Public attitudes towards the food we eat are constantly changing and evolving in unexpected ways. In an era of demanding jobs and 60-hour workweeks, we may be more reliant on frozen and canned foods than we’d like. Canned foods also provide an extraordinary variety of items that might not otherwise be available at all. You’ve probably seen expensive french dough in cans at your local supermarket, but did you know you can buy Reindeer Paté in a can? Well, actually you can! And what about curried crickets? That too! As the Romans wisely said, “in a matter of taste, there is no discussion”.

Food canning long preceded freezing. Canning was invented by a Frenchman hired by the Napoleonic army to preserve food for military cooks for long marches and war campaigns, like Napoleon’s invasion of Russia a year ago, which had a mile-long supply train.

The concept was revolutionary at the time, but it’s actually quite simple: the idea is to seal whatever food item you want to preserve, be it soup, meat, vegetables, fruit, anything, really, in an airtight container made of metal. or glass and then heating the contents to a temperature high enough to destroy any living organisms, such as bacteria or mold spores, that may be present in the container.

Since the container is hermetically sealed, once the heat treatment is complete, the contents must remain “fresh” or at least edible and free from contamination, for months or years thereafter. These days, factory cans are so well made that leaks or cracks almost never occur. In the early days solder was used to seal cans and leaking problems were more common.

In the eons since Napoleon, we have become more sophisticated in fine-tuning the canning process. Vegetables, for example, which contain few natural acids, must be sterilized at much higher temperatures, often with high-pressure steam, than acidic foods such as fruit, tomatoes, or pickled products, which can be sterilized manually. safe simply by putting them in a bath. of ordinary boiling water. That’s because the natural acids present help eliminate unwanted germs.

Therefore, in today’s modern homes, canned foods provide a convenient and inexpensive way to store food long-term without the cost of freezing or refrigeration. And because canning operations are large mass-production enterprises, pound-for-pound canned goods are often much cheaper than fresh alternatives at the supermarket. And those canned goods have the added benefit that they can safely sit in your cupboard at room temperature for several years before you use them.

So far the science of canning. But what about its cultural acceptance, especially by elite chefs and food consumers? Despite scientific progress, it would be hard to find a gourmet chef today who would promote canned goods as superior to fresh. Canned foods are almost always looked down upon, especially by elite cooks and food connoisseurs.

However, this was not always true. A century ago, Sarah M. Williamson, a San Francisco socialite and writer, highly respected in California as a food expert in 1916 when she was 38 years old and at the height of her influence as a popular newspaper writer, began a small crusade in favor of using canned products for gourmet meals. Canning in those days, of course, was still relatively new, and had taken off commercially in a major way in its home state of California, even then the growing United States of America agricultural market. Canning made it possible to double or triple the number of products the state could export.

Sarah Williamson wrote that she often heard her friends tell her that “I hate canned food, I never use it, in fact I’m afraid of it.” But Sarah Williamson had a different perspective, and since she was a recognized authority on food, people listened.

“That’s how hard it is for me to exclaim many housewives,” he wrote in 1916, referring to the above quote.

“But why ban canned goods, especially in California, where the most delicious fruits, vegetables, and meats come in cans? You can make wonderful dishes out of cans! People who haven’t experimented with canned goods, or consider them unhealthy, they make a huge mistake. Most great foods can be obtained from cans. With canned peas, beans (herbs), and asparagus, you can make a perfect salad, and sliced ​​canned tomatoes are also good in salads.

“A can of oxtail soup,” added Williamson, “used as a gravy broth transforms a second-day cut of beef into a fancy stew or roast that a foodie would enjoy. Tomato soup can also be used as a sauce.” , whether on hamburger steak or over meat Chili-tomato is nice over spaghetti or rice or ravioli A Mexican dinner can be made in two seconds with canned tamales or enchiladas, encajonados are used as a side dish; canned spaghetti and Chili. Then, with a green bean salad and some fresh lettuce, dinner is a treat every time. Canned sausages are always tasty and can be combined in many ways with vegetables. Canned mushrooms may not be as good as fresh, but they are tasty in sauces. A can of boneless chicken with a can of mushrooms can be turned into an extraordinary pie, with a creamy sauce and a cracker crust.”

And so the use of canned goods in the First World War, which is around the time Williamson was writing, enjoyed a revival in West Coats as a result of his widely circulated writings on them.

Nearly a century later, the canned versus fresh discussion has continued unabated, though with the introduction of high-quality specialty food markets, especially in high-income urban areas, fresh food products continued to be appreciated by foodies. America’s elite. But canned goods aren’t going away, as a trip to any Krogers, Safeway, or Albertsons will prove, and they continue to serve us well.