Food That Preserved A Nation

We eat preserved food everyday. Modern day conveniences offer canned goods, even deep freezers for meat and vegetables. What about 250 years ago. How did folks make it by in times of drought or through a harsh winter? Find out in “Food That Preserved A Nation.”

Instagram ➧ townsends_official

[FrikInCasualMode]

Many of those techniques are still used in rural Poland. Every fall, when it gets cool enough we pack sauerkraut into a barrel with salt and shredded carrots for color and health benefits. We dry forest mushrooms to add them to soups and sauces during winter. We pickle cucumbers in jars. And many houses still have small smoke houses in the backyard, to smoke homemade sausages and cured hams or slabs of bacon.

[scriptonite]

Many people don't realize that they had to endure the spring as well. The harvests of summer and fall are a long way off. Gardens do not produce food immediately. Spring can be bleak.
But hope is there.

[SunsetWatcher]

Beef jerky went from essential preserved staple to luxury good. Jerky prices are outrageous.

[leviswranglers]

It's kind of crazy that preserving food is the backbone of history and yet it's rarely given the credit it is due. Excellent video and wonderful information.

[Nanan]

My great grandparents had a farm in southern Michigan SW of Battle Creek, the area is now subdivisions sadly. Anyway they had a dedicated smoke house for smoking meat that was built in the mid 1800's, it took 4 cows worth of meat to fill that thing but every fall gramps would do 2-3 batches and give/sell/trade much of it. The dried meat was smoked with apple wood that was trimmings from their apple orchard that made up the majority of their farm land. I have not tasted any dried beef that has tasted so good or had that smooth texture since.

[kainaaguiarferreira]

You are an amazing Youtuber, thank you for your service!❤

[essaboselin]

My mother's family lived on a farm at the start of the Depression. They salted their pork every fall after slaughtering. According to my mom and aunts, the saying: "Scraping the bottom of the barrel" exists for a reason. By the time you got to that last bit of meat, you had to be hungry to eat it. It might not be bad, per se, but it sure wasn't good.

[stevekunz]

Used to smoke a lot of salmon back in my Alaska years, I lived on an island near a beaver pond and would gather the alder chips they left behind when downing trees, some of the best smoked sockeye ever.

[fish-dxzx]

In a world of chaos, your videos are always a calming presence. Love to watch them. Thank you

[ArtiDificial]

Your channel should be shown in elementary (6th grade) and middle schools. This is super educational, entertaining, and very appropriate for all ages. It piques curiosity, which is the catalyst for passion. You're like the Bill Nye of olde world cooking, and if you inspire a single child to become a historian then you're a success.

[u.s.militia]

I live in Saltville Virginia.The first recorded battle ever fought here, over the salt, goes back to the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1500’s. All of them were about food preservation.

[NorThenX]

These videos make me feel conflicted. It's such an enjoyable, educational and calming video that gives me a sense of dread due to how little I actually know if the grocery stores turn empty and the grid goes down

[Just_Sara]

This. Video. Is. SPECTACULAR. I've learned a lot about fermentation and curing the past few years, and I can validated that everything you've said lines up with what I've heard, and I LOVE THIS VIDEO!! Imagine how excited our ancestors would have been over pressure canning! The ability to completely eliminate spoilage and the risk of botulism and other foodborne germs makes me very, very happy.

[wmschooley]

As a child, I remember that my great-aunt and uncle’s Indiana farm had a fully stocked fall root cellar up until the 1930 when rural electrification finally reached their farm. Potatoes, beets, squash, gourds, mason jars full of green beans, sacks of wheat and the hand mill were all down there. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Respectfully, W.S.

[slomkaadas]

I would like to thank you and your friends for creating this content. I've been watching you guys practically since the beginning, and I'm learning a lot from you - not to mention just honing my English. I can honestly say that this is one of the most interesting and best-run YouTub channel. Let's hope for the best.
Warm greetings from Poland, cheers 🍻

[HBrooks]

thinking 5 years ago about how to do things in the kitchen more naturally led me to your channel. the cheesemaking episodes you had then inspired me to learn about cheesemaking. now, thanks to a few other cheesemaking youtubers i know how to make cheese of different types.
thanks again for years of BETTER THAN TV entertainment combined with knowledge.
love ya John and Co.! keep making knowledge videos.

[RagnarokCo]

I love learning about topics like these. It really is humbling, the techniques we take for granted that built the societies we know today.

[matthewthompson]

I love this channel. I wish everyone was as enthusiastic as Jon in sharing their knowledge and interests. Love and respect from Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[RebeccaTreeseed]

I moved to the high desert for other reasons, but quickly noticed how easy it is to dry food here. I shifted to mostly dehydrating my garden produce. I love pickling hard vegetables and making vegetable relishes.

[brianartillery]

In Essex, in England, in the 1930's, two workmen were doing some renovations to an ancient building. They discovered a void between floors. When they broke into it, they found it to be a smoke loft, built as part of a huge chimney. More interesting to the men, was the large ham, black, and aged, hanging there. The owner of the building reckoned it must have been there at least a hundred years. He, and the workmen tried it, and it was pronounced to be excellent.