Reprinted with permission of Rabbi Blech. When it comes to food, we generally consider fresh food to be best. However, fruits and many vegetables are generally harvested only once a year, and our preference for freshness must also give way to the need to preserve such foods for consumption during the rest of the year. Fruit, vegetables, milk and meat are very perishable, all the more so in the days before modern refrigeration.
History is replete with innovations that allow food to be stored for long periods without spoiling.
Some hearken back to the times of the Tanach , where they often played a pivotal role in the vicissitudes of history. Noach fermented grape juice into wine, allowing his sons to demonstrate the characteristics that would mark them for eternity. Each process raises its own unique Kashrus concerns. Napoleon s armies were in the process of conquering Europe, which entailed a lot of marching, and he needed a means of providing his French army with wholesome and palatable provisions. To this end he offered a 12,000- franc prize to anyone who could develop a means of preserving food for the army and navy, which was won French chef named Nicholas Appert in 1809.