At the turn of the 19th century, Napoleon’s French Army needed help. Specifically, they needed a more effective way of feeding the troops, one that kept them energized over long periods of time without the supplies going bad. Nicolas Appert, chef to the nobility, stepped up to the plate and figured out a way to store food for mind-boggling amounts of time in glass jars sealed with wax. In 1810, he won a prize of 12,000 francs from the French government for his innovation and spent the rest of his life perfecting the process and writing cookbooks about how to preserve food. A few years later, Englishman Brian Donkin started using tin instead of glass to prevent breaking, and what we now know as canned food as born. Read more →