Tradition. It’s been in that type of tin forever. I did a Google search and found a couple of posts that say corned beef was originally put in that sort of packaging to make it easier for soldiers. They can open it without having to carry a can opener and the square tin is better for packing into a knapsack.

Another post said it was because it allows you to slide the corned beef out in a complete slap and have square slices.

I have no idea if either of these responses is true. I just know it’s always been in that sort of tin.

Are you making corned beef hash? I haven’t eaten corned beef for years.

Quite coincidentally, I’m off to Houston today with an old friend (a 350-mile round trip) expressly to get a corned beef sandwich at a deli I read about recently. That’s how much I love a good corned beef sandwich, which you can’t get in Austin.

After having lived in NYC and being able to eat corned beef at some of the best delis in the country, I refuse to eat what they call corned beef out of a tin or can!

I have always known it be the soldier story above.

I made corned beef last night from scratch. Weird coincidence. I just sent my husband off with it in his lunch today.

Spam and sardines had similar cans, I don’t know if they still do.

In earlier days, people took their lunches to work (as opposed to eating out) – they needed a way to keep their meat airtight and sanitary, but electric can openers didn’t exist, and manual can openers were large and bulky and have to be carried back home.

So the idea of a key and roll-open container came to be. And it has survived.

My suggestion is that slow and easy (not a strong pull) is most effective. I would also say that there is a lot of history in this sort of container, dating back to WW2 and rations for the armed forces.

I also remember when coffee came in cans with a key to open it. It was vacuum packed, and when you would break the seal, the coffee smelled very fresh. This was long before the general availability of custom and/or gourmet roasts.

@Yetanotheruser – and there was also that very brief “swoosh” sound when you broke the vacuum packed coffee and the air rushed in.

I have less-than-fond memories of the key slipping and the partially lid breaking off before total openess was achieved, leaving a half-opened mess. Then trying to pry out the contents from the partial aperture. We used to eat herring in tomato sauce in tins like that when I was a kid. My mother was more patient than I and did not rush.

I’m with @gailcalled
I too have a fear of cans like that, along with those biscuit cans that “pop” when you peel them. I am not fond of the startle reflex. lol Those damn pop-n-fresh cans terrify me. lol

Thank you all for these great answers . . . . I didn’t realise that food packaging was fraught with danger!
I must agree that the smell of freshly opened coffee is so nice, but I am sometimes let down when I drink said coffee.
Who invented the ring-pull – I know that herring in tomato sauce can cause a bit of a mess what with the lid not opening fully, and as @gailcalled said, you end up poking about, tomato sauce oozing down your front, and it is just a disappointment. I am a mother and I do not have the patience to take this technical opening system slowly!

This Q reminds me of when the Coke can went from pulling the ring to flipping up the metal thingy to punch down the can opening.

Follow-up to my previous comment:

The corned beef sandwich and potato salad were GREAT, plus I took home a bunch of bagels and biales.

@JLeslie I can push it back to when the Coke can (and the Pepsi can and the beer can) had to be opened with a church key.

I also remember beer in a cone-top can. This type of can could be opened with a classic bottle opener.

“The Deadly Tin”? Ha! We couldn’t wait for the tin to be opened and the trash to go out so we could unroll that sharp thin strip of smelly metal and reclaim the ‘key’. It was like unwinding a clock by hand, but we had keys, man.

Oh very useful I’m sure! @ibstubro – Have things changed for the better?

Kids, and people generally, still seem to have an innate fondness for keys, @SomeoneElse. Old skeleton and hollow barrel keys are some of my most reliable sellers at the antique mall – I can’t seem to get enough of them.

Today I’d just use the can opener on the tin and save the key, pristine. :) I agree that the pull top flat tins (like sardines) are much more annoying, where that last little ‘snap’ of the lid invariably sends smelly juices flying.