bottling

In late summer, the villagers of Marnaves in South-West France are devoted to bottling their prime, freshly harvested home-grown fruit and vegetables ready for the winter. One neighbour, Maryse, once explained to me that when freezers came into fashion, everyone switched to freezing – but soon realised that bottling preserves those summer flavours so much better.

 So they went back to the method that had been popular since it was invented in 1795 by Nicolas Appert. A Parisian chef, confectioner and distiller, Appert was active during the French Revolution and in 1793 took part in the execution of Louis XVI. Inspired by a government prize of 12,000 francs for a new method of preserving food (to sustain Napoleon’s armies during long military campaigns), Appert set to work. He discovered that when food is sealed in a glass container and then heated in boiling water for an appropriate length of time, it will keep well for many months. In 1810 he published The Art of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Substances. His revolutionary work was key for long-distance transportation and increasing the availability of nutritious food – 6,000 copies were printed.

Some ripening coeur de boeuf tomatoes growing in my garden in Cardiff.

Maryse’s husband Michel grows huge quantities of fantastic, sunny tomatoes – coeur de boeuf, noire de Crimé (a Ukrainian tomato) – alongside French beans, courgettes, red peppers, cucumbers and pumpkins in their potager (kitchen garden). They take great care of their soil, which is enriched by their compost heap and with the specially-saved coffee grounds that they use to encourage their most tender plants.

In time-honoured tradition, Maryse gets to work bottling their harvest to sustain them through the winter. In Britain, we talk about ‘bottling’ fruit – but we don’t use bottles, we use wide-necked glass jars. Americans call the same process ‘canning’, which is just as confusing. Whatever it’s called, I am now an absolute convert to this French technique, and whenever I am blessed with a glut of tomatoes, French beans, or find an abundance of something irresistible at the farmer’s market, my immediate instinct is to get bottling.

Some of my hoard, left to right: bottled peaches with vanilla, ceps, French beans and tomato purée.

There are important rules of food safety involved that need to be carefully observed. I go into these in a fair bit of depth in my book, along with more information about the process and the equipment needed. There are recipes for bottled apricots, peaches, French beans and tomato purée to get you started on your own bottling adventures …