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Care for some creamed possum … whole chicken in a can! During the first years of the Napoleonic Wars, the French government prompted the newspaper Le Monde to offer a cash award of 12,000 francs to any inventor who could devise a cheap and effective method of preserving large amounts of food. In 1809, a French confectioner and brewer, Nicolas Appert, observed that food cooked inside a jar did not spoil unless the seals leaked, and developed a method of sealing food in glass jars. 50 years later Louis Pasteu discovered the role of microbes in spoilage and in 1810 another French man called Peter Durand created the first tin cans for the French army. Unfortunately they didn’t discover the can opener for another 30 years and the cans had to be smashed open on rocks or with their bayonets!

Here’s a spooky little tune i wrote last year…just to test the Soundcloud player.