What did people use instead of refrigerators?

Answer 1

Ever notice how some people call them iceboxes?

This is because originally there was a wooden container that in one portion stored a large block of ice, and in the other portion your food you wanted to keep cold.

There were regular deliveries of these blocks of ice for people to refill their iceboxes.

Answer 2

Before refrigerators were invented people cooled their food with ice and snow. A pantry - a small room off the kitchen to store food, which may have had special insulation to ensure the room was cooler than the rest of the house. Further information: People also used ice-chests. An ice chest was a wooden cabinet with a metal receptacle for holding ice, and a drainiage pipe for disposing of the water as ythe ice melted. Quite simply, the ice was placed in the top of the ice chest and, as cold air falls, the food in the cabinet below the ice receptacle was kept cold by its proximity to the ice, without being damaged by the melting water. A common item for cooling foods in colonial Australia was the Coolgardie safe. It consisted of a metal "safe" with screen-wire-like holes, which was hung outside on a verandah. Food which needed to be cool was placed inside the safe. Over the safe was placed a hessian cloth, dampened, so that as the breeze blew through the cloth, it cooled down the food inside. The safe hung from the ceiling, and often had a tin cup placed around the wire from which it hung, filled with water, so that ants could not descend the wire and get to the food. Not all that long ago, people would work with smaller amounts of food that they could use within a reasonable time (daily shopping from a local farmer) and would do more preservation - like pickling, smoking, drying, making preserves or canning.

Answer 3

Before the advent of chemical coolant ice was used to keep food and drinks cool. Have your grandparent's ever referred to the fridge as the ice box? Well in their younger years that is exactly what was used. Large chunks of ice were either delivered to your home or procured at the "ice house" and sat atop a usually wooden cabinet with 2 compartments,1 to hold the ice and a larger compartment below having 1 or 2 shelves as the body of the cabinet. A drain was fashioned from the small compartment to a catch basin that held the water from the melting ice. Cooler air falls so the inside of the cabinet stayed considerably cooler than the surrounding air.

The ice itself was harvested from large areas of water such as lakes, ponds or rivers that would freeze in winter. To store ice for warmer months it would often be buried in the ground surrounded by sawdust.

Before the modern freezer perishables such as meat, fish and vegetables were dried, salted or "canned " (pressure cooked in jars) to preserve them for later use.

Answer 4

Perishable foods were kept in a "larder".......... a cool dark cupboard with a slate shelf.

Shopping was sometimes a twice daily chore (most women stayed at home with the Children,) making all sorts of economical meals. One wage per family so frugality was the order of the day.

Very few Families had cars, so the Housewife would trundle her brood to the shops early in the morning, buy for lunch and return for basics in the Afternoon.

All this walking made for healthy women, not much need for "diets" and such.

Answer 5

people didnt have fridges so they had to use ice. but because people who couldn't freeze it themselves had to get it from the north, and by the time it came to them it was melted. they then found spices were usefull for preserving food.

Answer 6

Ever notice how some people call them iceboxes?

This is because originally there was a wooden container that in one portion stored a large block of ice, and in the other portion your food you wanted to keep cold.

There were regular deliveries of these blocks of ice for people to refill their iceboxes.

Answer 7

they put there food in a small cold,room called a cantina