to cook, making canned food too expensive for ordinary people.

The main market for the food at this stage was the British Army and Royal Navy. By 1817, Donkin recorded that he had sold £3000 (equal to £ today) worth of canned meat in six months. In 1824, Sir William Edward Parry took canned beef and pea soup with him on his voyage to the Arctic in HMS ''Fury'', during his