Everyone is familiar with canned food, right? It is a very common way of packaging food. There are many types of canned food on the market, which is often dizzying. Canned food can be canned food, such as luncheon meat, beef, etc., or canned beverages, such as canned soda. , coffee, juice, condensed milk, etc.
So where and when did cans originate? What's its story? Why don’t we have any love for cans in our country? Are you curious about these questions? This knowledge and history are relatively unpopular, please follow my article and take a look.
When talking about the origin of cans, we have to mention one person, that is the famous genius commander in the world’s military history-Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821), and his 12,000 High bonuses in francs.
At the end of the 18th century, as the French army fought against various enemies in Europe, Asia and Africa, Napoleon, who led the army on many expeditions, was increasingly troubled by the supply problem of the army. The food he raised On the way to the front line, they often rotted and deteriorated in large quantities, and could not be distributed to the soldiers in time and quantity. When general commanders encounter this kind of thing, they force their soldiers to endure it hard, because at that time, there were no such advanced food processing and preservation technologies in the world, and the food transportation process was also affected by backward transportation and bad roads. Progress is slow. Therefore, the first requirement for food by almost all armies at that time was not nutrition, taste, or texture, but storage stability.
Even at the end of the 18th century, the food eaten by European soldiers was not much different from that of centuries ago. It was still the same old bread, biscuits and bacon. Although fresh meat and butter were available, once the army was outside During marching operations, these more delicious and complicated foods will magically disappear from the quartermaster's list, and soldiers often can only live on bread, biscuits and bacon. Judging from the existing data, the French army had very few varieties of rations when fighting in the field. Judging from the list of grain and grass extracted by France in Heilbronn, the rations for French soldiers and livestock were only 85,000 pieces of bread and 11 tons of salt. , 6,000 bags of oats, 2,840 liters of wine and several thousand hay from Pu'er City.
The types and nutrients of these foods are not outstanding. Although the soldiers can bite their teeth and eat them, they do not increase the soldiers' energy and morale much. In view of this, great emphasis is placed on food supply and storage issues. , Napoleon, who once bluntly said that his troops marched on their stomachs, was determined to change this situation. In 1800, Napoleon issued a notice to people from all walks of life, offering a huge reward of 12,000 francs for a long-term food preservation technology or equipment that could preserve food for a long time without deteriorating without reducing the nutrition, texture and taste of the food itself. Napoleon's huge bounty ignited the enthusiasm of French inventors. For the reward of up to 12,000 francs, many French people devoted themselves to the invention of long-term food preservation technology. However, for several years, the inventors failed to come up with something that would make people happy. Satisfactory new technology for food preservation. Finally, it was not until 1804 that a food merchant named Nicolas Appert (1749-1841) successfully developed a relatively reliable new food preservation technology. Later, he successfully received Napoleon's He received the reward and used the bonus to open the world's first canning factory to continuously provide food for the army.
Nikolai Appel did a lot of work in his early years. He had experience in making sauerkraut, pressing pulp, brewing wine, etc. He found that the same food in different environments has different effects. The degree of spoilage is very different. Although he has not yet realized that food spoilage is caused by bacteria, he accidentally discovered that if some food is heated properly and then placed in a clean jar, the food can often be stored for many days. Found inspiration and inspiration in this. After comprehensive research and repeated experiments, Nicolas Appel invented the world's first can. Nikolai Appel makes cans like this. He prepares a clean glass jar in advance, then decomposes some food, such as pork, beef and chicken, and then puts the cleaned food into boiling water. Cook on medium for 30 to 60 minutes, adding some salt and spices during this process, then put the cooked food and soup into a jar, seal it with a cork while it is still hot, and finally seal it with the cork. The contact position with the bottle mouth is reinforced with thread and sealed with beeswax.
Although Nikolai Appel’s method of making cans seems primitive, it is indeed very effective. This technology can preserve food for a longer period of time and prevent it from quickly spoiling. The prototype of modern canning. However, the earliest canned food was not a perfect military food. The problem was not only in texture and taste, but also directly related to technology. Because early cans could not be completely sterile during the production process, their shelf life was not as long as modern cans. Moreover, glass jars are very fragile and not conducive to transportation. Cork cannot completely isolate the air and cannot completely prevent moisture, bacteria, etc. in the outside air from harming the food in the can. Glass jars cannot prevent sunlight from irradiating food. Light will cause canned food to deteriorate and lose nutrients. Therefore, canned food did not become popular quickly after its introduction. Due to various problems with Nikolai Appel's glass cans, some inventors began to develop the early canning technology again. This time, the British were at the forefront of the development of canning technology. In 1810, British businessman Peter Durand developed a tin can made of tinplate (commonly known as a tinplate can, or a tin-plated tin can), and obtained the relevant patent, becoming the direct descendant of almost all tin cans today. Ancestor.