SC - Ice

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/22/00 11:20:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
CBlackwill at aol.com writes:

<< One quick question:  Does anyone on the list have any references to how 
 medieval cooks kept things cold, since the invention of the refrigerator was 
 not to come about for many, many, many years?   >>

Although I don't have the references immediately handy, ice houses were 
common throughout the middle east during period. They were also common 
throughout the Western world until the invention of refrigeration. Ice blocks 
are simply cut out of lakes and ponds in the winter and stored in ice houses 
in saw dust, etc., throughout the year. Such blocks literally keep for months 
before melting. I think that Food in History or The History of Food has a 
segment dealing with this subject. Any large manor house would have had its 
ice house and commercial ice houses also existed.

Ras