Alternatives


	The alternatives to the refrigerator have been around for centuries and are an effective means to preserving different foods. Throughout the nineteenth century, these measures to preserve food tended to be the woman's job. Sue Shepard writes, " ... it was just another chore to attend to as she moved throughout the day between kitchen, wash house, kitchen garden, and farmyard."¹⁹ Most early preservation techniques were incredibly time consuming and women had to keep house while preparing the food for her family. While they may not be as effective as the refrigerator, all food preservation techniques are still used today. CANNING Canning is used to preserve a large variety of foods including fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy. In 1910, canning was invented by Nicholas Appert, a french chef. But his efforts were not that successful. According to Shepard, Appert discovered that canning "... took away the aroma, changed the taste of the juices, and hardened the fibers ..."²⁰ With innovations to the canning industry such as vacuumed sealed jars and mass production, canning has become an incredibly popular technique used to preserve foods. Shepard states that statisitics show that Americans alone "consume more than two hundred million cans of food and drink each day."²¹ CELLARS According to the History Channel, by using snow and ice, "cellars were long ago used to refrigerate food."²² These cellars tended to be used by individual families and were lined with various forms of insulation, the most popular being sawdust or straw. All types of food can be preserved in underground cellars, but meats were mostly stored in them. DRYING One of the most basic techniques to food preservation is drying and dehydration. It is used to preserve all types of food. According to Anne Wilson, sun-dried foods became popular in the Middle Ages and were successful because "The hard, dry surface of the midieval fruits acted as a deterrent to insects, moulds and other sources of decay."²³ Dry grains and nuts were also stored in sealed containers which could be stored for long periods of time. Native Americans have used this technique for many centuries to make Pemmican which is made by "thinly slicing lean meat ... and drying it over a fire or in the sun and wind."²⁴ Drying is still a popular means of preserving fruits and meat. FERMENTING The fermentation of foods is a popular technique used by many different ethnic groups all over the world. According to Shepard, "The basic principle of fermenting is to promote the growth of certain microorganizsms on selected substrata ..."²⁵ One of the most common fermented food is the cabbage. Cultures in Asia as well as in Europe consider fermented cabbage a favorite dish. For instance, kimchi, a spicy form of fermented cabbage, is incredibly important to the Korean diet. It is eaten with every meal and is a staple food for the Korean people. Alcoholic beverages such as wine and beer are also created by fermentation. ICE BOXES EARLY ICE SAFE²⁶ Barbara Krasner-Khiat describes ice boxes as "typically made of wood, lined with tin or zinc and insulated with sawdust or seaweed."²⁷ Ice wagons delivered ice to consumers who owned ice boxes. Water pans that collected water from melting ice had to be changed daily.²⁸ Ice boxes were kept in households and stored all kinds of food. ICE HOUSES The earliest ice houses were created in China in 2000 B.C. and spread to the United States by the nineteenth-century. Ice houses are very simmilar to underground cellars in that they both use some form of insulation and snow or ice. Ice houses were built to store the ice for the entire community and were mostly used by butchers to store meats.²⁹ PICKLING Most people use vinegar to pickle foods such as fruits and vegetables, eggs, and occasionally meat. According to Shepard, vinegar is very succesful in preserving foods because it creates "a highly acidic environment where few bacteria can survive."³⁰ Prior to the mid 1800s, pickling was mostly done in earthenware and stoneware pots. But with mass production of glass vessels, people began to pickle foods in glass jars. SALTING One of the most popular forms of food preservation is salting. Salt is an effective drying agent used on meats as well as vegetables because it soaks up liquids from the food. Wilson states that salt keeps bacteria from growing on foods because it protects "against microbial infection."³¹ Before being eaten, salted foods must be rehydrated in order to restore most of the food's natural flavors. Sue Shepard states, "Salt, the predominant preserver, is used in almost all of the main preserving processes ..."³² Salting is usually done before doing other food preservation techniques such as pickling, smoking, and drying. SMOKING Smoking is mostly used to preserve meats. According to C. Anne Wilson, "Smoke does not merely help to dry flesh foods; it also introduces formaldehyde which acts as a preservative, and it creates new interesting flavours to make the meat or fish appetising."³³ Many people smoked their meats with different woods such as oak and hickory to improve and add flavor to them.
Created By: Carol Haley E-Mail: chale6kt@mwc.edu Last Update: April 14, 2003