When was canning invented? History of canning

Most of us constantly eat canned foods, some more, some less. And no one thinks about how, and how before people did without similar products, how they made supplies for the winter. What is canning, at the expense of what processes do the winter blanks not deteriorate? In this article we will try to understand all this. And let's start from the information about when canning was invented, how a person learned to store meat, vegetables, fruits, drinks for a long time.

What is canning?

Man has long been finding ways to store products, and over time, progress has solved this problem completely and irrevocably. Now people have a slightly different task - to keep the products in such a way that they are as close to their natural state. So, every special event that promotes this is called canning.

Due to this invention, the natural properties of most products can be maintained. In fact, even the word "canning" - from the Latin word and translates it as "preservation". This process is based on scientific justification. After all, what was invented conservation? To defeat visible organisms that destroy foods - fungi, mold, and invisible - yeast fungi and bacteria. The French scientist, Louis Pasteur, laid the foundation for their destruction. That is why sterilization at elevated temperature is called pasteurization.

The first canning experiments, similar to the current ones

But, if you thought that you got an answer to the question of when canning was invented, you are very wrong. Pasteur is not the first person who practically used the method of conservation. Such a person was Nicholas Uppert. He conducted experiments to preserve the products by boiling cans, at that time - tin. In the jar they laid what they were going to store and warm over the steam or hot water. The air was exhausted through a small hole and it was immediately sealed.

Thanks to boiling with salts, the temperature rises to 135 degrees. Over time, people found out all the causes of changes in products, the importance of metabolism and learned to apply more rational canning, which allows you to keep for a long time perishable vegetables and fruits.

Preserving in antiquity

After all, when was canning invented? A birthday can be considered the date of the opening of the first cannery - this happened in England on September 3, 1812. Technology appeared in France in 1809. But interestingly, the secrets of this process have been known for several thousand years. During the excavations in Egypt, when the tomb of Tutankhamen was discovered , the very first canned food was found in the world. They were ducks, which were fried and embalmed in a clay bowl consisting of two glued halves, a bay with olive oil. Three thousand years have passed, but they have not disappeared, remained conditionally suitable for consumption.

People did not risk themselves, but the dogs ate them with pleasure. In the last century, in the USA, even more ancient (created this time by nature) "canned food" were found. At a depth of one hundred meters, laying a tunnel, people passed a layer of transparent rock salt. And it saw a few frozen fish! They were soft and, most likely, edible, but in the fresh air quickly petrified. Their age is more than ten thousand years. Reply to the question of when invented canning, can also Indians from North America. They in the XVII century, grinded the meat in powder, mixed it with different spices and without any problems stored six months in bags of leather. At the same time, people already owned the technologies of marinating, smoking and drying.

Tin cans as an impulse to the development of canning

To find the answer to the question of when canning was invented, one must understand what propelled progress in its development. One such factor was the invention of Peter Durand, an English mechanic, of a tin can. Thanks to its compactness and light weight, transportation became possible, and canned food began to be delivered further - to the British colonies. Although, it was possible to open such banks for a long time only with the help of a chisel and a hammer. Then the lid was soldered more carefully, and the tin was thinner.

Finally, in 1860, invented a can opener, and in the middle of the twentieth century - an engineer from the United States, Ermal Freize, invented cans with a key. The impetus for that was the situation when he and his friends went into the woods for a picnic and found that nobody had taken a special knife for aluminum cans . Progress does not stand still, now the built-in knife can already cut the contents of the container.

Canning in Russia

And when was canning invented in Russia? More precisely, when did it reach our lands? In 1763, organizing an expedition to the polar regions, the scientist Mikhail Lomonosov ordered his assistants for dried soup with spices. Also ordered and without spices, one and a half poods of one and the other.

The first factory producing canned food was launched in our country 58 years later than in Europe (1870). For the needs of the army in St. Petersburg, banks with porridge, pea soup, ragout, meat with peas, fried beef were produced. Canned fish was added to the assortment for the general public.

Over time, the Soviet Union became the leader in the production of canned food. In addition, the matter was not only in the huge number of products (only one Moscow plant produced 100 million cans a year), but in the widest range. Imagine - about 800 names of products from fruit, vegetable, fish and meat canned food, juices. And, of course, we all know that canning for the winter, at all levels, was in our country a horseback in those days.

Main canned food of the Soviet Union

Many of you probably still remember those times when on the shelves of shops there was a lot of tin cans with stuffing. Do you remember with which one the most? That's right - sprats in tomatoes. Recipes of canning her were completely unique. Like the price - 33-35 cents per jar, which only contributed to popularity.

Where did she come from? Kilk tons were caught in the sea, on board the trawler was already salted and quickly sent to the plant. There they sprinkled with flour, dipped in vegetable oil, heated to a boil. The workers of the fish-processing plant then tampered their hearts with cans into tin cans and poured a small layer of tomato sauce.

Modern recipes for canning

What does preservation mean? At the present time, it is quite diverse. Prescriptions for canning include: pickling, pickling, marinating, boiling with sugar. If you will prepare home fruits, vegetables and berries with your own hands, then be sure, it will turn out to be both more useful, aromatic, and tastier than any factory analogues.

If only because the source material will be chosen by yourself, which means that it will be more qualitative. And for sure you will not use various aggressive preservatives that are not very useful for your health. And you will keep it as it should: at low temperature, in a dark room, without getting sun rays. So if you are not too lazy and work hard in the summer and autumn, provide the whole family for the winter with a full vitamin nutrition!