In ancient times, there were no refrigerators, so how did they preserve food?

In the "Records of Life in the Palace" written by Jin Jishui and Zhou Shachen, "Since the beginning of May, the palace has begun to import natural ice, and each room is equipped with ice buckets made of hardwood......Every day, the eunuchs deliver ice to each room to keep food such as melons and fruits fresh. It can be a portrayal of the use of ice to dispel the heat at that time. In the Ming Dynasty, Huang Xingzeng's "Fish Classic" once wrote:

Fishermen often "raise a kind of fish on ice" and transport it to a distant place to keep it fresh, which is called "chilled". As you can imagine, refrigerated food may have been more common at that time. At that time, the refrigerator was not only beautiful in appearance, but also very ingenious and scientific in terms of functional design.

The inside of the refrigerator box is hung with tin, and there are small holes in the bottom of the box. One of the two covers is fixed to the opening, and the other is a trap. Whenever the heat comes, you can remove the trap, put ice cubes in the box, and put new fruits or drinks on ice for use at any time.

The taste is dry and cool, and it makes people feel very pleasant after use, and the heat disappears. Due to the protection of the tin, the ice water does not erode the wooden box, but can seep through the small holes in the bottom.

Ancient refrigerators – ice cauldrons. The refrigerator is a household appliance invented in the past century, which can not only keep food fresh, but also be used to store medicine, etc., bringing a lot of convenience to people. The refrigerator has now become an indispensable electrical appliance for people.

In fact, China already had a "refrigerator" in ancient times. Although it is far inferior to modern technology refrigerators, it can still play a role in preserving fresh food. In the ancient book "Zhou Li", it is mentioned that there is a kind of "Bingjian" used to store food.

This kind of "Bing Jian" is actually a box-like thing, and the inside is empty. As long as you put the ice on the inside, and then put the food in the middle of the ice, you can have a preservative effect on the food. This is probably the earliest refrigerator used by humans.

In 1978, two pieces of ice were unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Marquis Yichu in Suixian County, Hubei Province, and a long spoon was placed on the ice jian, which was specially used to scoop cold drinks. In addition, it was also recorded in the ancient book "Wu Yue Spring and Autumn": "Gou Jianzhi travels, rests and lodging in the ice kitchen."

The "ice kitchen" mentioned here is a house specially used by ancient people to store food, and it is a place for eating and drinking in summer. The exquisitely designed and well-crafted Jianyi is known as the "refrigerator" of ancient China. The Jianyi is composed of the wine container and the Jian, the Fang Zun is placed in the middle of the Fangjian, the Fangjian has a perforated lid, and the square mouth in the middle of the lid is just the neck of the Fangzun.

At the bottom of the jian, there is a movable mechanism, which is firmly fixed to the venerable rope. There is a large gap between Jian and Zun, which should be used to hold ice cubes in summer and hot water in winter. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, the princes and nobles of Beijing had used refrigerators as an important tool to ward off the heat, which was a type of box made of rosewood or mahogany made of rosewood or mahogany to cool down with natural ice.

From the appearance, the refrigerator mouth is small and the bottom is square-shaped, and the waist is tied with copper hoops for two weeks. There are copper rings on both sides of the box, and the purpose of the copper rings is to facilitate handling. The mouth of the box is covered with two pieces of hardwood cover plate, and the plate is carved with money-shaped holes.

In ancient times, Bingjian (hàn) was an ancient vessel for holding ice, by placing ice cubes in a wooden or bronze box. The function is clear, it can not only preserve food, but also dissipate cold air to keep the room cool. It's just that ice isn't available all the time of the year, especially in the hot summer months, and ice is precious.

It is an invention of the ancient Chinese people, revealing to us a side of ancient life. When the ice melts, it absorbs the hot air in the room, adjusts the room temperature by covering the hollowed-out exhaust holes, and also acts as an air conditioner. Due to the widespread use of refrigerators, a large amount of ice is used in Beijing every summer, and this ice is taken from ice cellars.

In the past, both in the Forbidden City and in the mansions, there were ice cellars for storing ice. Every year from the winter solstice, ice is made into the cellar in Shichahai and other places in the tube, and the Ministry of Industry sets up a special person to manage it.

Hello: 1, there was no refrigerator before, but it was OKSaltedSave. For example, bacon.

2, OK [Marinated and air-dried to make bacon], such as Jinhua ham.

3. Conditional use [Natural iceCooling and preservation, double-layer wooden box sandwich with ice (before the popularization of refrigerators, many areas in the north had [Ice cellar].And it isAncient wisdom

First. Cellar method: In ancient times, cellars, ice cellars or warehouses were used to store food, depending on the geographical environment. This method is generally used to store a large number of vegetables, fruits, and grains, and can be stored for a long time.

Second...Sealing method: After the food is sealed, it will consume oxygen in the environment and produce carbon dioxide. This change will maintain the freshness of the food to a certain extent and can also keep the food from spoiling for a longer period of time.

Third. Drying method: Food generally contains a certain amount of water, and when the moisture in the food is reduced to a certain percentage, it will become dry, and dry food can be stored for a long time.

