How did people keep food cold in olden times?

vermontpublic.org ^ | Published February 25, 2022 | Jane Lindholm, Melody Bodette

[ebshumidors]

When I was a GI in Korea, we played a game called bobbing for beers. Like bobbing for apples except with a garbage can full of ice water and cans of beer. Stop your heart.

[BFW]

More ICE please.........

😁😁😁😁

[Openurmind]

And in other places... Ancient physics at work to make Ice in the desert where it never freezes not even in winter...

The Persian ice house

Everyone can appreciate the cooling effect of a cold, iced drink on a hot summer day. How did people in hot climates even survive before there was electricity and freezers? Surely it would have been impossible to have ice at least? Well, as a matter of fact it wasn’t, and people in the deserts of Iran were enjoying frozen drinks well before electricity, thanks to the Persian ice house. Although ice houses that store natural ice and snow harvested during the winter have existed in many countries, the Persian ice house is unique because of the way the ice was made in the desert at temperatures above freezing.

Even though winter nights can be very cold in the deserts of Iran, temperatures rarely drop below freezing. But ice could be made even at temperatures just above freezing, thanks to a phenomenon known as night sky radiation or radiative cooling.

Outside the ice house there were shallow pools or channels, and these were shaded with walls during the day so that they remained as cool as possible. These pools were then filled with water on clear winter nights, and how much water was poured in the pool varied depending on how cold it was. The water came from the qanat system of underground aqueducts that brought water into the desert cities.

https://fieldstudyoftheworld.com/persian-ice-house-how-make-ice-desert/

And ancient Zeer Pot evaporative Refrigerators

A clay pot is filled with damp sand, which contains another smaller pot, in which food is placed. The evaporation of the water that moistens the sand contained in the cavity between the two pots produces cooling, bringing the heat of the inner vessel outwards.
Then it is covered with a wet cloth; the sand is kept humid by pouring water.
Evaporative cooling= temperature + humidity + air speed.
By maintaining a constant flow of fresh air, the temperature of the internal pot can reach up to 4.4 °C, a temperature at which mesophilic bacteria harmful to food significantly slow their growth.

This technique was already used in Ancient Egypt around 2500 B.C. In the 90s, in the rural areas of northern Nigeria, Mohamed Bah Abba (1964-2010), university professor, resumed this technology and spread it. The system has been successfully adopted in sub-Saharan Africa, has allowed to reduce diseases related to poor food storage and has granted several economic benefits to populations.

https://www.tecnosoft.eu/en/news/ZEER_desert_refrigerator/

[P.O.E.]

Tony The Ice-A-Man

My grandparents had this 78 rpm.

[End Times Sentinel]

As an avowed “Germ Theory Skeptic” I believe that refrigeration is wildly over-used.
Really? Cheese was invented 6,000 years ago and refrigeration was invented in 1901. Somehow, that cheese will turn into poison if not kept nearly frozen? I don't think so.
Aged meats (Prosciutto, Steaks) are somehow inferior to artificially kept in refrigerator?
You're dead on, metmom, that there were many other preservation methods.

[BerryDingle]

My father told me when he was a small child, the family farmhouse had a well in the kitchen with a hand crank hooked onto a caged platform. All the food items such as butter and meat were lowered down just above the water to be kept cold.

[Chickensoup]

People never read LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRARIE OR LITTLE BRITCHES series? Ir CARLS EMERY book on homesteading?

[DeplorableTrumpSupporter]

In my dad’s hometown, there’s 3 ponds named ‘Ice Pond 1’, ‘Ice Pond 2’ and ‘Ice Pond 3’. It was used by an Icehouse. The Icehouse finally went out of business 4 years ago. In business, but selling beer from the springs that made the ponds.

[Deepeasttx]

I grew up on the Schuylkill. Back in the day, it would freeze up every winter. Then, it would buckled and become like a scene outta Antarctica with ice caps sticking in the air...rugged and jagged. Sadly not anymore. Stepmother said it was due to Mt. St. Helen’s. The eruption disturbed the upper jet stream keeping winters not as harsh. Who knows tho?

[trebb]

When I was a kid, we used to chase the ice truck down the street until the guy dropped a big chunk off the back so we could smash it and suck on it....there was a place called the “Ice House” where they packed ice from special ponds where they would let it freeze and cut/pack it between straw insulation to help keep it frozen. This was mid 50s in Rochester, NY and a few folks still had iceboxes instead of refrigerators.

[Red Badger]

Eli the Ice Man would deliver ice during the summer to hoes, I mean homes, all across America.

He had lots of children for some odd reason............

[randita]

Lots of former ice lakes in the Poconos in PA that are now fishing and hunting clubs.

[Mogger]

French Canadian ice cutters flipped coins to see who got the bottom handle on the saw.

[Vermont Lt]

My family lived near a lake in Northern VT in the mid 1800s. The ice house and root cellars were still on the farm in the 1960s. They are all over the place in that part of VT.

[SunkenCiv]

[singing] there’s a man who comes to our house, every single day, papa comes home and the man goes away...

[Red Badger]

Papa was a rolling stone...............

[EvilCapitalist]

:)

[ABN 505]

I am giving away my age... but I remember the Iceman coming to the house and refilling the Frigidaire .he would also cut chips of Ice for us to suck on. Nice treat on a hot day.