What methods were used to preserve food at the time of early Australian settlers.?

Question

Please help.

Any information would be greatly appreaciated.

Answer 1

HISTORY:

Native Australians were the first people to take advantage of the cooling and insulative properties of buried foodstuffs in the earth. Records indicate that over 40,000 years ago they grew large amounts of yams and developed the technique of burying their produce in order to preserve it for future use. In the process they also discovered the phenomenon of fermentation, and ever since, alcoholic beverages have been a large portion of those products stored in underground repositories.
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To Feed a Nation: A history of Australian food science and technology
Keith Farrer
CSIRO Publishing, 2005
ISBN 0 643 09154 8 256 pp A$39.95
The Publishers, 150 Oxford Street (PO Box 1139),
Collingwood, Vic. 3066, Australia
Tel: [phone]; fax: [phone]
Web: www.publish.csiro.au

The author of To Feed a Nation is a remarkable man who has already given to Australia several lasting legacies. Dr Keith Farrer was an outstanding food scientist who spent 43 years with Kraft Foods Ltd in Melbourne in roles from Research Chemist to Chief Scientist, but he also completed a Master of Arts degree at The University of Melbourne and is the author of A Settlement Amply Supplied (1980) detailing food technology in Nineteenth Century Australia. He writes exceptionally well as readers of Food Australia will know from the Letters from London series and other historical papers. Remarkably also, Dr Farrer has been involved in the formation of three key Australian scientific associations: The Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST) formed in 1967 and of which he was the second President; the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences (and Engineering) of which he was Foundation Vice-President (1975-82); and the Australian Nutrition Foundation formed in 1979. He is a Fellow of AIFST and of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology. So who better to write about the history of food technology in Australia.

I am a food technologist with a keen interest in the history of food and food processing, especially in Australia, and To Feed a Nation was enlightening to read. It explains in considerable detail not only what happened with respect to food production, availability and processing at key places and times in the development of Australia, but also why. We learn a lot about the pioneers who made it happen, not always successfully. It shows that Australian entrepreneurs were willing to take on new ideas and technologies soon after their development and introduction in other parts of the world. For some technologies (e.g. long distance refrigerated sea transport of food), Australians were among the earliest pioneers. The isolation, harsh climate and high transport costs were insufficient to curtail the ingenuity and resourcefulness displayed by many of those involved in the fledgling food industry.

The book is composed of three parts. Part 1 (From Techniques to Technology, 3 chapters) outlines food availability before, during and soon after the arrival of the British colonialists in the latter part of the 18th Century and into the 19th Century. The food available on the ships was boring, of poor quality and poor in nutrition, and little changed for years in the young colonies. Food technologies available in those days were village technologies adapted to local conditions, with little scientific understanding of the basis of the technologies used. We should remember that the father of canning, the French chef Nicolas Appert, developed his techniques for heat processing of food in the years leading up to 1810, decades before Louis Pasteur and others demonstrated the microbiological consequences of food spoilage and food preservation.

Part 2 (From Technology to Science, 9 chapters) describes how the many food technologies used for food processing and preservation, from the mid 1800s into the early part of the 20th Century, were studied more intensely and became better understood. Ultimately these technologies were optimised and new technologies developed to provide a wider choice of foods with extended storage life and better quality and nutrition. Part 3 (Science and Technology, 5 chapters) outlines many of the key discoveries, developments and applications of food science involved in the expansion of the food industry in Australia, some of it stimulated as a result of the 2nd World War.

Answer 2

Drying, salting, smoking, pickling in vinegar or sugary syrup and cooking in fat and allowing to set have all been used since ancient times. Canning was invented in about 1800, but the can opener wasn't invented until the 1850s; until then you needed a hammer and chisel to open it. Refrigeration was invented in the 1850s. The first domestic fridges went on sale in 1927.

Answer 3

Salting, pickling, smoking and drying.

People used to pickle a lot of things we no longer would want pickled. People also put meat in crocks and covered over the meat with a heavy layer of lard or other hardened fat. Surprisingly this worked most of the time.

Answer 4

Salting or drying would have been the most common methods - here's some more info that might help
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/foodanddrink/
and some more info here (scroll down the page a little for the articles)
http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/chron/2001-02/02chr01.htm

Answer 5

I believe they used salt and made a brine

Answer 6

dried