Fourth. Salt preparation method: Fresh food is salted with salt or other ingredients to benefit from the high permeability of salt, so as to reduce and inhibit microorganisms in food, so as to achieve the purpose of preserving food. Although the ancient technology was backward, the ancients were very wise.

The methods used by the ancients to preserve food are still used by modern people.

Ordinary people have anything to eat, or to make pickles, such as bacon, kimchi and so on, which can also be seen now.

Those who are powerful and wealthy can use ice cellars and ice cellars.

In ancient times, there were no refrigerators, and at that time food was preserved by drying it in the summer, and in ancient times there were ice cubes, so ice cubes were also used to preserve food. <>

1. Air-dried food preservation.

The modern society is developing relatively fast, and many people will keep a refrigerator at home, because there are some things that may be easy to break if they are not in the refrigerator. In ancient times, there were no refrigerators, but the wisdom of the ancients was very powerful, and it could be preserved by drying food, and it could be kept for a long time. Nowadays, many people will air-dry bacon sausages or ducks, in fact, these are methods handed down from ancient times, which can only show that the ancients were really smart.

In addition, the ancients would use a rope to string these foods and put them on the roof, so that some animals could not bite them off, and they could also be dried quickly, so that the food could be preserved. In addition, some ancient people would store food in a cool place, such as in the summer when the food would be put in the well, like now, many people will put the watermelon in the well, which will be cold, and the preservation time will be long. <>

2. Use ice cubes to preserve food.

In ancient times, there were also ice cubes, and these people would use ice cubes to preserve food. The ancients would put ice cubes in a container and then put food in it so that the food could be preserved, but this method was often adopted by large families because it consumed both labor and physics. Like the ancient palace, when preserving this kind of food, it is often placed in the ice cellar, because the ice cellar is very humid and cool, and some ice cubes will be put to make the temperature drop rapidly, so the food will be damaged for a longer time.

In low temperatures, food tends to be stored for a long time, because the survival rate of microorganisms in low temperature environments is relatively low. <>

Finally, in the summer, many people like to eat cold things, and the ancients were the same, and these ancients would use their wisdom to freeze some fruits and then pick them up and eat them. In fact, in ancient times, there were also cold noodles or ice lychees, which were very good.

What is eaten will be salted, such as sausage and bacon; You can also choose the way of drying, such as baked cakes; A lot of oil is also added to it when making food; Ancient nobles would adopt the Ice Dictionary.

In ancient times, people generally put some things in the cellar, or in the deep well, and the temperature in the cellar or well will be relatively low.

I know that in ancient times, summer food would be stored in the cellar! Because the cellar is relatively shady, the food preservation effect is not bad.

In ancient times, when there were no refrigerators and canned food, the ancients could also keep food for a long time. Therefore, there are also some ways to store food, such as putting food in peat bogs, which can inhibit the growth of bacteria. Or store it in a cellar so that it can isolate the air, and also put fresh food at a low temperature to dehydrate.

Especially in the Age of Discovery, it was also very important to preserve food. 500 years ago, some European sailors had access to wine, biscuits, and meat. <

However, there is no way to preserve vegetables for a long time, so many voyagers suffer from scurvy. Later, much later, it was discovered that food could be preserved and that it could contain a lot of vitamin C. It is pickled cabbage, which is called sauerkraut in northern China.

It also became the standard sailing standard, saving the lives of many captains and sailors. In ancient times, there were no cans and refrigerators, so the ancients would use vinegar soaking, canning, salting, and air-drying to preserve food for a long time. <>

Especially in the summer, some people will soak watermelon or drinks in mountain streams, because the stream water is very cold, so it has the effect of chilling. When there were no refrigerators, Westerners would use mountain streams to keep food fresh. Especially in rural families in Europe and the United States, there will be some spring houses, which are small wooden boxes built on the water of the stream.

Keep some perishable items in it to prevent food from spoiling. There will be mud swamps in northwestern Europe, which is also a very good place to store food. <

Sphagnum moss grows in swamps, which are very cold and oxygen-deficient, especially since bacteria have a hard time breaking down organic matter. In ancient times, people would dry vegetables if they wanted to eat them, or dried fish, dried beans, and dried bamboo shoots. And after removing the moisture from the dish, it is very easy to preserve, even for several months.

This method can also be cleverly solved when you want to eat vegetables in winter. Especially when you want to eat the vegetables after drying, you just need to take them out and soak them before cooking.

The ancients would use various methods such as pickling, air drying, and underground storage to preserve food for a long time.

When the ancients did not have refrigerators and canned food, they would preserve the food for a long time by pickling. Pickled kimchi is a way for ancient people to preserve food, and there are still many people who like to pickle kimchi. By pickling and fermenting, various ingredients such as cabbage are stored for a long time, so that people can eat them all year round, and even in winter, when there are no fresh vegetables, people can eat fresh ingredients.

To marinate ingredients, you can not only use salt, but also vinegar, sugar and other materials to marinate food, preserve food, and make food preserve for a long time.

