Education
Food preservation is as old as human civilization. Preservation of foods inhibits spoilage cause by bacterial growth, oxidation, insects or desiccation.
Two staples of the ancient armies, wine and beer, were preserved for use as military rations. Some armies, the Sumerian and Egyptians preferred beer, while other Romans, Assyrians, Hittites and Germans preferred wine. Sealed properly in jars or wooden casks, wine could be kept for years.
The earliest recorded instances of food preservation date back to ancient Egypt and the drying of grains and subsequent storage in seal silos.
The stored grain could be kept for several years to insure against famine in case the Nile River flooded.
People in many parts of the world developed techniques for drying and smoking foods as far as 6000 BC. Microorganisms need water to carry out their metabolic processes.
Smoking was known to the prehistoric inhabitants of Europe. This process not only dries the food but it also changes its taste by decomposition of the fats and so often avoids the use of spices.
It was used by the German tribes and even by the Romans in historic times.
Salting was so important in Roman life that Roman soldiers received “salarium,” or salt, as payment. This is the origin of today’s term, ‘salary.’
Ancient Mesoamericans used salt as a preservative for trade in fish and other food stuff over long distances, as well as for storing food for long periods of time.
Since Phoenician times (from around 1250 BC) the standard practice for preserving fish was to gut it, dry it and pack it in layers with salt. In Egypt, remains of food found in a tomb dating before 2000 BC included salted fish and a wooden container holding table salt.
Ancient peoples living in areas with cold winters would observe that frozen foods remained in good conditions almost indefinitely, whereupon humans developed rudimentary cold storage by cooling the recesses of caves and other shelters with ice and snow.
After the collapse of the ancient societies, the knowledge of food preservation for military rations was mostly lost and not rediscovered by modern armies until the nineteenth century, when it began to be preserved in tins and other methods of storage.
Food preservation during ancient time
- History Of Salt
Salt first appeared in print in the Peng Tzao Kan Mu (2700 BC), a Chinese pharmacopoeia that differentiated forty types of salt. It is to be believed that salt eating developed as humans learned how to keep animals and grow crops in the years after 10,000...
- High Pressure Food Processing In History
High pressure processing is a technique with the potential to preserve food without the use of the high temperature normally employed in conventional thermal processing and therefore with considerable retention of quality attributes. Studies of the effects...
- Beer Brewing In Ancient Egypt
First beer was brewed by the Sumerians who lived in Mesopotamia between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, in 8000 to 6000 BC. They produced a nutritious, non-perishable and intoxicating beverage by soaking barley or Emmer wheat. For the ancient Egyptians...
- History Of Glass Container
Glass containers were first produced several thousand years ago in ancient Egypt and have been in continues use throughout the ages since. It is known that at least 6000 years ago – long before the man had learned to smelt iron – man knew how to make...
- Ancient Of History Of Bread
The Mesopotamians were the first to try growing and eating different kinds of grains mixed with water which they baked or boiled over fire. Wheat has been found in pits where human settlements flourished 8,000 years ago. The ancient Greeks and Romans...
Education
Food preservation during ancient time
Food preservation is as old as human civilization. Preservation of foods inhibits spoilage cause by bacterial growth, oxidation, insects or desiccation.
Two staples of the ancient armies, wine and beer, were preserved for use as military rations. Some armies, the Sumerian and Egyptians preferred beer, while other Romans, Assyrians, Hittites and Germans preferred wine. Sealed properly in jars or wooden casks, wine could be kept for years.
The earliest recorded instances of food preservation date back to ancient Egypt and the drying of grains and subsequent storage in seal silos.
The stored grain could be kept for several years to insure against famine in case the Nile River flooded.
People in many parts of the world developed techniques for drying and smoking foods as far as 6000 BC. Microorganisms need water to carry out their metabolic processes.
Smoking was known to the prehistoric inhabitants of Europe. This process not only dries the food but it also changes its taste by decomposition of the fats and so often avoids the use of spices.
It was used by the German tribes and even by the Romans in historic times.
Salting was so important in Roman life that Roman soldiers received “salarium,” or salt, as payment. This is the origin of today’s term, ‘salary.’
Ancient Mesoamericans used salt as a preservative for trade in fish and other food stuff over long distances, as well as for storing food for long periods of time.
Since Phoenician times (from around 1250 BC) the standard practice for preserving fish was to gut it, dry it and pack it in layers with salt. In Egypt, remains of food found in a tomb dating before 2000 BC included salted fish and a wooden container holding table salt.
Ancient peoples living in areas with cold winters would observe that frozen foods remained in good conditions almost indefinitely, whereupon humans developed rudimentary cold storage by cooling the recesses of caves and other shelters with ice and snow.
After the collapse of the ancient societies, the knowledge of food preservation for military rations was mostly lost and not rediscovered by modern armies until the nineteenth century, when it began to be preserved in tins and other methods of storage.
Food preservation during ancient time
- History Of Salt
Salt first appeared in print in the Peng Tzao Kan Mu (2700 BC), a Chinese pharmacopoeia that differentiated forty types of salt. It is to be believed that salt eating developed as humans learned how to keep animals and grow crops in the years after 10,000...
- High Pressure Food Processing In History
High pressure processing is a technique with the potential to preserve food without the use of the high temperature normally employed in conventional thermal processing and therefore with considerable retention of quality attributes. Studies of the effects...
- Beer Brewing In Ancient Egypt
First beer was brewed by the Sumerians who lived in Mesopotamia between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, in 8000 to 6000 BC. They produced a nutritious, non-perishable and intoxicating beverage by soaking barley or Emmer wheat. For the ancient Egyptians...
- History Of Glass Container
Glass containers were first produced several thousand years ago in ancient Egypt and have been in continues use throughout the ages since. It is known that at least 6000 years ago – long before the man had learned to smelt iron – man knew how to make...
- Ancient Of History Of Bread
The Mesopotamians were the first to try growing and eating different kinds of grains mixed with water which they baked or boiled over fire. Wheat has been found in pits where human settlements flourished 8,000 years ago. The ancient Greeks and Romans...