A Napoleonic Ode (and Lean Cuisine Pizza!)

Hmmmm…staring at your pantry, cupboard or freezer, wondering what to eat? Jams, jellies, preserved fruit, frozen food or canned ham? Who do you have to thank for this cornucopia of chow? Clarence Birdseye? That Foster Farms chicken guy?

How about Napoleon?

Napoleon? Auntie, you ask, can you be serious? Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Emperor?

Apparently…yes. I have to confess, as the doyenne of the deep-freeze and mistress of the masticated, I was surprised to find out just how much the much-maligned 18th-Century Emperor of France contributed to our daily diet. 12,000 francs, to be exact, although that was 1810 francs, so I suspect it was indeed a lot of dough.

In 1795, (Wikipedia claims 1800) the French Directoire, apparently serious about that “an army marches on its stomach” quotation, offered a 12,000 franc prize to anyone who could develop and prove a new, efficient means of food preservation. A man named Nicolas François Appert (1750-1841), variously known as a confectioner, hotelkeeper, brewer and chef, wanted that prize money and spent 15 years of his life perfecting a method of preserving foods. Interestingly, he never actually understood what it was about his process that made it work, but work it did. Appert’s method was surprisingly simple; partially cook various foods, place them in a glass jar, seal the jar with a cork, and then cook it further in boiling water. The result was an airtight container holding cooked foods that would keep for long periods of time, a method that is still used in concept by today’s home canners. Appert demonstrated his methodology by sending a collection of preserved food to Napoleon’s army, which took the samples to sea with them for over four months. Appert gleefully wrote about the experience that “[w]hen opened, 18 different kinds of preserved foods were tasted, every one of which had retained its freshness, and not a single substance had undergone the least change at sea.” Given that he had sent preserved partridges, vegetables and gravy to Napoleon’s troops, one has to wonder just how tasty months-old boiled partridge can be, but given the preponderance of scurvy at the time, I would bet that the seagoing soldiers fell on this new delight like ravening wolves. Appert indeed received the 12,000 franc prize – from Bonaparte himself - and unwittingly launched the era of preserved foods with his "partridge cartridge," so to speak.

Within a year, a fellow Frenchman, Pierre Durand, (also known as Peter Durand) had relocated to Great Britain and had applied for a British patent to preserve food “in vessels of glass, pottery, tin, or other metals or fit materials.” King George III of course saw the value in keeping up with his rivals across the sea and granted the patent. Durand surpassed Appert by using tin instead of glass – creating the first canned food – and ushered in the advent of supermarkets (if you think about it).

On a humorous note, Appert used the proceeds from Napoleon’s prize to set up his own “boiling factory,” to sell preserved foods to others, but it was burned down less than ten years later…during the Napoleonic Wars. The Emperor giveth, and the Emperor taketh away, apparently.

Now, wasn’t that Appertizing?

Meanwhile, over at the Diner, ChristenW has just reviewed Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine Casual Eating Spinach and Mushroom Pizza, giving it a walloping 5 forks. She writes:

“This pizza is SOOOOO good - easily the best

frozen pizza I've ever had, diet or otherwise.

I'm a fan of 'white pizza,' "…

read the rest of ChristenW’s review here.

Visit us at the Icebox Diner!! Read over 1,000 consumer-to-consumer reviews of frozen food, prepared meals and convenience dinners.

Photos: Napoleon image, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons; Canned foods, copyright istockphotos.com, all rights retained. Please do not steal the images.