Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Foodstuffs, conservation of
(902 words)

1. General

Even before the early modern era, creation of shelf-stable foods was one of the fundamental processes designed to secure the food supply of a greater proportion of the population. The unpredictability of harvest yields (see Famine and food riots), as well as the seasonally dependent supply of specific foods, called for stockpiling. With long-distance trade of foodstuffs in its infancy, people in the Middle Ages and the early modern era were obliged to preserve a significant portion of th…

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Krug-Richter, Barbara, “Foodstuffs, conservation of”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_023196>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180126



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