In the late 18th century, the French army was looking for a way to keep food edible long enough to get it to soldiers on the front lines throughout Europe and beyond. Napoleon’s government offered 12,000 francs to anyone who could develop a proper food preservation system. In 1795, Nicolas Appert, a French chef, candymaker, and brewer, began experimenting with different techniques. He eventually discovered that sealing food in airtight containers and then heating them could prevent spoilage. At first, he packed a variety of foods such as soups, fruits, and vegetables into empty champagne bottles, sealed the cork with a mixture made of cheese and lime, and placed the bottles in boiling water. He then moved from bottles to jars and, eventually to metal cans.
Although food was often dried, smoked, fermented or pickled before the invention of canning, none of these methods were certain to be safe and Napoleon needed his men healthy and eating safe foods. It took Nicolas Appert about 14 years of experimentation, writes Encyclopedia Britannica, but he developed a canning process that worked.
Canning works by placing food in jars or cans (jars, in Appert’s early work) and heating the whole set-up to a temperature that kills bacteria and other microorganisms. As the jars/cans cool, a vacuum seal is formed which prevents other microorganisms from getting in. That’s really clear to us today but Appert could never explain why his method worked. His reasoning was that if bottling worked for wine, why would it no work for food. He focused on removing air from food. He boiled his bottles not because he understood that it killed the microorganisms that spoil food but because it drives out the air.
It won’t be until 1862 that anther Frenchman, Louis Pasteur, reveals the relationship between microorganisms and food going bad. Appert knew that it worked, but he had no idea why, just as 18th Century brewers know that beer is safe to drink (even if made from brackish water) but they don’t understand why. Empiricism is a wonderful thing!
By 1813, both France and England were supplying canned food to their soldiers and sailors but while the problem of properly preserving food was solved, another issue presented itself: how do you open opening the cans? Soldiers resorted to using their weapons to get to their food, trying to cut them open with their bayonets or knives. It wasn’t until decades later, in the 1850s, that the can opener was finally invented.
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