It seems that refrigerators have always been. And then the “novelty” was widespread then 10 years after the end of World War II, in the 50-60s of the twentieth century.
At first it was small, tall kitchen table boxes with a compartment for ice and a pallet. Then the refrigerator acquired a classic shape and familiar features. Yes, mankind has long had ways of storing food for a long time: smoking, canning and pickling, but how was everyday food stored without refrigerators?
Modernity, at the dawn of the advent of refrigerators (40-50 years of the USSR)
City weekdays
City dwellers of those years did not shop for many days to come. They took a little meat, fresh fish and cooked sausage, cooked and ate it right away. The remains of dinner, cookies and sweets, vegetable oils were cleaned in dressers, cupboards. Previously, these furnishings were large, with many compartments and drawers locked with a key. Of course, it wasn’t cold there. Doors without glass delayed daylight and sunlight, slowing down food damage.
The remaining or purchased for the future salted fish was poured with lean oil. It did not pass the oxygen necessary for the growth of putrefactive bacteria, keeping the product fresh. Smoked sausage was simply hung near the stove. The rocking chair gradually dried out, but did not disappear.
They acted differently with milk and butter.The first was languished, the second was overheated, removing excess moisture. Even in the heat, processed dairy products did not spoil for several days. The main thing is not to leave them in the light. Pots with borsch and soup were placed in a large container filled with cold water. As it heated, it was changed to fresh.
Winter, late autumn and early spring were easier. Perishable provisions were wrapped up in paper, put into string bags or bags and hung out through the windows, carried out onto balconies. In the houses under construction, places were provided for seasonal “cold stores”. They were placed under the windowsills in the kitchens, leaving a through hole in the concrete leading to the street. The temperature was regulated by ordinary plugging of the hole with rags, paper.
Food storage in rural areas until refrigerators
It was easier for villagers or owners of private homes. Somewhere in the courtyard they pulled out cellars and equipped the underground. Cooked dishes were taken out in the cool of the dungeon. There were barrels of salted poultry meat and bacon, pork hams were hanging, tubs with ready-made home-made sausages filled with lard were crowded.
More inventive and wealthy peasants prepared for summer in winter. Poultry and cattle slaughtered in autumn, which escaped salting, were placed on a glacier. It was lined with wooden boards or an earthen hole filled with ice cut on the river. The roof of a kind of freezer was a warmth that did not let the heat pass - thick boards knocked together. Sawdust or earth was poured on top of it, adding airtightness to the structure.
Homemade cheeses were prepared from excess milk. The curd mass was placed in dense matter, suspended from the beams to remove serum. The formed circles were lowered into brine - a saline solution of strong concentration. Before use, they are soaked in milk or pure water.
Middle Ages
In ancient times, the village fed the city. Almost daily, merchant people flocked to the square, carrying a variety of food on carts. Chickens, ducks, geese were delivered alive in the summer and frozen in the winter. Smoked and dried pork, poultry carcasses were poured with salt and dried. The game was salted in barrels, preparing corned beef. They kept food in the so-called stands under the main buildings or in the pantries. Special rooms were left dark, located away from heated buildings and ovens used for cooking.
Sausages were cooked at all times. Smoked products were hung from the beams of cellars or underground. For storage of products, wooden and clay containers were used. Boiled and fried were stored in troughs, filled with melted internal fat. It prevented air from entering the delicacy, keeping the sausage edible for up to six months (until the fat rancid). Methods for equipping glaciers, pickling with vinegar, salting and drying fish came from the same era.
The effect of the invention of the refrigerator on consumption
The mass production of refrigerators has changed the entire human nutrition system. And today there are countries whose population dispenses with these aggregates. For example, Egypt.Here, residents purchase food for one day from the Bedouins. Aboriginals consider long-term storage of fruits, vegetables, seafood and meat fatal to health. But this is rather an exception than a rule.
Industrial refrigerators everywhere replaced cellars and once-popular burts, vegetable pits and warehouses. In them it is much easier to maintain a microclimate ideal for a particular vegetable and fruit. Thus, humanity has the opportunity to consume fresh food year-round without fabulous costs and millions of losses.
Along with the shock freezing system, semi-finished products, a variety of meat and vegetables of the highest quality came to the table of the modern gourmet. The home menu of residents far from the water surface was replenished with ocean fish and shellfish. Autonomous refrigerators allowed consumers to receive chilled rather than completely frozen meat and fish delicacies.
The invention of refrigerators has changed the approach to organizing everyday life and expanding the daily range of available products for every inhabitant of the Earth. Prior to this, the purchase of milk, meat or fresh fish was associated with storage difficulties and was carried out in small quantities. After the hostesses were given the opportunity to purchase food for the future and not worry about its freshness for a certain amount of time. The consumption of salt and vinegar decreased, which positively affected the life expectancy of people.
