Canning Motivation

• During the late 1700s, French general Napoleon Bonaparte offered money to anyone who developed a way to keep his armies fed. In France, according to Virtualcities.com, Nicholas Appert thought of the idea of preserving fruits and vegetables in bottles, similar to the process of fermenting wine. "After 15 years of experimentation, he realized if food is sufficiently heated and sealed in an airtight container, it will not spoil."
  
  

Canning Growth

• An Englishman named Peter Durand took Appert's process somewhat further and developed a method in which he sealed food into tin containers. Bryan Dorkin and John Hall perfected this when they set up the first commercial canning factory in England in 1813, according to Virtualcities.com. "As more and more of the world was explored, and as ... armies took on greater importance, the demand for canned foods grew."
  
  

Canning Success

• To successfully can fruits and vegetables, the airtight containers had to be sealed properly. Nicholas Appert used tin cans for his trial-and-error period, but glass jars are often used today, according to Missvickie.com. In the 18th century, the term "sterilization" was not used or defined, but in order for canning to successfully preserve food, the contents must be thoroughly cooked before being tightly sealed in tin containers.
  
  

Canning Vegetables

• Canning vegetables and meat did not account for the successes when the process was invented, due to low acidity in foods. If the vegetables were completely unseasoned, they wouldn't last long in the sealed tin jars and sometimes caused illness, according to Missvickie.com. "One prevented spoilage by use of salt, sugar, vinegar and spices that did a marginal job of preventing spoilage bacteria."
  
  

Canning Fruit

• In the early days of canning, using fruit was more successful a task than canning meat and vegetables. The key was adding preservatives, and canning jars were often referred to as fruit jars because fruit was used most often. According to Missvickie.com, preservatives such as syrup or brine would be poured over the top of the canned fruit, then sealed tightly. Brine is water that has been saturated with salt.