Franco-American Macaroni and Cheese
Two years after Kraft Foods debuted its now-famous boxed macaroni and cheese in 1937, hungry shoppers were introduced to Franco-American Macaroni and Cheese – a can full of long, spaghetti-like noodles drenched in an orangey, goopy cheese mess. This revolutionary product arrived in 1939 with promises of homemade flavor without the homemade effort.
As opposed to a more common variety of macaroni and cheese–with elbow pasta and a thick, dark yellow sauce made chiefly from cheddar–Franco-American was more like spaghetti noodles in a thin, syrupy sauce that appeared to be more milk and butter than cheese. After a brief hiatus during World War II, it came back in 1949, with June Lockhart from Lassie convincing families it belonged on their dinner tables.
In decades past, it was super popular and there’s even a social media group dedicated to replicating the iconic recipe. Lovers of this canned snack convene on Facebook, where they attempt to recreate the taste that they so fondly remember. The product finally disappeared in 2004 when Campbell’s pulled the plug, likely to focus on their Chef Boyardee line instead.
Hunt’s Snack Pack Pudding in Metal Cans
Many are familiar with Hunt’s modified version of the plastic pudding cups, which are still sold today, but when the product first came about in 1968, this shelf-friendly milk pudding was served out of a can. These metal containers represented the pinnacle of dessert convenience in their heyday.
These portable metal cans held creamy delights that satisfied sweet cravings on-the-go. The distinctive pull-tab added an element of excitement, a precursor to modern convenience packaging. While Hunt’s pudding cans may be a symbol of nostalgia, those who know them will also remember these quick desserts for the dangerous metal lids that had to be discontinued due to safety concerns.
Too many kids (and adults) were scraping out every last bit and ending up with a battle wound. By 1984, the aluminum cans were out, and pudding was sold in less dangerous plastic cups. Safety trumped nostalgia, marking the end of an era for metal dessert containers.
Chef Boyardee Pac-Man Pasta
In the ’80s, Pac-Man was everywhere – arcades, cereal boxes, even your underwear if your mom had a thing for themed multipacks. Naturally, Chef Boyardee jumped on the bandwagon and turned it into pasta. This brilliant marketing crossover combined America’s favorite video game with dinner.
Chef Boyardee cracked the code to get kids psyched for dinner by tying pasta and Pac-Man together using his simple, iconic shape. Featuring vaguely Pac Man and ghost-shaped pasta in something called “golden chicken sauce” or tomato sauce (with or without meatballs), this pasta is worth revisiting for the over-the-top 80s ad alone.
The shapes required considerable imagination to truly resemble their video game counterparts, though children seemed perfectly happy to suspend disbelief. Like many licensed food products of the eighties, this pasta disappeared when the cultural phenomenon faded.
Campbell’s Pepper Pot Soup
In its original form, it originated in Africa and followed the slave trade from the shores of Africa to the Caribbean and, eventually, the eastern coast of North America. The soup was a popular way to use up leftover ingredients and was commonly made with leftover cuts of meat, like pigtails. When Campbell’s started mass-producing Pepper Pot Soup in 1899, it used beef tripe as a source of protein.
Tripe is a tough meat that comes from an animal’s stomach lining. People have been eating tripe for hundreds of years, but it’s not a popular meat in the United States. This cultural shift in taste preferences essentially sealed the soup’s fate in American markets.
American fans of Campbell’s Pepper Pot soup might disagree, but if it’s Pepper Pot soup they’re craving, they’ll have to look elsewhere or make their own. The soup’s rich history couldn’t overcome modern American squeamishness about organ meats.
Chef Boyardee Roller Coasters
In the mid-1970s, Roller Coasters became one of the first novelty Chef Boyardee entries. The pasta wasn’t shaped like roller coaster cars, but suggested the nature of the amusement park ride’s tracks, all twisty and spiraled. “They’re wavy like roller coasters. They’re fun like roller coasters,” a commercial at the time explained.
Chef Boyardee’s Roller Coasters pasta offered a fun, ring-shaped pasta in a tangy tomato sauce. While Chef Boyardee continues to sell other pasta shapes, Roller Coasters disappeared from shelves without much explanation. Kids enjoyed the playful shapes and simple flavor, making it a popular after-school snack. It was easy, tasty, and loved by children in the ’90s and early 2000s.
Though there are still plenty of Chef Boyardee options available, fans of this unique pasta shape continue to miss its distinctive spiraled design that made dinner feel like an amusement park adventure.
