The Story of Food Preserving
The history of food preserving is the story of civilisation itself. Without preservation techniques, we would still be hunter-gatherers, dependent on the seasons for our nourishment. This book weaves together the stories of the inventors and key developments of food preservation in a lively and richly detailed narrative that spans centuries and continents. It is a tale littered with extraordinary characters, old legends and new revelations. It describes how Attila the Hun and his men gallop cured their meat, how cooks became chemists and chemists became cooks, how men made or lost fortunes and some even lost their lives - such as the worker in an early canning factory, killed most ridiculously and ignobly by an exploding tin of turkey.
From the primitive techniques of drying and salting to the latest methods that have allowed us to send men into space, 'Pickled, Potted and Canned' gives us an extraordinary insight into the histories, cultures and ingenuity of people in their struggle to invent new ways to cheat the seasons.
