P38 v. P51

This is an attempt to cleanse my palate after watching part of the debate.

The magic of the can…

Or better stated, the how to preserve food.

We are spoiled today, we go to the local supermarket and purchase almost any type of food we want, regardless of the growing season. It will be fresh and safe to consume.

My parents would not have dreamed of such luxuries when they were children.

We have a tradition of putting an orange into our Christmas stockings. Today, no big deal. When the tradition started, in my parents’ or grandparent’s time, it was a big deal. Those oranges were brought from far away at great expense. It was fresh and taste.

Yesterday, my wife went grocery shopping. We don’t eat as well as we did 4 years ago, inflation has eaten much of our purchasing power. Still, she was able to pick up fresh avocados and a bag of oranges.

If we don’t want fresh food, we can buy our food frozen. Still tasty. The quality is good, actually. Much better than I remember as a child.

But that food is not “shelf stable” and it will not last if the power goes out.

Smoked and dried foods will last a long time, but they too have issues, one of the large ones is that they are unprotected from the elements. It is no fun to find that your dried goods have been eaten by some critter.

Canned goods are, generally, shelf stable. They do lose nutritional value over time, but that time is measured in decades.

Early canning was putting your food into pottery and having it be preserved. Later, we learned to seal those containers to keep everything in.

The idea of a steel can, lined with tin, was patented in 1810. The basic idea is to take a thin sheet of steel, coat it in tin to stop it from rusting. This was rolled into a cylinder, bottom added and then sealed with high lead solder.

To say this was a revolution would be to understate the significance of this advancement. Food could be preserved for extended periods of time. It was easy to transport, easy to store, and the quality of the contents has gotten better and better.

Here is the important bit of trivia for us. Nobody had invented a can opener. The early cans were so heavy that the instructions explained how to open them with a hammer and chisel. Once the walls of the can became a bit thinner, other tools would be used.

The original battle ready can opener was the soldier’s trusty bayonet or other strong knife.

These tin cans were making their way into military supply chains, but not always for food.

By WW I, rations were being distributed in tin cans. But only partially. There were still large amounts of food that was not canned. Can openers were still large and clunky. Soldiers still resorting to their knives to open ration cans.

When WW II came around, the US had moved to tin cans for K-rations (Kitchen rations) and C-rations.

C-rations were intended to be short-term use. Instead, they turned into a primary food source for US G.I.

C-Rats consisted of 3 M-Units, 3 B-Units and 1 Accessory pack per day. The M, or Meat unit, was the primary source of protean. The B-Unit was fudge, biscuits, sugar, and drink mix.

The B units had a key attached to the bottom for opening the different cans. Later, they introduced the P-38.

The official name for this handy little device was “OPENER, CAN, HAND, FOLDING, TYPE I”. Where the P-38 and P-51 designations come from is a guess.

Some say it was from the 38 punctures it took to open an M-Unit. Of course, there is the possibility that it was named after the P-38 Lightning. When the larger P-51 was introduced, naming it after the P-51 Mustang seemed like a logical thing.

The P-38 isn’t much larger than a U.S. Penny. When the blade is folded open, it is positioned on the inside of the can rim. The notch is fitted into the rim, twisting the right hand forward will cause the hook to curve down and puncture the tin, making a short slice along the outside edge.

My preferred method is to turn the tin into the cutting hook. This means that I only make a single puncture, the rest are shearing cuts, extending the original puncture.

I don’t carry a P-38 or P-51. They are in the gear, ready to use. The last time I purchased them, I think I got 50 P-51 and 50 P-38s from Amazon.

All of my “multi-tool” knives have a can opener in them. I’m most used to my Swiss Army knife.

The SAK has a combination small screwdriver and can opener blade. The hook on the blade goes under the rim of the tin can. The hook goes on the inside of the tin can. Levering the knife up will puncture the top of the tin can and make that first slice.

I then rotate the can clockwise, into the hook, again allowing me to extend the cut from that single first puncture.

The number of times when it was faster to pull out the SAK to open a can than find a can opener in someone else’s kitchen is not insignificant.

So raise a glass to this lowly piece of steel. Over 80 years old, still going strong.