SC - Potatoes

[LrdRas@aol.com]

On the subject of icehouses...

>From _The Archaeology of Novgorod, Russia_ , ed. by Mark Brisbane. (1992)

"Some structures were wells, althought the water which made its way through
the town's cultural layer was full of organic matter and, above all, dung,
so that it was unsuitable for drinking or cooking, , and more than likely
for the production processes as well.  It is highly likely that the
majority of the sunken-floored buildings were cellars designed for the
storage of varios provisions.  One was an ice-house dating from the 16th to
18th centuries of rectangular shape with a partition separating off from
the rest a small chamber which would be filled with ice, once the ice
melted the water would be drained off through a wooden pipe." (p.150)

So this particular icehouse had a long use, spaning from the 1500s to the
1700s and it likely served the dual purpose of cooling food and providing
relatively fresher drinking water.  The illustration shows a small
wood-walled and floored room about 2m X 1.5m with a wooden partition
dividing the room lengthwise.  The larger section is about 2/3 the total
area of the room.  The smaller section has the drainage pipe, which appears
to be sticking out of the wall horizontally .

The article also mentions that stone foundations of icehouses have been
found, and that all of the sunken-floored buildings were kept dry by a
city-wide drainage system.

>From the _Domostroi_ , a Russian household manual.  The chapters below are
from the 1550s.

"Liquor should be kept in the cellar or the icehouse." (Pouncy:138)

"54.  How to Preserve Food in the Cellar and in the Icehouse
In the cellar, in the icehouses, and in the small storerooms are kept
bread, rolls, cheese, eggs, dairy goods, onions, garlic, fresh and salt
meat, fresh an dsalt fish, fresh honey, and such cooked foods as meat and
fish dishes in aspic.  There you should also store cucumbers, pickled and
fresh cabbage, turnips, other vegetables, mushrooms, caviar, pickles, fruit
juice {cherries in syrup, raspberry brandy, apples, pears, melons,
watermelons in syrup, plums, lemons, fritters, pastilles} apple kvas,
bilberry juice, Rhenish wine, vodka, mead, fermented and unfermented beer,
and ale." (Pouncy:165)

Too bad it doesn't say which foods to store where, but it is a nice list of
foods.  :-)

(From chapter 63. Instruction to a Steward)
Treat all drinks the same way (mead, beer, fruit juice, cherries in syrup,
apples and pears in syrup and in kvas, cranberry juice).  Keep the jars
full and buried in ice.  When you drink from one, refill it and return it
to the ice. (Pouncy:176)


Yana (Ilyana Barsova)  jdmiller2 at students.wisc.edu
http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~jdmiller2 
"Shchi da kasha, pischa nasha" 
       -- Cabbage soup and kasha are our native food