As a people, we have made some pretty great technological strides.
The wheel, the printing press, the camera, all of them a great benefit to the entire human race.
One that maybe doesn't get spoken about enough, though, is canned food.
And much like the aforementioned advances, we've done some pretty strange stuff with it, which is why today we're taking a look at the weirdest foods ever shoved into a can.
Canned food may be a grocery store staple, but it didn't start out that way.
Back in Napoleonic France in the early 1800s, the army was desperate for a way to feed soldiers on long campaigns.
So like any good organized military, they held a contest.
A prize was offered for anyone who could preserve food without spoiling.
And a French confectioner, Nicolas Appert, cracked the code by sealing food in jars and heating it until the microbes just gave up.
The upside of this little historical nugget is that if you eat anything canned, you can now hold yourself out to your friends as a connoisseur of French food.