Chef Boyardee Smurfs Pasta
In the 80s, Chef Boyardee released a version of its classic ravioli in a can that included colorful images of the iconic movie characters, The Smurfs – naming it Smurf’s Beef & Ravioli Pasta. Everybody loves a good collaboration, and Chef Boyardee saw the marketing opportunity and took it. Despite the uptick of movie-inspired ad campaigns in the 80s, particularly with popular food brands, this product has failed to find longevity in the canned food market.
Luckily, despite the colorful characters that decorated each bright blue can, the pasta inside looked pretty normal. Instead, Chef Boyardee was simply cashing in on the Smurfs craze that swept the U.S. for much of the decade. While you can still enjoy canned ravioli by Chef Boyardee today, the Smurfs branded can fell out of fashion several decades ago.
In the ’80s, Chef Boyardee teamed up with popular cartoon characters like the Smurfs to create themed canned pasta. These limited-edition pasta shapes, made to look like Smurfs, were a hit with kids at the time. The Smurf-shaped pasta came in a tomato sauce and was part of a larger trend of cartoon-themed foods. While the product was discontinued after the Smurfs’ popularity faded, it remains a nostalgic memory for those who grew up during that era.
Underwood Deviled Ham
Underwood first canned deviled ham in 1868, as a mixture of ground ham with various seasonings. The devil logo was trademarked in 1870. The company claims that it is the oldest food trademark still in use in the United States. This pioneering product helped establish the entire canned meat spread category in America.
Underwood Deviled Ham, introduced in 1868, predates many canned meat competitors. Its iconic red devil logo has remained largely unchanged since 1870. The spread combines ground ham with spices for a tangy flavor. While it may seem like a modern invention, deviled ham has been around for over 130 years The term “deviled” dates back to 18th century England, when cooks would add fiery spices and seasonings like mustard, cayenne, and black pepper to various dishes like eggs, turkey, ham, and lobster. By the late 1800s, American companies like Underwood were mass producing canned “deviled” ham for households and soldiers. Its tangy flavor, spreadable texture, and shelf stability made deviled ham a lunchbox and military ration staple.
While still available in some markets today, deviled ham has lost much of its cultural prominence. Aside from the fact that it never gained traction in other parts of the country, there’s nothing that points to the fact that deviled ham isn’t still enjoyed by some today. Its decline reflects changing American tastes and the rise of fresher sandwich options.
Campbell’s Scotch Broth Soup
For years, Campbell’s Scotch Broth Soup was a cold-weather staple – thick, rich, and made of barley, lamb, carrots, and onions. It had that slow-simmered, homemade taste without requiring you to stand over a stove for hours. Campbell reportedly discontinued this beloved soup, leaving longtime fans without their cold-weather staple.
This hearty soup represented traditional Scottish comfort food adapted for American convenience. Its combination of tender lamb, pearl barley, and winter vegetables created a filling meal that satisfied both hunger and nostalgia for old-world cooking traditions.
The sudden discontinuation in 2023 shocked longtime fans who had relied on this soup for decades. Unlike many discontinued products that fade gradually due to declining sales, Scotch Broth seemed to vanish overnight, leaving devoted customers scrambling to find alternatives. The soup’s disappearance marked the end of an era for traditional ethnic flavors in mainstream American canned goods.
Dinty Moore Meatball Stew
Dinty Moore is the king of canned stew, but in 2016, they made some enemies when they quietly gave the boot to one of their most beloved flavors: Meatball Stew. It had been on shelves since 1935 as a variation of the classic beef stew but with big, soft meatballs instead of cubed beef.
This particular variety stood apart from regular beef stew by featuring tender, seasoned meatballs swimming in rich gravy alongside traditional vegetables like carrots and potatoes. The meatballs provided a different texture experience compared to standard cubed meat, creating a more homestyle feeling that reminded many consumers of their grandmother’s cooking.
After eight decades of steady availability, the sudden discontinuation caught loyal customers off guard. Many had incorporated this specific variety into their regular meal rotation, viewing it as a reliable comfort food option. The loss of Meatball Stew represents how even long-established products can vanish when companies streamline their offerings.
What strikes food historians most about these vanished canned classics is how deeply they connected with American family life. The opaque metal walls concealed the contents, the industrial food system concealed the story. So, that image was on my mind the whole time I worked on this book about how canned food helped to build this opaque food system, which I learned consumers have been suspicious of from the beginning. Yet Americans embraced these products with enthusiasm, turning simple canned goods into cherished memories that still inspire passionate online communities decades after their disappearance.
What do you think about these forgotten flavors? Tell us in the comments which canned food from your childhood you miss the most.
