Preserves

Pastry chef wins competition in canning

Nicolas Appert (Châlons-sur-Marne, October 23, 1752 – Massy, June 3, 1841)

Many ways of preserving food are thousands of years old, such as drying fruit, smoking meat or brining fish. The first artificial method, sterilizing in glass jars or cans, dates back to 1804.

Nicolas Appert was born in 1752 as the son of an innkeeper in Châlons-sur-Marne. He learned the finer points of cooking from his father. After several years of service in a noble kitchen, he settled in 1780, aged 28, as a pastry chef in the center of Paris.

Ten years later, he was already fully engaged in testing all kinds of sterilization methods. The French revolutionaries had plunged into a number of wars and at the same time they had to deal with internal revolts.

The physical condition of the soldiers left much to be desired and the quality of the food played a major role in this. In 1795 the government issued a premium of 12,000 francs for a better method of preserving foodstuffs.

In order to achieve this prize, Nicolas Appert had to demonstrate the validity of the method on a large scale. That is why, in 1804, Appert built a small factory in rural Massy, just outside Paris. In the area he himself planted four hectares of peas and beans.

His first preserves were glass jars or bottles that he closed with cork, sealed tightly and then boiled in copper kettles.

Napoleon Bonaparte, who had been appointed consul for life in 1802, was particularly interested in Appert's work. He was at loggerheads with almost all of Europe, and the French warships could not enter any harbor to resupply.

In 1804, the Secretary of the Navy ordered the pots to be tested. In the war port of Brest, the preserves were stored for three months, then opened and critically examined.

The first canning report in history literally says: 'The meat sauce was good, but a bit thin; the beef itself was very tasty.

The beans and peas tasted fresh and pleasant, just like the freshly harvested vegetables.' A newspaper wrote in those days: 'Mr Appert has discovered the art of determining the seasons himself.' And so it was.

In 1809, the Society for the Encouragement of Industry finally awarded Appert its 12,000 francs premium, but on the condition that he publicize his method in detail.

He did so the following year in a voluminous book entitled The Book of All Households or the Art of Preserving All Animal and Vegetable Substances for Many Years.
In his work, Appert not only outlined his method of conservation, he also gave a detailed description of his studio and of the equipment and materials he used. Anyone could copy it easily and for free.

To underline the general validity of his method, he added forty more recipes, ranging from a pot-au-feu to an asparagus dish. He illustrated how you could put carrot paste as well as strawberries or mushrooms in 'food bottles'.
Appert always worked experimentally. By heating he killed all the bacteria in his jars, he made the contents sterile – he sterilized, without having a scientific explanation for it. It was not until many years later that Louis Pasteur would provide that statement.

In any case, the fragility of the jars and bottles remained a sore point. Appert soon experimented with tinplate receptacles, but Napoleon's wars interfered with his work. In 1814 his factory turned into a military hospital.

So it was that a Briton who had been imprisoned in France could come up with food cans faster than Appert. Although, you couldn't call them cans: they were big iron clogs roughly forged shut. They could only be opened with a hammer and chisel.

Appert belonged to the type of inventors who cannot stop inventing. In 1815 he was 63 years old, but he continued to experiment with passion and ambition, as if he were 23.

He invented a precursor to the modern meat extract, a way to concentrate must and he improved Denis Papin's pressure cooker. In 1827 he succeeded for the first time in concentrating milk, an invention that would not be commercialized until thirty years later.

He was not allowed to complain about a lack of recognition, and yet he fell into disarray. He went too far in his experiments and plans, sometimes pouring huge sums into projects that were doomed to fail. The last few years he spent in poverty in a small house in Massy.

When he died on June 3, 1841, aged 89, there was not even money left to properly bury him. He was interred in a mass grave.