“An army marches on its stomach,” Napoleon is supposed to have said. But unfortunately for the armies of his time, the food available to the stomachs of those hungry soldiers was neither appetizing nor nutritious--consisting primarily of hard bread and salted meat. Napoleon wanted to better feed his army, so he offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could invent a better way to store and preserve food.

The chef Nicolas Appert rose to the challenge. After years of trial and error, he eventually perfected a method of putting food in jars and then submerging the jars in boiling water to preserve the food and seal the jars. In other words, he invented canning.

Appert won the prize and the fame that came with it. The process he invented is essentially the same process we still use today.

Appert is still celebrated and well-known in France, where "canning" is called "appertization".

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Tames’ head is full of random historical facts from her research, and this is where she shares them. New facts are added bi-monthly, so check back regularly to see what Tames has dug up.

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