The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years, 2nd ed. Appert Nicolas
art of preserving, by the best possible means, every kind of alimentary substance.
It was after invitations of so great weight, that I resolved to make known a method of effecting this object, of great facility in the execution, and at the same time very cheap, and which, by the extension it admits of, may afford numerous advantages to society.
This method is not a vain theory. It is the fruit of reflection, investigation, long attention, and numerous experiments, the results of which, for more than ten years, have been so surprising, that notwithstanding the proof acquired by repeated practice, that provisions may be preserved two, three, and six years, there are many persons who still refuse to credit the fact.
Brought up to the business of preserving alimentary substance by the received methods; having spent my days in the pantries, the breweries, store-houses, and cellars of Champagne, as well as in the shops, manufactories, and warehouses of confectioners, distillers, and grocers; accustomed to superintend establishments of this kind for forty-five years, I have been able to avail myself, in my process, of a number of advantages, which the greater number of those persons have not possessed, who have devoted themselves to the art of preserving provisions.
I owe to my extensive practice, and more especially to my long perseverance, the conviction:
1st. That fire has the peculiar property, not only of changing the combination of the constituent parts of vegetable and animal productions, but also of retarding, for many years at least, if not of destroying, the natural tendency of those same productions to decomposition.
2d. That the application of fire in a manner variously adapted to various substances, after having with the utmost care and as completely as possible, deprived them of all contact with the air, effects a perfect preservation of those same productions, with all their natural qualities.
Before I state the details of my process, I ought to observe that it consists principally,
1st. In inclosing in bottles the substances to be preserved.
2d. In corking the bottles with the utmost care; for it is chiefly on the corking that the success of the process depends.
3d. In submitting these inclosed substances to the action of boiling water in a water-bath (BALNEUM MARIAE), for a greater or less length of time, according to their nature, and in the manner pointed out with respect to each several kind of substance.
4th. In withdrawing the bottles from the water-bath at the period described.
§ II.
Description of my Rooms set apart for carrying on the Process on a large Scale.[E]
My laboratory consists of four apartments. The first of these is furnished with all kinds of kitchen utensils, stoves, and other apparatus, necessary for dressing the animal substances to be preserved, as well as with a kettle for broth, gravy, &c. containing 180 French pints, raised on brick work. This kettle is provided with a pot to be put within it, pierced with holes like a skimmer, with divisions for holding various kinds of meat and poultry. This pot can be put into and taken out of the kettle with ease. The kettle is provided with a wide cock, to which is fitted, within, a little rose, like that of a watering-pot, covered with a piece of boulting-cloth. In this way I can procure broth or gravy quite clear, and ready to be put into bottles.
The second apartment is appropriated to the preparing of milk, cream, and whey.
The third is used for corking and tying the bottles and vessels, and putting them into bags.
The fourth is furnished with three large copper boilers, placed upon stones raised on brick work. These boilers are all furnished with a stout lid, fitted, to rest upon the vessels within. Each boiler is furnished with a wide cock below, in order to let out the water at a proper time. These large boilers are destined to receive, generally, all the objects intended to be preserved, in order to apply the action of heat to them in a suitable manner; and thus they constitute so many water-baths.[F]
The utensils which furnish the third apartment for the preparatory process consist of
1. Rows of bottle-racks round the room.
2. A reel for the iron wire, to be used for binding the necks of the bottles and other vessels. (Fig. 1.)
3. Shears and pincers for tying on the corks. (Fig. 6.)
4. Machine for twisting the iron-wire after it has been divided and cut to a proper length. (Fig. 2.)
5. Two instruments forming a lever, and used for compressing, and as it were biting the corks. (Fig. 3.)
6. A bottle-boot or block, standing on three legs, and provided with a strong bat for corking. (Fig. 5.)
7. A stool standing on five legs, for tying on the corks. (Fig. 4.)
8. A sufficient quantity of linen bags, for covering the bottles and other vessels.
9. Two stools covered with leather and stuffed with hay, in order to shake the bottles upon them, and in that way force a greater number of peas and other small substances into the bottles.
10. A press for the juice of plants, fruits, and herbs; with pans, vessels, sieves, and every thing else that belongs to it.
Besides my laboratory, consisting of these articles, I have fitted up three apartments.
The first, for preparing vegetables: it is furnished with dressers all round.
The second, for storing up and preparing all kinds of fruit.
The third is a cellar, furnished with bottle racks, for rinsing and setting by the bottles and other vessels, as in a store-house.
I have the precaution to keep the bottles and other vessels I may want, ready rinsed at hand. I am also supplied with an assortment of corks, compressed and bit in the instrument already described. When every preparation is thus made, the process is half done.
The principle by which all alimentary substances are preserved and kept fresh, is invariable in its effects. The result in particular experiments, depends upon the fitness of each individual application of the principle to the substance which is to be preserved, according to its peculiar qualities; but in every case, the exclusion of air is a precaution of the utmost importance to the success of the operation: and in order to deprive alimentary substances of contact with the air, a perfect knowledge of bottles and the vessels to be used, of corks and corking, is requisite.
§ III.
Of Bottles and Vessels.
I chose glass, as being the matter most impenetrable by air, and have not ventured to make any experiment with a vessel made of any other substance. The ordinary bottles have generally necks too small and ill made; they are also too weak to resist the blows from the bat and the action of the fire: I, therefore, caused bottles to be made for my especial use, with wider necks, and those necks made with a projecting rim, or ring, on the interior surface, placed below, and resembling, in form, the rim which is at the top of the exterior surface of the necks of bottles. My object was, that when the cork had been forced into the neck of the bottle, three-fourths of its length, in the manner already described, it should be compressed in the middle. In this manner the bottle is perfectly corked on the outside as well as