Early Food Preservation

Before refrigeration, people preserved food by drying, salting, smoking, pickling, and sugaring. Fruits, vegetables, and herbs were harvested in peak season and dried for later use by slicing produce thin and laying it in a sunny area under a fine-weave cloth, while herbs were clipped, bunched, and hung inside to dry for flavoring or for healing teas. Meat, mainly pork or fish, was preserved by working coarse salt into it after dressing and butchering so moisture would be pulled out, then folding it in brown paper and hanging it in cloth bags, usually in a smokehouse, to cure. Smoking meat and fish was an additional step to salting, using cold smoking for preservation rather than cooking at temperatures under 100°F, often with apple, hickory, or maple wood in a smokehouse made of stone or brick with an earthen floor. Vegetables and eggs were pickled in glazed crocks with vinegar and covered with leather, clarified butter, or a pig bladder stretched across the top, while fruits could be preserved for a few months by packing them in heavy sugar syrup in a crock and occasionally skimming mold from the surface.

Wilkesboro, North Carolina · United States