a word applied to foods treated by some means to achieve their preservation. Thus foods which have been chilled, frozen, pickled or treated with sugar are all preserved foods.
The words ‘preserve’ and ‘conserve’ are also used more specifically to indicate an (often expensive or unusual) jam. Although this is generally regarded as pretentious today, both words were used this way at least a century before the word ‘jam’ became common.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
