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| Industrialized Canning, 1917 |
Revolutionary France
The 1790s saw France descend into political upheaval turning it into a pariah state. The monarchy fell violently and Europe reacted in this regicide with war. All major European powers attacked France hoping for territorial gains and nipping the bud of republicanism.
By the middle of the 1790s French blood continued to flow. The guillotine still took heads on an industrial scale while actions in the battlefield intensified. Nevertheless, Revolutionary France endured.
Amidst this chaos, men like Lazare Carnot stepped up to mobilize the French Army in defending the Revolution. Carnot’s administrative skills and impeccable organization brought victories in the battlefield. So much so, he earned the nickname "The Organizer of Victory."
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| Lazare Carnot |
The French Army adopted fast maneuvers to fight the coalition army of monarchist Europe. The strategy required a lot of men and rapid mobility. Thus, conscription doubled the army’s size from around 600,000 to 1.2 million.
In 1795, a five-membered Directory took over France. Lazare Carnot brought his battlefield experience and his administrative skills to this Directory. While he sat as a member, the Directory tackled issues from the front including the issue of logistics and food.
Prior to his appointment in the Directory, Carnot addressed shortages in the military, from copper to even saltpeter used to create gunpowder. In the latter, he employed great minds in chemistry such as Jean-Antoine Chaptal to increase the production of saltpeter. As a member of Directory, he also wanted the challenge of food supplies to be addressed.
With the army’s size doubling and the need to be fast and agile, traditional sources of supplies would not work. Foraging took time and the amount of the collection may not be enough to feed plenty of mouths. If food came from friendly sources, the quality may already be poor if not spoiled.
Preservation techniques during the 18th century relied on salt and sugar. Homes pickled vegetables, smoked or salted meat, and candied fruits. Feeding an army with such type of foods required incredible amounts of the condiments. There also existed the bad effects of too much salt and sugar, not to mention the experience of eating candied and pickled foods everyday. The Directory searched for a solution to better feed soldiers.
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| Preserved food in Mason Jars |
The Call and the Answer
To find a better and more efficient means to preserve food and feed an army, the Directory decided to launch a contest. They offered 12,000 Francs to anyone who finds a new method of preservation. The answer to the call came more than a decade later and from a candy maker.
Nicolas Appert heeded the call for improving the preservation of food without compromising quality and taste. Born in Chalons-sur-Marne in 1749, Appert worked for decades in the food sector as a chef, confectioner, and distiller. In 1795, he saw the details of the challenge and reward by the Directory and began work to solve it.
His saga lasted for 14 years, but Appert felt confident of himself to solve the puzzle. He stated his edged:
“Brought up to the business of preserving alimentary substance by the received methods; having spent my days in the pantries, the breweries, store-houses, and cellars of Champagne, as well as in the shops, manufactories, and warehouses of confectioners, distillers, and grocers; accustomed to superintend establishments of this kind for forty-five years, I have been able to avail myself, in my process, of a number of advantages, which the greater number of those persons have not possessed, who have devoted themselves to the art of preserving provisions.”
With a keen sense of observation and long experience, Appert hoped to create a preservation process that would answer the needs of the French military. It took several years and countless experiments to find the perfect process. By 1809, Appert found it.
By 1810, the Board of Arts and Manufactures wrote to Appert commending his technique. However, before handing out the 12,000 Francs reward, the Board requested Appert to publish his findings in 200 copies. He agreed and in 1811 published his work The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years.
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| Nicolas Appert |
Appert’s Preservation Technique
Appert’s preservation process relied on food being bottled, sealed, then boiled into water. It came as a result of years of observation and experimentation based on his long food experience. Ultimately, he found a new way to preserve food, but lacked the scientific facts to explain the process.
The first step in Appert’s quest began with his experience as a distiller. He observed wines remaining drinkable for years despite being stuck in a bottle and corked for years. From this, he decided to use bottles as the container for the preserved food.
He then turned his attention to the sealing of the bottles. He initially used corks only. Later on, he decided to reinforce the corks with wire and wax before going to the most important part of his preservation technique.