Air-drying was also a common method used by ancient people to preserve food. Air-dried preservation food can remove the moisture in the food, so that he can be stored for a long time, for example, the fish and meat that people eat now can be air-dried, and the bacon and jerky made of post-preservation in the future are preserved by the principle of air-drying, in addition, beans, eggplant falcons, etc. can be stored for a long time by air-drying, and the moisture in these foods will not deteriorate for a long time after drying, and it will be soaked in water when it needs to be used, and it can be cooked and eaten after soaking.

Underground storage was also a common way for ancient people to preserve food for a long time. In ancient times, when there were no refrigerators, many people would dig a cellar because the temperature of the cellar was relatively low, and it was not transparent to light and could keep out the air. After harvesting potatoes, turnips and cabbage and other foods, ancient people would put them in the cellar for preservation, which can avoid light and play a role in isolating the air, which will keep these vegetables in the cellar for a particularly long time to achieve the purpose of long-term preservation.

In ancient times, before there was no refrigerator, people would also use the principle of ice to preserve food, and now when traveling to the mountains, you will also see some vendors, who will soak watermelon drinks and other foods in the stream water to cool him down and extend the shelf life of food, and in ancient times, rich people would build ice cellars, use the low temperature of ice to preserve food, and put some precious ingredients directly in the ice cellar, which can also keep it for a long time, so that those rich people can eat it at any time.

The ancients had the following methods, the first is pickling, which mainly uses the preservative effect of salt and the fermentation of microorganisms, thereby inhibiting the activities of harmful microorganisms. The second is sealed storage, the principle of sealed storage is to isolate food from oxygen by sealing the container, so as to achieve the purpose of preservation. The third is low-temperature cellaring, where the cellar temperature is low and the humidity is high, which is conducive to keeping the food moist and fresh.

Most ancient people exposed their food to the sun to dehydrate it, and kept it in cellars to keep it out of the air.

They will be stored in the cellar, and they will also collect a lot of ice in the winter and store it in the cellar for preservation.

In ancient times, there was no refrigerator, how were vegetables stored and processed? China is the country with the most abundant vegetable resources in the world, and it is also the largest country in vegetable production and consumption. Vegetables are the main vitamins and minerals of the human body, and they are indispensable foods for people's daily life.

Harvested vegetables are still living organisms, and organic substances such as sugar, starch and acids are constantly depleted during storage. At the same time, microbial activity is the main cause of vegetable spoilage. In addition, the production of vegetables is seasonal and regional.

Therefore, the proper processing of fresh vegetables in the peak season and special vegetables in some regions is conducive to regulating the off-peak season of vegetable production and the demand of vegetable markets in different regions. The ancient ancestors of our country have accumulated a lot of effective experience and practices in vegetable processing.

It appeared very early in our country. "The Book of Poetry, Xinnanshan": "There are melons in the field, which are peeled or peeled", and "mushroom" is pickled. It was mainly used in ancient times.

The salting method is used to process leafy vegetables.

There are many records of vegetables as vegetables in the "Zhou Li". It is mainly used to physiologically dehydrate vegetables with table salt, or to process vegetables by lactic acid fermentation. Among them, salted into the rice is mainly the use of the strong permeability of the salt solution to cause the physiological dehydration of vegetables and microorganisms to achieve the purpose of preservation, which is the earliest chemical processing preservation method in the history of China.

After a long period of accumulation, to the Northern Wei Dynasty, it has become the most popular and widely used vegetable processing and preservation method, whether it is cultivated vegetables or wild vegetables, leafy vegetables, root vegetables, melons and vegetables or fungi, can be processed into socks and toxins to eat.

In addition, there are also some special requirements for the combination and dosage of main ingredients and ingredients, the appropriate brewing time and the length of time, and the control of temperature, reflecting that the empirical use of microbial and biochemical technology for vegetable processing has reached a very high level at that time.

By the Yuan Dynasty, the measures used in processing, such as dehydration, salting, kneading, pressing stones, and pouring vegetables, were basically the same as today. In addition to pickled vegetables, dried vegetables, pickles, kimchi Dakong, starch and so on are all traditional vegetable processed products. The processing method of dried vegetables is basically the same as that of dried fruits, and it has a long history.

In the Ming Dynasty, in addition to dried vegetables, there were dried melons, dried radishes and other dried products. Pickles are first salted and then pickled with sauce, and at first stem vegetables and root vegetables were mainly pickles, and there were pickles in the Han Dynasty.

Another type of pickles pickled with sweet and sour was first seen in the Shijing, and the famous vinegared garlic appeared in the Ming Dynasty. Kimchi is a kind of pickled dish, which is made by fermenting rice soup and noodle soup with vegetables, such as the famous sour cabbage in the north, which has been recorded as early as in "Qi Min Yaoshu".

Starch is prepared by grinding, filtering and precipitating the roots, stems or fruits of starch-rich vegetables, mainly potato flour, lotus root flour, water rhombic flour, etc. The processing record of lotus root flour was first seen in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty "Shouqin Pension New Book". With the advancement of modern science and technology, canned vegetables and quick-frozen vegetables have become more and more popular.