The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years, 2nd ed.: A work published by the order of the French minister of the interior, on the report of the Board of arts and manufacturesAppert, Nicolas
Science
The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years, 2nd ed.: A work published by the order of the French minister of the interior, on the report of the Board of arts and manufactures
Appert, Nicolas
Canned foods
After having spoken of bottles, their form and quality; of stoppers,
and the length of the fine cork of which they ought to be composed; of
the corking and tying; of bags, their form and utility; I proceed to
give an idea of vessels with large necks, that is, glass jars, which I
make use of for preserving solid and bulky substances, such as poultry,
game, meat, fish, &c.
These jars have necks of two, three, or four inches diameter, and are
of a larger or smaller size; like bottles, they are furnished with a
projecting rim, not only in order to strengthen the neck, but also
for receiving the iron wire destined to bind the corks. I have not
yet been able to procure from the glass-houses a similar projecting
rim in the interior of the neck of these jars, as I have in that of
the bottles. The completely corking up these vessels, is, from this
circumstance, rendered more difficult, and demands especial care.
I met with another obstacle in the cork itself, from its thinness (more
especially when the cork was very fine), and also from its ascending
pores being against the grain. I was therefore obliged to form stoppers
of three or four pieces of cork, from twenty to twenty-four lines in
length, placed together the way of the grain, the pores of the cork
being placed horizontally, by means of isinglass prepared in the
following manner.
I melted over the fire four drams of well beaten isinglass, in eight
ounces of water: when melted, I caused it to run through fine linen;
and then put it again over the fire in order to reduce it to one third
of its volume. After which I added an ounce of good full-proof brandy.
I then left the whole on the fire till it became reduced to about three
ounces. I then put the glue thus prepared in a little pot over live
coals, and took care to warm my pieces of cork. I then slightly smeared
over the pieces of cork with a brush, in order to glue them together.
When the pieces composing the stopper were well fixed and glued
together, I then fixed a tight thread to the two extremities of the
stopper, in order to keep the pieces together, and let them dry, either
in the sun or in a gentle heat for about a fortnight. At the end of
this time I took a cork-maker’s knife and cut my stoppers of a proper
shape; and having always fitted them to the mouth of the jar, they have
never proved defective.
Having corked my jars, and driven in the stopper by means of the bat,
the bottles being always placed upright in the bottle-boot, I made use
of a compound luting. This luting (communicated to me by Mr. Bardel)
is made of quick lime, which is slaked in the air by being sprinkled
with water, till it becomes reduced to a powder. The powder to be kept
in this state in corked bottles ready for use. This lime mixed with a
cheese made of skimmed milk (_fromage à la pie_), and formed to the
thickness of paste, produces a luting which hardens rapidly, and which
withstands the heat of boiling water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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