Question for Delmonico

[Oregon Bill]

First off, happy Thanksgiving to Del and all the gang here.
Del, a friend says there was virtually no home canning of meats prior to the invention of the Presto pressure cooker in the 1940s. I am thinking this tradition goes back well before WWII -- with canned fish, poultry, pheasant and venison common in family larders in the early 1900s. Am I wrong?

[Blair]

Bill,

You are not specifically wrong about the "home" canning of meats.
Meat preservation goes back a long ways in history with salting, smocking, and drying.
Products such as Mason Jars made "home" canning possible/available to most people within the time period you suggest. A pressure cooker was not needed. Hot water, however was, to help seal the containers and kill any bacteria that might have been in the product.

We, today, normally thing of "canning" as being something sealed in a metal container. The usage of metal for canning goes back to at last around 1805. Designed for use aboard Royal Navy ships during Wars with France.
These were thin sheet iron, cleaned and hot dipped in tin and sealed with tin solder.
I hope this helps?
My best,
Blair

[Delmonico]

That is true about home canning, commercial goes much further back.

[Oregon Bill]

Thanks fellas. I saw that the Brits were commercially canning beef as early as 1812-13.