The Key To Getting The Metallic Taste Out Of Canned Vegetables

Canned vegetables are such a convenience, given how inexpensive they tend to be, making them an apt choice for the home cook who is both pressed for time and on a budget. Yet while many canned vegetables are picked at the height of ripeness, their taste can be affected by the ribbed cans the veggies are packaged in. Some vegetables, especially tomatoes in all their different forms, but also green beans, kidney beans, or corn, can come out of the cans tasting metallic, so they're definitely not foods you should eat straight from the can. You can counteract that weird, tinny taste with one simple step, though: blanching.

By blanching your canned vegetables, you will remove the metallic flavor and perk up the contents so that they taste much fresher. Blanching just means throwing them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes, then pulling them out and immediately plunging them in an ice bath to halt the cooking process (this prevents them from overcooking via residual heat). And to avoid other "off" flavors in your canned vegetables that blanching might not be able to fix, avoid these storage mistakes with canned goods.

If you're pressed for time to get dinner on the table and the thought of dirtying another pot is souring your mood, there are other ways to get the metallic flavor out of your vegetables. If you're using canned tomatoes, while they're cooking, you can add a heavy pinch of baking soda to the pot or pan. You'll see the contents fizz a bit as the soda reacts with the acid of the tomatoes. The addition will reduce that "canned" taste while also making the tomatoes taste less sour and more balanced.

Another great hack for removing the tin can from vegetables is to dump them out into a colander and give them a good rinse. If you have a spray nozzle on your sink or spigot, this would be a good time to use it; just let the water thoroughly clean your vegetables, while giving them a good shake now and then. If you're rinsing, say, canned beans — which come packed in a thicker liquid and can be quite salty — you'll want to run them under the water until the liquid coming from the colander runs clear.