tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3942939014907892425.post2893787696478931399..comments2024-02-27T10:51:51.507-08:00Comments on Adventures of a Whole Wheat Pastafarian: The lost 50 years of kitchen history, where did it all go?TrampledbyGeesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280685094722276939noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3942939014907892425.post-56481947805356776192013-03-17T15:02:52.852-07:002013-03-17T15:02:52.852-07:00I wasn't a housewife before 1950, but I was a ...I wasn't a housewife before 1950, but I was a young person living at home, and I remember much of how we lived. We had an icebox, though most everyone around us had refrigerators. We couldn't afford one, but people were getting rid of iceboxes and they were cheap. The ice man came up the back stairs twice a week with a huge block of ice in his tongs, and our food stayed (mostly) cold. But we also lived by the seasons. In the summer, we didn't buy the volume of perishables that people take for granted now, like gallons of milk and large quantities of meat. Our milk was delivered by truck every morning and during the hot months we would drink most of it that day. Any that soured was turned into yoghurt or cottage cheese. And without air conditioning, we didn't have the same appetite for heavy meals in the summer that people do now, so we ate mostly vegetables and fresh salads. Greens were kept in the icebox, but other vegetables were kept in boxes in a spare room that also served as an icebox in the winter. It wasn't heated, so keeping things from freezing was more of a problem than keeping them cold.<br /><br />My mother had a kerosene stove (the kind with the oven on the top on one side) and cooked everything from scratch. She thought cake mixes (which were just becoming popular then) were for lazy people. There were no cabinets or "labor saving devices"--she had a table, a stove, the ice box, and a sink with a cupboard over it. My grandmother had a huge cast iron coal-fired range, and also a kerosene stove for cooking in the summer. Her kitchen was straight out of the 1920's--a Hoosier cabinet, the two stoves, a sink and a table, and that was all. All the food and dishes were stored in the adjacent pantry, and all the preparation was done on the table. That's pretty much what my kitchen consists of too--stove, fridge, table and a mobile cart (I don't even have a sink in the kitchen). I look at what people consider to be essential in a kitchen nowadays and just smile. My daughter wanted me to come to her house for Thanksgiving because she just knew I couldn't turn out a holiday dinner in my kitchen--was she surprised!<br /><br />There's a Yahoo list on refrigeration alternatives that has had some references lately to mid 20th century publications from the refrigeration industry. I'll see if I can find some links to send you. It was interesting to see how strongly the industry affected how people thought about refrigeration--most of what we see in fridges now (ever larger capacity, no defrost, larger freezers, etc.) were industry driven, not something that housewives wanted.LizWhttp://www.darwinhills.comnoreply@blogger.com