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09/23/2005 06:56:13 PM · #1
Okay, this has been bothering me for awhile..
How did people keep food/beverages cool before electricity?
I can see how water could be cold coming from a stream or something but what about everything else?
Say for instance in Old West movies, they serve beer, was the beer warm??

I warned you it was a stupid question, but its bugging me..
09/23/2005 06:59:31 PM · #2
Wasn't the fridge invented before beer then?
You learn something new everyday ;b
09/23/2005 06:59:51 PM · #3
I think some things were kept cool-ish by keeping them in cellars (root cellars). But I think you're right. Old West beer must have been pretty warm.
09/23/2005 07:04:06 PM · #4
We have an 1800's farm by us. They do everything just as it was done way back then. When I took the tour, they said they had an "ice house" that they cut and stored blocks of ice packed in straw. They said the ice lasted until about August. Inside they used Ice boxes.

//www.dupageforest.com/EDUCATION/klinecreek.html


09/23/2005 07:09:25 PM · #5
WOW, make me feel OOOLLLDDD, I can remember the ice man coming around Rochester, selling ice for your ICE BOX, if you kept stuff in there, it would be very cold. And they used to go out and saw frozen lakes to get the ice to sell, way back when, and they had insulated carts to carry it in. That is how the everyday people handled it.

Jacque
09/23/2005 07:10:59 PM · #6
I remember my mother and grandmother telling me stories about Nanny's old ice box and how it kept things cold. In fact, I grew up saying "ice box" for refrigerator. I still say it most of the time. :)
09/23/2005 07:14:14 PM · #7
I got in trouble for taking this pic. Don't know why but I wasn't going to argue with the lady. I did not use flash. I was told, strict policy, no photography. I just got a blank stare when I responded I was not using flash, like in a museum.... It was after this they showed me the "ice house"

1890's farm..


09/23/2005 07:20:14 PM · #8
What if you lived down south? Did they haul ice from up-north?
I'm still perplexed by this, lol..
09/23/2005 07:30:00 PM · #9
I remember the Ice box and before that we didn't have Ice in our water and etc didn't keep POP at home. Wehad a spring that had cool water better than any water I get today.
09/23/2005 07:33:22 PM · #10
Originally posted by buzzrock:

What if you lived down south? Did they haul ice from up-north?
I'm still perplexed by this, lol..


Yes. People made fortunes from cutting ice in the Northeast during the winter, insulating it with straw, and shipping it south in the holds of vessels.

An interesting read, a great novel, is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude", which begins with the narrator reminiscing about how when he was a child he was taken to see ice for the first time...

Robt.
09/23/2005 07:36:35 PM · #11
Would it be totally crazy of me to throw out the idea that some tribes in the Amazon and Africa have also never seen ice?? :-P
09/23/2005 07:41:22 PM · #12
I lived in Tennessee The adults made items for Christmas and put it in the coldest room in the house as there was no electric Heating. Hogs were killed and packed a certain way and put in what they called a smoke House. I am 71 so this was a very long time ago like 1947.
09/23/2005 07:42:54 PM · #13
My husband grew up on a farm in North Dakota and he tells me they would butcher a hog and put the meat in a barrel in the celler packed in layers of lard and it kept well. I can't imagine how it must have smelled.. lol
09/23/2005 07:49:17 PM · #14
Originally posted by WaterMark:

Would it be totally crazy of me to throw out the idea that some tribes in the Amazon and Africa have also never seen ice?? :-P


See my post immediately before, that's exactly what Garcia Marquez built his novel around :-)

R.
09/23/2005 07:55:03 PM · #15
All depends on how far you want to go back, but way long ago you always bought fresh kmeat if you could afford it and vegtables keep well un refrigated. And yes beer in Old west was warm, some beers are better warm just dont make them cold first. Matter fact Ales are warm brewed and some if kept warm are quite good, just let it go cold to warm.

Another thing were the smoke houses or cellers also dehydrated meats keep quite well. Also Salted meats like salt pork but for the most part people didnt keep large food stores of perishable items.

One more thought Canning has been around for a while and can preserve things quite well for avery long time.
09/23/2005 07:58:11 PM · #16
Jefferson's Montecillo, like many great southern estates has an ice house where blocks of ice were stored, insulated by bales of hay. The ice was purchased in sufficient qualities ot last year round.

