Ryan and Debi Cragun’s Blog

Well, Debi actually found it… But it was my idea…

Have you ever opened a tin can only to use about half the contents?  Your then stuck with either putting the rest of the contents in something else to store them in a refrigerator or doing what we’ve done for the last 6 years - putting a piece of plastic wrap or tinfoil over the can and sticking it in the refrigerator.  While the first approach is more hygenic and results in better storage outcomes, it also messes up more dishes and is a little more time consuming.  The second result doesn’t mess up more dishes, but isn’t very secure (easy to spill what’s inside the can) and doesn’t have a good storage outcome.

For years I figured there had to be a better solution.  With the prevalence of plastic lids in consumer goods these days, someone had to have had the idea of just marketing lids for tin cans.  Someone probably has, but I couldn’t find one. So, after thinking about this for several months and searching on the internet and in my local Kroger for plastic lids for tin cans, I finally decided that we’d just hunt through the Kroger until we found a product that had the right-sized lid to reseal a tin can and buy it.

So, Sunday, Debi and I went out shopping and found ourselves facing the momentous task of trying to fit a plastic lid to a standard-sized tin can (usually 15 to 16 ounces in weight).  I actually assigned Debi the task of finding the lid while I did our regular shopping, but I tried on a few here and there as I went.  I felt kind of odd doing so, but since I only tried a couple, I wasn’t too embarrassed.

Debi, on the other hand, got a lot of weird looks as she walked up and down aisles pulling off lids and trying to fit them to a tin can she was carrying.  She tried yogurt lids, coffee can lids, etc.  She must have tried 50 lids before she found it… Yep, she found the holy grail of food storage - a plastic lid that fits snugly over a regular sized tin can.  Go ahead and guess where you think she found it… Come on, guess!  Don’t skip ahead and peek; that’ll ruin the fun.

After searching high and low, our food storage savior turned out to be… (drum roll please)… Hershey’s chocolate syrup!  Yep, that’s right.  Hershey makes the plastic bottle chocolate syrup, with which most people are probably familiar. But they also distribute it in a 16 oz tin can with a plastic lid so you can reseal it for storage.  Plus, the cans are less than $2.00 a piece.  I’m guessing that anyone selling the lids individually would probably charge more than that for them… Anyway, we bought two!  We now have a quick and easy solution for storing tin cans in the refrigerator when we haven’t used all of the contents (plus a ton of chocolate syrup).  No more tin foil lids, no more spills!  Halleluah!  I see the light!  And the light says “Hershey!”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 at 11:51 am and is filed under advice, general news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.