 Another method was to seal the food by cooking it in sugar or honey or fat, in which it was then stored.Microbial modification was also encouraged, however, by a number of methods; grains, fruit and grapes were turned into alcoholic drinks thus killing any pathogens, and milk was fermented and curdled into a multitude of cheeses or buttermilk.The majority of the European population before industrialization lived in rural communities or isolated farms and households.