Preserving food for later use or transportation

Sea salt harvest - France
Rolf Süssbrich -own work

Salting was one of the most used methods of preserving food in the past, before freezers and fridges. Salt was a very popular item and everybody needed it in quite large quantities.

Sea salt was obtained by flooding specially constructed fields near a sea. The water evaporated, and salt (with grit and other impurities) was at the bottom. This salt was cheap to obtain and cheap to sell and could be produced at large scales.

More pure salt was obtained from natural springs that run through salt deposits in the ground. A series of pipes was set to capture the water of such springs. Then, the water was boiled in huge kettles until evaporation, leaving a better salt behind. The third way to get salt was by digging it in salt mines.

Salt was used to preserve meats and fish, cheese, and butter.

Fruits were dehydrated on large wooden surfaces, often placed outside, under direct sun, and indoors, in a room with opened windows to allow air to circulate. They dried grapes, apricots, apples, dates, figs, pears, peaches, and many other fruits. Some fruits were coated with sugar and dried again.  Some vegetables, like beans, peas, and lentils, were harvested already dried; others, especially the root vegetables, and potatoes, were stored in a cool, dry place and sometimes buried in sand in a sheltered place. They also dried all the herbs used in cooking (or healing practices).

They also used brine (a mixture of salt and water) to preserve the texture of meat. The meat or fish was sunken in brine and left until consumption. The same mixture was used to preserve the cheese. Many vegetables were also pickled in the same way.

A brine mixture with wine, vinegar, spices, and seeds was most often used for pickling.
The wine was also combined with sugar and turned into syrup for preserving fruits.

The oil preservation method was widely used for packing olives. Animal fat was used to preserve cooked meats. Fried or roasted meat was immersed in liquid animal fat and preserved until ready for a meal. Sometimes, instead of fat, they used gelatin obtained by boiling hooves and feet from animals.  

People mainly preserved food for later consumption. Winter was especially hard since no vegetable could grow. The fruits and vegetable were picked and dried at the end of the season. The roots were collected at maturity and sored in dark, cool and dry places. Meats were preserved mainly at the end of fall, when most cattle were slaughter. Pigs were sacrificed even later when the people exhausted the fodder.

People also preserved food to prevent it from spoiling during transportation. As roads developed, more and more goods were traded between different parts of a country or between continents. Spices and exotic fruits came to Europe, and later, coffee and tea were introduced.