Pickled, Potted, and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the WorldWe may not give much thought to the boxes in our freezers or the cans on our shelves, but behind the story of food preservation is the history of civilization itself. The development of portable, preserved food enabled the great explorers to travel into the unknown and gradually map the planet, facilitated the conquest of new territories, and created routes for the expansion of trade and the exchange of knowledge and culture that opened up our world. In Pickled, Potted, and Canned, author Sue Shephard weaves together the stories of the inventors -- and inventions -- in a lively and richly detailed narrative that spans centuries and continents. It is a tale filled with extraordinary characters, old legends, and new revelations: how Attila the Hun and his men "gallop cured" their meat; how cooks became chemists and chemists became cooks and how some even lost their lives, like seventeenth-century statesman and philosopher Francis Bacon, whose death was caused by an experiment with a frozen chicken. From the primitive techniques of drying and salting to the latest methods that have allowed us to feed men in space, Pickled, Potted, and Canned gives us fascinating insights into the histories, cultures, and ingenuity of people inventing new ways to "cheat the seasons." |
Contents
The Longest Journey | 11 |
Shelf Life | 15 |
Drying | 28 |
Salting | 62 |
Pickling in Vinegar | 95 |
Smoking | 108 |
Fermenting | 124 |
Milk Products | 142 |
Navy Blues | 200 |
From Cooks to Chemists | 213 |
Canning | 226 |
Great Journeys | 256 |
Refrigeration and Freezing | 280 |
Dehydration and Beyond | 311 |
Feast or Famine | 325 |
Select Bibliography | 346 |
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Common terms and phrases
acid airtight American Appert bacon baked barrels beans became beef biscuit boiled bottles bread brine British butter cabbage cakes called century cheese cold cooked cool curd cured diet dishes dried drink eaten eggs England English Europe fermented fermented foods filled fish flavor flour food preserving freezing French fresh frozen fruit grain hams Hannah Glasse hard hardtack heat honey huge hung icehouses jars journey juice katsuobushi keep kinds later layer marmalade meal method milk navy nutritional oven packed peas pemmican pepper Peter Durand pickled pieces popular pork portable portable soup pounds preserved foods produce provisions quantities recipes rennet Robert Boyle Romans salmon salt fish salt meat saltpeter sauce sauerkraut sausages scurvy sealed sent ships smoked soup spices stored sugar supplies sweet tarhana taste tinned traditional travelers vegetables vinegar voyage winter wrote yogurt