mainly Gloop"
They are so revolting I would rather not eat anything than another one of these.

They are probably filled with zombie from the last apocalypse!

And that is why I donate a dozen tin openers to foodbanks every Christmas. There are still a lot of cheaper cans without ring pulls. Being given a can of food you can't open must be bl**dy miserable

Ooh, that potentially sounds a bit like the makings of a clip on You've Been Framed (or TikTok for the youngsters)

Is it laziness? I wonder about screw top wine bottles too. To be fair we had an electric tin opener when I was a child (and about 5 normal ones).

Turn the pastry over and cook for an extra 10 mins

I love the steak ones. I really want one now..

Well I don’t / wouldn’t eat tinned tuna or use longlife milk but our local foodbanks are always asking for them .

To be honest, I can well see how mushed up mechanically-recovered meat would be grim; but I wouldn't personally object in any way to chocolate being made as liquid in a big VAT before being cooled, formed and shaped into a ball, bar or whatever shape.

Or are you saying that they throw bits of all kinds of random chocolate bar-ends in before they emerge as a TCO?!

Good job you have never had to rely on a food bank then. Hungry poor people don't get to be picky.

I never understand how it's legal for food companies to state that something is "100% X" when what they really mean is that 100% of the bit that is made of X is indeed X, but the other 97% of the product that isn't X can be absolutely any old thing.

UHT milk and tinned tuna are not the same as a horrendously over processed and low quality pie. I wouldn’t give one to our dog so wouldn’t expect another human to eat it.

I used to think the same, but then worked with people who were using foodbanks and realised that some foods that needed very little cooking were needed, such as microwave rice. So 2 packs of Tesco microwave rice might be more expensive than a 1kg bag of rice, but at least they cook quickly. Add in some tinned ham/meat and tinned veg and you have an almost instant meal.

I choose to cook rice, veg etc from scratch but that's not a luxury many people using foodbanks have.

Maybe one of these; they turn the edges of the can into death traps

https://www.amazon.co.uk/apollo-HOUSEWARES-BRAND-Corkscrew-6739/dp/B004V41R8U/ref=asc_df_B004V41R8U/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697359334061&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2447532567915538569&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045987&hvtargid=pla-613116674592&mcid=34c6fe378afd3d33bb022c7c4329d368&gad_source=1&th=1

Have you done it? I can’t see it working. Not to mention the risk of serious injury.

For a start how do you ‘just make a hole’ if you’re so lacking in equipment you haven’t even got any kind of can opener on hand?

I could live on these wonderful pies forever. All of them.
And they only need an ordinary tin opener.

Make great yorkshire pudding tins.

Whataboutery about can openers? I've heard it all now.

I would have thought that the problem was more that they need quite a bit of time in the oven to cook, possibly costing more to cook the pie than it costs to buy in the first place.

If you want to donate 'meat in a tin' it would be better to be just the meat in gravy then people can have it with canned veg/potatoes instead.

Whilst I'm not personally a fan, my husband and three teens love them. And no, they do not require more than a standard, run of the mill kitchen can opener. Maybe you just can't use yours properly?

A normal bog standard tin opener will open it.
Just a little word of warning, do not under any circumstances buy a cheese and onion Fray Bentos. I bought one from B&M during lockdown omg it was the worst thing I've ever tasted.
It was vile 🤢🤢

I would think the bigger problem is the amount it would cost to cook them - 30 mins in the oven. It's better to donate things which are cheap to heat - bags of microwaves rice, supernoodles, pot noodles, soup, beans, tins of fish and meat etc.