[Sca-cooks] Beverage experiments

[Terry Decker]

>>Sure, you get it out of the mountains during the winter and store it
>>in ice houses dug into the ground and insulated with straw just like
>>was done in the U.S. before the invention of artificial refrigeration.
>
> That's certainly possible, and there is a mention of bringing ice
> down from the mountains in the _Ain i Akbari_. On the other hand, it
> sounds like an awfully expensive way of getting your ice, unless
> there happens to be water transport available for bringing it down.
> -- 
> David/Cariadoc

Ice for the palaces of Persia is likely as an expensive and impractical a 
proposition as bread trenchers in northern Europe.  It was probably was done 
for roughly the same reasons, an obvious, but unstated display of wealth and 
privilege.  It may also have been that the Persians had the economics of ice 
refined to the point that it was less costly than we assume.  The yahkchal 
(ice house) may date back as far as 1700 BCE, which provides a lot of time 
for finding ways to cut costs.

Bear