[Sca-cooks] OT Preserved Foods

[AEllin Olafs dotter]

Yes, canning is 19th Century.

Napoleon wanted a way to preserve food for his troops. Remember, one of 
the secrets of his success was that he treated troops better than most 
did at the time, and firmly believed in feeding them well. So he had a 
contest for new methods of food preservation.

Someone, I don't remember who (but French, of course) figured out a way 
to preserve peas in a champagne bottle (and won the contest!)  Used the 
bottle because it withstood pressure. I think they started with a steam 
method, which we would consider unreliable, but which was a great 
breakthrough. Once the basic idea was there, improvements continued 
through the century. It didn't become common practice until fairly late.

Remember this from 19th Century History, not Food History, so I don't 
know any more detail...

AEllin


lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

>
>
> While foods were preserved in a variety of ways (and i haven't 
> prepared very many of them, personally), they didn't do canning as we 
> do now (i assume that's 19th century and came about with some change 
> in technology - like the glass jars and canning lids) And many some 
> change in knowledge (about boiling and sealing to keep out germs or at 
> least to keep the food from decomposing).
>
> What i made had salt and/or vinegar. I don't think any of them would 
> have kept for greatly extended periods of time.
>
> Anahita
>