Home Canning and Freezing Author:Better Homes and Gardens Preserving food has been a problem for man from the earliest times. If he lived in the arctic, he could freeze it. If he lived in the desert, he could dry it. And if he lived near the ocean, he could pickle it in salt water. Otherwise, he ate as much food as he could before it spoiled. The big breakthrough in food preservation came in 1810 when ... more »a French confectioner named Appert developed a method of preserving food in a bottle. He had no idea why heating food in a sealed container preserved it. That knowledge came years later. Nevertheless, his work had a profound effect on the development of food storage.« less