MY mom had the same damn pantry! And she'd buy stuff to 'put away' too. We were NOT allowed to open a tin of 'Vienna Sausages'. This is another American Processed food. They are NOT Viennese, nor are they sausges except in the tubular shape cagtegory. We always teased her that all that tinned food was 'for when the bomb falls'.

Her 'favorite' meals were casseroles...yup, made from tinned veg and condensed soups. She'd never even heard of broccoli or cauliflower til some years after she was married.