Appert’s preservation technique required the placing of the bottles in boiling water. He observed that after having the containers boiled, the food inside remained edible for months and even years. His explanation, however, remained only as an observation and lacked a definitive scientific explanation.
The scientific explanation came decades later with the proliferation of Pasteurization. Louis Pasteur promoted the boiling of wine to kill off germs causing spoilage. From wine, the process proved then expanded its effectiveness, from milk, to water, and other food stuff. Finally it explained why the food in Appert’s bottles remained edible as the boiling of water killed the germs inside.
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| Louis Pasteur in his laboratory, a painting by A. Edelfeldt, 1885 |
Aftermath
Appert’s preservation technique drew amazement from those who consumed his products. This emboldened him to establish a company, while others found new ideas to improve his technique. In the end, it still took several decades before canned food became a food for the masses.
The Navy wasted no time in trying Appert’s bottled food. Prior to the bottles, sailors suffered from scurvy, malnourishment, and worm infested biscuits. Thus, they lose nothing from trying an apparently harmless bottled food. On April 19, 1810, officers who tasted Appert's bottled soup wrote a review, writing:
''The broth or soup (bouillon) in bottles were good;... but weak; the bouilli itself was very edible. The beans and green peas, prepared both with meat and vegetable soup, had all the freshness and flavor of recently gathered vegetable.''
In other words, better a weak soup than a maggot filled biscuit or even hunger. The review just supported a previous opinion of renowned food critic of the Napoleonic era, Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de la Reynière, who in 1806, while Appert still developing his technique wrote about one of the sample preserved green peas:
“green, tender and more flavorful than those eaten at the height of the season.”
The receipt of the 12,000 Francs, encouraged Appert to establish a company to produce bottled food for the military and even to the masses. The Ministry of Interior encouraged it as well. Thus, he established the La Maisson Appert or the House of Appert by 1812 in Massey. His company remained active until 1933.
While contemplating his company in 1810, some already found ways to improve Appert’s preservation technique. Philippe de Girard introduced the use of iron or tin cans instead of bottles. He had the idea patented in London, but the patent named Peter Durand as the proponent. Durand sold the rights to Bryan Donkin and John Hall who later established a canning factory. Thus, packaged food began to be made in France and England.
Eventually, "Appertized" food failed to create a massive impact in the front lines. The lack of mass production as well as logistics to bring huge amounts of GLASS BOTTLES to the soldiers caused the shortcomings. Eventually, it took about half of a century before the battlefields and markets saw canned foods to be accessible.
Summing Up
The story of the development of bottled, or canned, or packaged food shows war like a coin. There are 2 sides to war, for starters it caused death and destruction, but in contrast, it also witnessed innovations that turned from military to civilian. Just as in the case of packaged preserved foods, from feeding armies, it later fed workers. It became a staple of every pantry across the globe. The story also posts a challenge to humanity: to slowly and gradually lessen or even eliminate war or conflicts to drive innovation, or in other words, the weaponization of science and technology.
See also:
Industrial Revolution of France
Bibliography:
Book:
Appert, N. The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years. London, London: Black, Parry, and Kingsbury, 1812.
Chaptal, J.A. Mes Souvenirs sur Napoleon. Paris: E. Plon, Nourrit, et Cis., 1893.
Website:
Barksdale, Nate. "How Canned Food Revolutionized The Way We Eat." In History Channel. Accessed on May 12, 2024. URL: https://www.history.com/news/what-it-says-on-the-tin-a-brief-history-of-canned-food
Eschner, Kat. "The Father of Canning Knew His Process Worked, But Not Why It Worked." In Smithsonian Magazine. Accessed on April 1, 2024. URL: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/father-canning-knew-his-process-worked-not-why-it-worked-180961960/
Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. "Nicolas Appert." In Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on April 1, 2024. URL: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolas-Appert
Soboul, Albert. "Lazare Carnot." In Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on May 10, 2024. URL: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lazare-Carnot
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