09/03/2025
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A rerun from last year - because so many myths about "how our ancestors canned" still persist:
I thought it would be helpful to address one of the myth's that "rebel" canners reiterate: That everyone water bath canned everything until the USDA came in and told them to do otherwise. Friends, this is so easily disproved...
Before I begin, please note that I've purposefully tried to quote books that are available for free online, from sources like Google Books and Project Gutenberg. So feel free to go look at these books yourself. You don't have to take my word for it :)
Canning began around 1806, when the French army tested confectioner Nicolas Appert's experimental method of putting food in sealed bottles. Soon after, Appert created the first commercial canning operation, switching to tin cans. It's a mistake to think the average person canned food at home at this point in history. Instead, they were busy preserving food the old fashioned way: by smoking, salting, laying meat in fat, dehydrating, or root cellaring. In 1810, Appert published (in French) the first book to explain the canning process. In 1812, the first commercial cannery opened in the United States. In 1858, the first Mason jar (a.k.a. canning jar) was patented; it wasn't a success. Finally, in the 1880s, the Ball brothers began making and selling their version of Mason jars - and home canning really started to gain popularity.
So it's easy to go back and look at books from the mid- to late-1800s and see how they advised people to home can. For example the 1887 version of "Canning and Preserving" by Mrs. S.T. Rorer only has recipes for high acid foods that are safe to water bath: fruit, pickles, and vinegars. In 1893, the "Ayers Preserve Book" likewise had recipes for fruit and pickles.
In 1908, "Household Discoveries, An Encyclopedia of Practical Recipes and Processes" had a whole chapter on canning fruit, and another on making pickles. In the chapter on preserving meat, it covers fermenting, salting, curing, and canning...but not canning as we know it today. They advise using the "aspic" (the juices - importantly including the fat - that come out when you cook meat) to cover meat in jars or crocks. In other words, they describe preserving the meat in fat, an old-fashioned way to make meat last a little longer in the larder. While they did put the meat in a jar, this is not truly canning. For vegetables, the book recommends root cellaring, dehydration, and pickling.
In 1909, the very first Ball book came out, called "The Correct Method of Preserving Fruit." As the title indicates, only fruit products were included.
During this time period, it was independent scientists who figured out how canning actually worked (Appert didn't have a clue) and independent scientists, combined with scientists hired by commercial canneries, who came up with a set of guidelines to follow. These are the basic principles of canning we still follow today.
The idea of water bath canning low acid meat and non-pickled vegetables popped up a wee bit in the 1920s or so. Unfortunately, it lead to a series of well publicized news stories about mass botulism poisonings leading to death. (Google the Zimmer family, the Hein family, and the olive outbreaks of 1919 and 1920 as three examples.) At this time, commercial canneries, which were afraid of business drying up because consumers feared eating their canned food, worked together to iron out some better science. The guidelines that resulted became the guidelines the U.S. government began encouraging home canners to use. The government did no actual testing themselves.
Even so, books aimed at homemakers of the era still clung to the idea that only high acid fruits and pickles were safe to water bath can. In 1925's "Foods: Preparation and Serving" by Pearl L. Bailey, the section on preserving vegetables and meat says the "easiest and best method" of canning vegetables is to use a "steam-pressure outfit." That's what we call a PRESSURE CANNER.
The author also mentions what she calls "the intermittent method:" "In this method, the vegetables are packed into clean jars and sterilized an hour or more for three successive days. This method necessitates the handling of jars many times, the use of more fuel, and several days' labor. Long-heating tends to produce too soft a produce when use for young or leafy vegetables...As we have learned, some bacteria are able to form spores, which are like seeds, that are not killed by ordinary boiling. Soon after the food has cooled, these spores germinate, when they may be killed easily by heating. A second cooling and a third heating, as in intermittent cooking, will render the vegetable absolutely sterile. The steam pressure cooker is the best canner for vegetables and meats."
In 1919, Georgina Spooner Burke documented that botulism spores survived the intermittent method (sometimes called "fractional" canning or "Tyndallization," after its inventor). By 1921, the method had been entirely discredited, as so many people had developed botulism poisoning after using it, and other scientists had shown in labs that the method did not kill off all harmfulo microorganisms.
In 1932, "Home Canning for Better Family Meals" by Emma Sparks emphasizes that "the steam pressure canner" (i.e. pressure canner) "is a heavy aluminum or boiler-iron vessel...the great temperature obtainable with this type of canner makes it more dependable with the less easily kept products such as meat and nonacid vegetables." In 1942, "The A.B.C. of Canning" by Ruth Berolzheimer says, "All meats and nonacid vegetables should be processed only in a pressure cooker, in order to destroy the sporeforming bacteria."
"The Ball Blue Book" from 1966 says, "All vegetables except those mentioned above," (which were tomatoes and sauerkraut) "and all meats, are nonacid...A pressure cooker should be used when canning nonacid vegetables, but some home canners prefer to use a water bath." A few paragraphs down, the editors make a stronger statement that "pressure cookers" must be used for nonacid foods in order to kill "certain organisms."
But here comes the important part. The "Blue Book" states in bold lettering: "ATTENTION PLEASE! Boil canned vegetables (except tomatoes), soups, and meats fifteen minutes before tasting. Reboil those leftover from one meal to another...The purpose of boiling is to destroy any toxin that might be present."
Books of this era state that pressure canning low acid foods is better in every way, and ALL emphasize boiling the contents of each jar for 15 minutes after opening it in order to kill toxin. In other words, they knew botulism toxin could grow in these water bathed jars and that it must be killed before being consumed. What they failed to mention (or perhaps didn't realize) is that opening a jar of botulism toxin spreads the toxin around your kitchen. The spoon you use to stir the food or ladle it into a pan is contaminated. The jar is contaminated, too, so when you wash it, you spread the toxin around. The soap and water you use to wash the jar doesn't kill the toxin, so it's a good thing that in those days you were advised to boil the jars before filling them...but what about the cook's hands? The sink? The cloth or sponge? They get contaminated, too.
So there you have it. Proof that water bath canning low acid foods hasn't always been a thing.
As I always say, botulism poisoning is fairly rare, but completely preventable if you just use a modern, tested safe canning method and recipe and the seal on the jar remains intact. You don't have to worry about food spoiling on the shelf, you don't have to boil for hours, wasting fuel and diminishing the nutrients of your home canned food, you don't have to boil the food even longer after opening the jar, and you never have to worry about making anyone sick. Faster, easier, better end result...It's the way our ancestors canned.
PHOTO from "Food: Preparation and Serving," 1925.
