Can Key Owner's Club: Show Us Your Can Keys and What You Can Do With Them!

[jalind]

Maybe I could widen my reamer' sewing hole... 

That might just work!

[jaya_man]

All those corned beef pics got me craving... dropped by a convenience store and bought one...




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[Barry Rowland]

Way to go Jayaman!! We were just talking about the same thing here!

[jaya_man]

Way to go Jayaman!! We were just talking about the same thing here!

Now figuring how to cook the corned beef


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[jalind]

All those corned beef pics got me craving... dropped by a convenience store and bought one...

(Image removed from quote.)


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There are all sorts of recipes on the interwebs for canned corned beef . . . all manner of hash and sandwich spread. I go for the sandwich spread and store it in a pint mason jar in the reefer for making lunch sandwiches.

John

[jalind]

Way to go Jayaman!! We were just talking about the same thing here!

Now figuring how to cook the corned beef (Image removed from quote.)


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It's in U.S. Customary units, not metric but it should give you some ideas . . .
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/18873/one-skillet-corned-beef-hash/

 

John

[jaya_man]

Way to go Jayaman!! We were just talking about the same thing here!

Now figuring how to cook the corned beef (Image removed from quote.)


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It's in U.S. Customary units, not metric but it should give you some ideas . . .
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/18873/one-skillet-corned-beef-hash/

 

John

Ah, thanks for the links...


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[jalind]

Now that you've got the corned beef can opened, what to make with it? I make a sandwich spread for lunches.

John's Corned Beef Sandwich Spread:

Implements:

• SAK with Can Key Phillips
• 1 quart shallow mixing bowl
• Large tablespoon for mixing
• Small spatula to aid in cleaning out bowl
• 1 pint Mason or Ball jar (used for canning) plus plastic lid, or similar storage container

Ingredients:

• 12 oz canned corned beef (standard size in a can key tin)
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise + 1 tablespoon ground or creamed horseradish
• 2 tablespoons finely diced jalapeno peppers
• 2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
• 1 tablespoon minced onion (dried onion is OK)
• 1 teaspoon minced or granulated garlic (dried garlic is OK)
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Procedure:

• Open canned corned beef using SAK Phillips Can Key slot and put the corned beef into the bowl
• Break up the corned beef block into very small pieces
• Add the mayonnaise and horseradish and mix thoroughly
• Add remaining ingredients, continuing to mixing thoroughly until all have been added
• Spoon mixture into Mason jar; there will likely be a little more than you can fit into the jar; enjoy!
• Let sit in refrigerator overnight, or at least a few hours for ingredient flavors to infuse and dried ingredients to absorb moisture
• Keep refrigerated; the mayonnaise determines how long it will keep

Notes:

• Substitution for mayonnaise + horseradish: 4 tablespoons horseradish sauce such as Woeber’s Sandwich Pals Horseradish, or Kraft Horseradish Sauce
• Salt is omitted salt as there’s already plenty of salt in nearly all canned meats (recipes I’ve seen sometimes add ½ teaspoon).
• Some may want to use finely diced celery instead of jalapeno peppers.
• A very small amount of ground cayenne red pepper will add more kick and bite (usually ¼ teaspoon or less)
• Some may want to experiment with adding chili powder
• Use imagination and “make it yours.”
• The main additive to the canned corned beef that makes it spreadable is the mayonnaise; adjust quantity as desired to adjust consistency and spreadability.

John

Edit for the metric folks:
1 teaspoon is ~5ml
1 tablespoon is 3x teaspoons, ~15ml
1 pint ~500ml (close enough for mixing bowls and storage containers)
1 quart ~1 liter (close enough for mixing bowls and storage containers)

[Boonies]

Boy, that sounds good and getting to use the can key makes it even better......got to find a store that has it.......

[Barry Rowland]

+1!!!

[jalind]

This one just in . . . an older 91mm Tinker that completes the Tinker Can Key Family in Black. Already had the Small 84mm, Super and Deluxe. Found this one and reeled it in.
 

It was very, very grungy. Had some kind of caramel consistency goo in places. Went through a thorough scrubbing, some lube and new scales as the old ones were beyond reasonable redemption (and they were red). Large spear point and especially the small pen blades need some polishing. There's a little more restoration work, but this one was a gem in the very rough. . .