In Idaho between Boise and Ketchum is the Shoshone Ice Cave. A volcanic lava tube that has very little air flow and as a result ice builds up ther at a rate of about six inches a year. They used to harvest the ice in the 1800s and the town of Shoshone had the only cold beer for hundreds of miles.

09/23/2005 08:00:35 PM · #17
In warmer climates where you never get ice, they would use a box frame covered in wire mesh and that was covered in a hessian type material. The hessian would be kept constantly damp, and the evaporation of the water then kept the contents cool. The Australian version of this is the Coolgardie safe.
//www.netc.net.au/wangps/hpage3a.htm
A similar concept is used for keeping water cool in Africa and desert regions - those canvas water sacks you see draped over vehicles travelling through the bush in Africa (or camels in the desert in movies)
09/23/2005 09:45:40 PM · #18
Originally posted by nemesise1977:

One more thought Canning has been around for a while and can preserve things quite well for avery long time.

Canning has been around since the time of Napoleon -- it was in response to his offer of a grand prize that the process (actually bottling at that time) was invented.
09/23/2005 09:52:53 PM · #19
Originally posted by Beagleboy:

I think some things were kept cool-ish by keeping them in cellars (root cellars). But I think you're right. Old West beer must have been pretty warm.



09/23/2005 10:07:31 PM · #20
Go to the local drugstore and pick up a Coke at the soda fountain.
09/23/2005 11:24:19 PM · #21
Originally posted by Beagleboy:

I think some things were kept cool-ish by keeping them in cellars (root cellars). But I think you're right. Old West beer must have been pretty warm.


Beer has been served at "cellar temperature" for ages. It still is in authentic pubs.
The reason for "ice cold" beer from the BudMillCoors is to numb the tongue and dull the taste buds so you can stand to drink it.
09/24/2005 02:40:30 PM · #22
Originally posted by barndog:

Beer has been served at "cellar temperature" for ages. It still is in authentic pubs.
The reason for "ice cold" beer from the BudMillCoors is to numb the tongue and dull the taste buds so you can stand to drink it.


Agreed. I have been frequenting a bar here in Houston that serves 200 different kinds of beer. About 80 on tap. My wife calls me a beer snob. Most popular american beers are swill. A sign behind the bar says "Only amateurs ask for a frosted mug". Indeed many beers taste better warm. If a brew is served cold and doesn't taste good, Give it a few minutes to warm up a little. The taste may be quite different. And better.
09/24/2005 02:49:09 PM · #23
Europeans dug a hole in the ground in winter, put the snow there and the beverages or any other food in that ground. They would also salt or pickle the meat to keep it fresh. I'm talking about the middle-ages. But then again you americans didn't have middle-ages.

And they say history isn't useful for anything.
09/24/2005 02:54:16 PM · #24
If I recall my history correctly, canning was used during Napoleonic War, and continued afterwards. The process was not as it is today, Lead was frequently used and this in turn caused Lead poisoning. The tin mines in Cornwall hit their prime during this time. Another thing contained in tin is arsenic, so if the lead didn't get you over a period, the arsenic did.

Steve

Message edited by author 2005-09-24 14:55:01.
09/24/2005 03:11:29 PM · #25
I for one clearly remember cutting ice in the winter time, stacking it on a sled and having it drawn to our home where we would set a row down on the floor of our "ice shed", cover it with sawdust, and repeat the process until such time as our "ice shed" was filled. People would help each other to ensure we all had ice for the summer.

During the summer we would cut one of the ice block to fit the "ice box", clean off the saw dust and place it it the ice box to cool things like milk.

Other items such as vegetables would be kept in the "root cellar" and meats and fish were smoked. Several items were canned, pickled and placed in sealed jars. I can still recall seeing large Crockpots that my parents kept in a special storage room.

All of that knowledge and "savoir faire" available to poor country bumpkins, notwitstanding their part of the world never had any "middle ages" unlike those ever so fortunate europeans.

PS: and unlike europeans we didn't attempt to dig holes in the ground in the dead of winter to try and keep things cool... guess we kinda figured things would stay cool enough if we just hung them in the trees.
:O) heheheheehe

...........Lord I feel old.(time for a beer I guess)

Ray

Ray
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