History
Food preservation is a crucial element of our culture — not only here and today, but at almost every point of history, in every location around the globe. To survive, ancient man had to use the adversities of nature to his advantage.
In frozen climates, meat was preserved in ice. In tropical climates, man dried fruits and vegetables in the sun.
From the moment food is harvested, it begins to spoil. Today, we have preservatives — chemical-filled foods that prevent our fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy and meats from spoiling. However, even in the last few hundred years, food preservation has developed to allow communities to make roots and settle, not having to eat the results of a hunt straight away. Even with different cultures and circumstances, every culture used the same basic methods for preserving their fresh food, and these are the methods explored in the book.
Throughout history, the main forms of food preservation have included drying, freezing, fermenting, pickling, jellying, curing and canning. In A. Louise Andrea’s book, she explores just three of these methods: canning, drying and preserving (as per the title,) but here I will seek to enlighten the reader to a brief history of food preservation methods.
Drying
Evidence has shown that in the Middle East, the sun and wind would have naturally dried foods. As early as 12,000 B.C. cultures have been actively drying foods — fruits, fish and wild game — in the hot sun. The Romans were particularly fond of dried fruits, including apricots, dates and figs.In seasons where the sun would not be enough to dry the fruit, a fire would be used to smoke the fruits.
Freezing
One of the most obvious methods of preserving foods we are familiar with today is freezing — we freeze our leftovers, we buy frozen ready meals and purposefully use our freezers to chill certain foods — fruit for smoothies, for example. Before electric freezers were readily available in homes, freezing was an easy method to preserve food in appropriate climates. Geographic areas with freezing temperatures were used to prolong storage times. Underground cellars, caves and cool streams were also used for these purposes.
Fermenting
Fermentation was not a scientific invention, but — most likely — an accidental discovery. Microorganisms ferment starch-derived sugars into alcohols, and the same can happen with fruit into wine and cabbage into kimchi. Alan Eames, beer anthropologist, believed that mankind changed from being nomadic wanderers to settled farmers and communities to grow barley and make beer in at least 10,000 B.C. It was cheap and made the ancient people feel good, and has played a crucial part in culture ever since. Fermentation not only preserves foods, but creates more nutritious foods — bread for example — and can make foods more palatable.
Pickling
Pickling involves preserving foods in acids — often vinegar. Vinegar is produced from starches or sugars which are fermented into alcohol. The alcohol is oxidized by other bacteria, and transformed into a vinegar. Both beer and wine have very low pH’s, so it is believed that pickling originated when food was placed in beer or wine to preserve it. When this happens, the alcohol tastes sour, but the food tastes different — arguably better. Today popular sauces are made through pickling methods, from ketchup to Worcester sauce, to chutneys.
Curing
Today, curing is a form of food preservation and flavouring of fish, meat and sometimes vegetables by the addition of salt, nitrates or sugar, with the aim of drawing moisture out of the food by osmosis. The earliest form of curing in the 1800s was a form of dehydration through salt, as it was found that certain types of salt gave meat its ‘appealing’ red colour rather than the unappetizing grey it would be were it not cured.
Jam and Jellies
Honey and sugar have also been used since the earliest of cultures as a technique to preserve food. Ancient Greeks would mix quince with honey, dry partially and pack tightly into jars. Following this, the Romans developed on this method by cooking the quince and honey together to produce a solidified, candied texture.
Canning
Canning involves heating foods in jars or cans to a temperature that destroys microorganisms and deactivates destructive enzymes. The cooling forms a vacuum seal from the expansion of the heat, which prevents other microorganisms recontaminating the food. Nicolas Appert, 1790s French confectioner, discovered this technique — that being when heat is applied to food in sealed glass bottles the food is preserved from deterioration. His principles were successfully trialled by the French Navy in the early 19th century.