The combination of shrimp, sausage, potatoes, and corn sounds delicious! The shrimp will take the shortest time to cook while the potatoes will be the longest. I gave some hints in another Milk Can Dinner post regarding staged cooking for vegetables (see http://barbequelovers.com/grills/milk-can-dinners/cream-can-dinner-recipe), but because I have never tried cooking shrimp, you are going to have to experiment. I would start with the potatoes, corn and sausage and watch the steam. After you are about done, put the shrimp in last to give them just a few minutes and then take everything off the heat. That way your shrimp isn’t overdone.

Let me know how it goes
Dave

One method that works really well (and kind of adds to the nostalgia) is a wheelbarrow. You simply line the wheelbarrow with plastic, and dump the whole contents of the can in it, take out the rocks, and it’s ready to serve. The best way to serve is to use tongs and let people people pick out whatever elements that they want.

Here is some advice on your cabbage burning on the bottom: We always put a couple of inches of rocks in the bottom. Yes, rocks. We find some decent sized rocks and clean them really well (we use the same ones every time, so once you have them, it’s easy). The rocks keep the food from touching the bottom, therefore it doesn’t burn. Also, the rocks keep the water off of the food…..as you want the food to be steamed, not boiled.

I hope that helps!

Thanks – I actually cooked using smoked hams last weekend and it turned out great!

You can try Ogallala as a source of new cream cans (http://www.ogallalacreamcansupper.com/) but I don’t have a source for any used cans.

Dave

I’m on the hunt for a milk can that is in good shape to start doing this myself. I’m in Lehi, Utah so if anyone knows of a place I’d appreciate it.

thx!
levicress@hotmail.com

I put the meat in raw. Cooking it for 5-6 hours in a milk can creates a pressurized cooking environment that is similar to cooking in a crockpot hours and produces very tender meats and vegetables.

I did cut the meat up into smaller chunks to help with the cooking…about 2-3 inches square to help with the cooking process.

The meats were completely done by the time the dinner was ready to cook. No problems with raw or undercooked meats. Not only was the meat done, but it was very tender as well.

I fell in love with this cream can cooking concept and discovered the cans are hard to find. Soooo we now import pure stainless steel ones in 4 sizes. We are constantly testing recipes and are even working on one for prime rib! Early results are lookin’ (and tastin’) good!

Have fun out there!!!

John

1) Did one milk can feed 40 people?

The milk can had room for a bag of potatoes, carrots, and 3-4 roasts. They filled it with some water (I wasn’t there when they started, but I am guessing several inches in the bottom of the can) flavored with beef bullion cubes and spiced up the roasts really well before cooking. The rest of the seasoning for the vegetables was just salt and pepper.

Along with the Milk can contents, there were tons of salads and side dishes, drinks, desserts, etc., so I don’t remember if there were concerns with there not being enough food. I guess it would depend on how many kids and how many adults are part of that 40 people count.

2) How did you serve the dinner–did it turn out like a stew, and did you simply dump the contents of the can into a large serving bowl/bucket?

As dinner started, they dumped the contents of the milk can into a couple of big cooking pots and that is how they served it. The meat was so tender they could divide it up with a fork. The vegetables were soft, but not mushy.

3) Any other tips or useful advice for preparing and serving would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I would recommend that you play with it once or twice for your own family before trying it on a large group of people…that way you figure it out and don’t end up having an unexpected result in the middle of a big gathering.

I would also figure out how many potatoes, carrots, and how many roasts you are going to need and stuff the milk can to see if you are going to be able to fit everything that you need into the can before cooking for the group.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes.

1) Did one milk can feed 40 people?
2) How did you serve the dinner–did it turn out like a stew, and did you simply dump the contents of the can into a large serving bowl/bucket?
3) Any other tips or useful advice for preparing and serving would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Each family coming to the family reunion was asked to bring items to donate for the auction. These were great as all of my aunts would bring homemade quilts and other incredible handmade items. There would be toys, kitchen items, quilts, homemade goodies and treats, and some junk too .

The Chinese Auction actually was a separate auction or raffle for each donated item. For each item, my Grandma would put a cup. Then she would sell reffle tickets 10 for $1. The kids would all put their raffle tickets in the cups in front of each item that they wanted. If they wanted it really bad, they would put a lot of tickets in the cup.

At the end of the auction time, each item was brought forward, the cup full of raffle tickets was dumped into a bowl and my Grandpa would choose the winning ticket. You had to be present to win.

Often times, the person who put the most tickets in the cup would win, but sometimes the 5 year old who put one ticket in the cup would win a huge kingsize 50 year old quilt or something like that.

It was always an exciting and fun event…there were lots of tickets sold and every family usually came away winning something.