My son is in 7th grade and he has to do a paper on: What was life like before we had refrigerators?
Going to Google gave him more than enough for a B paper, probably more than enough for an A paper, considering this is 7th grade we’re talking about.
But what if he wants to do something better? I’m thinking of references in older fiction, historical fiction or history books. Things like a description of how someone might go to the market every day to buy a quart of milk, or buying a block of ice in the summer, etc.
See if he can work in the phrase “take it with a grain of salt”, which originally referred to the practice of attempting to mitigate the taste and potential disease-bearing of rotten meat.
There was a book a couple of years ago called “The Frozen-Water Trade: A True Story” that described the business of collecting, storing and shipping ice from ponds for refrigeration during the nineteenth century. I haven’t read it, but it might be a useful resource.
Perhaps he can search on the topic of “ice chests”. I remember my great-aunt telling me how the iceman used to deliver blocks of ice for the ice chest when she was a child (in the 1900s).
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books might be something that would be helpful. They describe daily life in the 1870s-- making butter, cheese, preserving food for the winter, going to town to go to the store, etc., and they’re pretty entertaining, too.
Antique stores are a good place to look for old books on how to run a household. These books were intended for new brides who might not know how to bake, clean, manage servants or do laundry. Some of them are just plain fun to read-- it surely makes you appreciate the modern era.
This book,Never Done: A History of American Housework by Susan Strasser is a fun read which contains exerpts from many of those household manuals.
You wouldn’t have any older relatives from rural areas would you? My mom lived without refridgeration until she was 26; and I’m only 28 so it wasn’t that long ago. Living references still abound, even in N. America.
The more common term was “icebox” for an ice-cooled storage box with front opening doors, though “ice chest” was also used for boxes that open from the top.
One might also search on “spring house”, where one builds a stone shed around a spring and it’s quite cool inside. Also, in Barrow, Alaska I saw a modern “refrigerator” that was a hole in the ground that went into the permafrost. I’m sure that sort of thing has been used for ages. You can also research the various ways meat has been preserved over the years; salting, smoking, etc, and the canning and pickling of vegetables. (The history of canning is interesting in and of itself.) There’s also quite a bit on ice cars on trains, which would enable people in the Midwest to eat fresh(ish) shrimp in the 19th century, if you can believe it.
There’s quite a good book on the history of salt, called “Salt”. It’s a quick fun read.
(Personally, I still call the fridge the “icebox” sometimes because my mother did, and she did because her mother did.)
Oh, and watch some of the older episodes of the Honeymooners, where Ralph is too cheap to get a refrigerator and Alice bugs the crap out of him about it. I believe once they tried to adopt a child and were trying to look so high class, and it was all spoiled when the ice man cameth to deliver ice for the icebox.
Research the assassination of James Garfield. A very early form of air conditioning using ice was developed to keep him comfortable in the New Jersey hospital where he was staying.
Your library, local used book store, or Amazon likely has an old copy of The Settlement Cook Book. First published in 1901, the book contains a wealth of information on pre-electric home-making techniques.
Your kid might get some insight from the Colonial House, Frontier House, 1900 House and Manor House series from PBS. I found them pretty insightful, because they had moderm people learning to deal with “old time nuisences”.
I checked my local city library system and they are all available there on DVD and VHS (way too expensive to buy), and there’s also companion books and such.
My grandfather used to deliver ice, which was made at a factory in San Pedro, CA. I ran across an industry newsletter at his house, once. There was a great deal of pooh-poohing of refrigeration, including doctors’ testimonials about how much more sanitary and healthful ice-cooled food was. Also testimonials from cooks.
Apparently, the forced air circulation of a refrigerator dries out food and mixes the tastes of food. We would say, well that’s obvious, break out the Tupperware, but Tupperware came later. I was surprised by the idea that an icebox wouldn’t dry food. It would be more convenient to be able to put the food in right on a plate. I’ve always wondered if there really was some resistance to switching to refrigeration or if it was industry propaganda.
Oh, and during a tour of the Dearborn Museum (Ford Museum?) the guide pointed out an older model refrigerator that had the condenser on the top, which is logical from an engineering standpoint. He said that housewives didn’t like the condenser up there. They had gotten used to being able to put things on the top of their iceboxes and didn’t like not being able to do the same with the refrigerators. The condensers were put in the back (which is less efficient) on later models, to make sales.
I’m not that old (well sort of) and I remember ice boxes. Ours opened on the top to put the ice in and had doors in front to put the food in. It also had a drain pan underneth and it was always running over 'till my father put a hose that drained outside to the flowers beside the house. It kept the food cooler but wasn’t that good.
When we got a frig we didn’t know about frezer burn and my mother put some meat in without wrapping it. and when she tried to take it out, it had stuck to the frezier and she had to defrost it to get it out. and the meat was ruined.
Spelling and grammer subject to change without notice.
Don’t forget the concept of keeping meat fresh by keeping it alive; in pre-refrigeration communities here in the UK, many people would keep a pig which they would fatten with table scraps (and basically anything else they could scrounge or gather), but when the time came to slaughter the pig, it would produce too much meat - more than could be preserved as hams, bacon, smoked sausages etc; the solution was a sort of informal system of trade; I slaughter my pig now and distribute the surplus meat to various other families; they slaughter theirs later and do the same (so I get a bit back from each of the families I’ve shared with, but spread over time).
While yet it is cold January, and snow and ice are thick and solid, the prudent landlord comes from the village to get ice to cool his summer drink; impressively, even pathetically, wise, to foresee the heat and thirst of July now in January- wearing a thick coat and mittens! when so many things are not provided for. It maybe that he lays up no treasures in this world which will cool his summer drink in the next. He cuts and saws the solid pond, unroofs the house of fishes, and carts off their very element and air, held fast by chains and stakes like corded wood, through the favoring winter air, to wintry cellars, to underlie the summer there. It looks like solidified azure, as, far off, it is drawn through the streets. These ice-cutters are a merry race, full of jest and sport, and when I went among them they were wont to invite me to saw pit-fashion with them, I standing underneath……Ice is an interesting subject for contemplation. They told me that they had some in the ice-houses at Fresh Pond five years old which was as good as ever.
I had heard my parents’ tales of ice boxes, but I actually saw them in use in Vietnam as late as 1996. Some street vendors of soft drink/coke/pop/soda (not going there!) used them to keep their wares cold in the tropical heat. Early in the morning you could see cyclos (pedicabs) carting the fresh blocks of ice. As far as I know, this still goes on.
For another interesting solution to the problem of food storage in a hot climate in pre-refrigeration days, check out the Coolgardie Safe.
Don’t forget daily delivery of milk–this is why it had to be daily. Also, a lot of places had daily delivery of bread, and you would do your meat shopping for that day only, if you could.