Unlike the Small Tinker, nobody mucked around with the Can Key slot in the Phillips.



All four are raring to go during the Discontinued Challenge after I've finished the Minimalist.

John

[Barry Rowland]

  !!!

[jalind]

Digging into the WayBack Machine, there are undoubtedly some who wonder why the Phillips driver on their older Victorinox SAK has a lengthwise slot in it down the middle through the Phillips tip. It's not a defect or someone taking a hack saw or Dremel with metal cutter to their SAK. It's a Can Key. I've seen a couple that the owner didn't know what it was and tried to squeeze it shut.

Unfortunately many photos in this thread suffer from the Photobucket Swiss Cheese Disease.

I purposefully acquired a Small Tinker, Tinker, Super Tinker and Deluxe Tinker with Can Keys, and put black scales on them. This is the Small Tinker . . .



and this is what the Can Key looks like on it . . .



What, then is a Can Key? It's used to wind up metal strips around the edge of a can. For those of us old enough, we can remember sardine tins, canned meats (ham in particular), and coffee cans having a two parallel score lines about a quarter inch apart around the can with a small tab sticking out at the can seam. Attached to the bottom of the can was a "key" that could be used on the tab, winding it up, and pulling up the strip between the score lines, thereby opening the can.

This is a new can of corned beef with onion that has a can key strip. It's canned in South America and it has pictographic instructions on how to open it with the key that was attached . . .



Of course with a SAK that has a Can Key Phillips, who would use the key the can came with (which sometimes falls off and gets lost). Winding up the strip from around the can using the Phillips . . .



The strip tightly wound up around the can key can be pulled off (carefully) and discarded.
CAUTION:
The strip edges and the can edges are SHARP and can easily cut you just like any other can or can lid edge on a can that's been opened using a can opener (or pull tab now).



I make a sandwich spread using a recipe I concocted for the the corned beef with onion and refrigerate it in Ball (aka Mason) jars for making sandwiches at lunch time.



That's the truncated version of what I used the Can Key for . . . as part of the 30 Day Discontinued Challenge as the Can Key Phillips was discontinued some years ago.

The recipe for this was posted a little way up this thread . . .

https://forum.multitool.o...sg1368342.html#msg1368342

John

[Myron]

Fun to see an old thread bumped.  I have two VSAKs with can key openers, a small Tinker and a large Tinker.  I am the original owner of the large Tinker and for years and years I always wondered what the slot in the philips head implement was, and one day my mom or dad told me.  I still remember the feeling of revelation that I got.   







Myron

[jalind]

Fun to see an old thread bumped.  I have two VSAKs with can key openers, a small Tinker and a large Tinker.  I am the original owner of the large Tinker and for years and years I always wondered what the slot in the philips head implement was, and one day my mom or dad told me.  I still remember the feeling of revelation that I got.   

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

Myron

 

Excellent! Showing my age now . . .
I remember the coffee cans, rolling top sardine tins and the large canned ham tins when I was in grade school.

John

[Steinar]

I was always happy to be allowed to open sardine tins requiring a key when I was a kid. Pull tab tins were boring, but there was something about the key and using it I enjoyed. Early gadget enjoyment, I guess. The sardines requiring a key obviously tasted better.

[Exeter]

Just discovered this club! Here's my Ol' Grumpy, I mean old Grand Prix. Wish I could open something with it, but I don't remember seeing those kind of tins since the 80's, back then as a kid I also loved opening those cans with their own keys. Now everything has pulltabs, I just "complained" to the Mrs. about the can conspiracy against SAK folk half an hour ago.

(Interesting fact: my Grand Prix came with the same BBC advertisment scales as Jaya's on the 1st page. I always thought someone just swapped the scales, but this seems to hint that that company had a pretty good taste in promotional gifts.)

[Barry Rowland]

  Nice one!!

[Hofy]

I bought this Small (84mm) Tinker off eBay a few years back in like new condition,  I think it was around $8.  Definitely less than $10.
After seeing this thread I started checking all my knives and hit the jackpot with this one.

[Barry Rowland]

Great one! 👍👍