Taste of the Season
September is one of the months known for county fairs across our great nation. I always enjoyed going to the fair to view the artworks created by local artists even being honored to juror those shows. Along side these entries were always the awesome quilts that I dreamed of curling up under on the couch with a good mystery. Another colorful treat to the eyes were the rows of canned foods displayed in those glass Mason jars. I am envious of those talented folks who can create those jars of wholesome goodness in the greens of cucumbers and okra to the yellows of squash and peaches to the reds of tomatoes and salsas. Yum!
For city dwellers it would be hard to imagine a world where you don’t open a can of tuna for a quick lunch, a can of soup on a crisp winter day or for use in a recipe, a can of green peas for the side at dinner or the readymade spaghetti sauce for the family get-together. It is even harder to think of a world without a can opener.
The process of preserving foods whether in glass or tin was the answer to a challenge from Napoleon. The French emperor saw that his troops were suffering from poor nutrition and issued a Preservation Prize in 1795 for 12,000 francs to anyone who could improve the process of preserving foods. Fifteen years later, French Chef Nicolas Francois Appert offered a solution called canning. Also the inventor of bouillon cubes, he created a way of sealing food in glass jars. Appert believed that using heat to seal the jars would keep decay out and only until Louis Pasteur discovered the process of pasteurization in 1863 did the world come to understand the role of bacteria in food spoilage.
The glass jars used in Appert’s method were cumbersome and had a tendency to explode so in 1811 food cans made of tin were patented in Britain. In 1813 Bryan Donkin served canned beef to King George III and Queen Charlotte. The first tin can arrived in America in 1825 when Kensett and Daggert sold their patented cans filled with oysters, fruits, meats and vegetables to New Yorkers. Not a commercial success, canned food was not very popular until Gail Bordon brought the new world condensed milk in 1856. Real wide-spread demand for canned goods arrived with the Civil War. I guess an army really does travel on its stomach. One problem with the tin canned food was opening them for use. The first “can opener” was not invented until 1860 and until that time the consumer had to use hammer and chisel or knife to open the can. The more commercially friendly opener wasn’t developed until the 1920’s. Tin can production increased again to feed soldiers in World War I and World War II. On the home front, civilians started canning more and more to feed their families especially with food rations and Victory Gardens. Home canning used glass jars.
In 1858, John L. Mason patented the glass Mason jar for canning. He had created a metal screw-top that year which replaced the old Appert’s cork, wax and wire seal on the original glass canning container. In 1884 the Ball Corporation stated producing the glass jars for home canning that are still popular today especially in combination with Alexander Kerr’s two-part lid (1915).
The greatest danger with canning food is the deadly bacterium that can develop in containers not properly done. In 1895, a team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) determined that applying pressurized steam at 120 degrees would kill bacteria in 10 minutes and in 1917 the USDA determined that pressure canning is the only safe was to process low-acid foods. Of course, not everyone follows safety guidelines and in 1931 the dangers of home canning revealed itself when twelve people including some children died after consuming improperly home-canned food at a dinner party in North Dakota. The peak of home canning in the United States with more than four billion cans and jars processed occurred in 1943. Shortly afterwards in 1945, the increased of availability of home refrigerators created a decline in the popularity of canning food at home. Home canning has had its ups and downs in popularity since 1945 and unfortunately the outbreaks of Botulism still occur now and again. The largest recorded outbreak was 59 people becoming ill with Botulism after eating salsa prepared with home canned jalapenos at a Mexican restaurant in Michigan in 1977.
Canned foods shown at county fairs are often family recipes passed down through generations of agriculture families. My parents were of the 40’s generation and did canning, but the closest I have come is using the Mason jars as drinking glasses or for a water container as I paint with my watercolors. I foresee home canning staying around especially with some of the food shortages and inflation recently. If you’re interested in taking up canning, I urge you to research the proper ways. There are plenty of books on the subject from the Ball’s Blue Book of Canning to the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning. The new generation will also find lots of Youtube videos to guide you through the process whether it is low-acid or acid-based foods. Remember safety first and enjoy those beautiful colors of the jars that have captured the tastes of a season.