Tea at Trianon: The Food Revolution

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, November 19, 2012

The Food Revolution

The invention of the canning process.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s famous quote, “An army marches on its stomach,” captures the essence of a military campaign. In 1795, while Bonaparte was emerging as a leader, French armies were fighting across Europe to protect the young Republic, which had been established in 1792 with the deposing of King Louis XVI on Sept. 21 from the established European powers.

It was a significant challenge to equip and feed its soldiers and sailors, with starvation and sickness often more effective enemies than the Austrian, Dutch, English and Spanish armies they faced. To foster the development of a safe way to preserve food that could be easily transported, the French military offered a 12,000-franc (the new currency introduced that year to replace the livre, a franc was the equivalent of 4.5 grams of silver) prize.

Nicolas Appert, who was born Nov. 17, 1749, in Châlons-en-Champagne, Marne, France, responded to the challenge. (Read entire post.)