Have you ever thought about what people are doing before the invention of the refrigerator? The story of the refrigerator, which is one of the biggest heroes of the summer days with air conditioning, begins in the 1800s. When it comes to becoming widespread, old-fashioned methods continue to decrease until the '70s.
Taking advantage of airflow is one of these methods; In order to keep the food intact on the summer day and keep it cool, the use of wooden laths outside and thin wire meshed cabinets were used. The airflow from the spaces helped keep the food inside cool. This method was applied even in hot cities such as Urfa and Antep.
Storing food and beverages in cool cellars, deep pits with algae cover, and even in caves are among the methods that ensure their deterioration or cold consumption. Today, we will briefly tell you about a method other than these and ways to obtain that method; snow and ice.
The findings reveal that the practice of storing the snow and ice collected in the winter under suitable conditions and using it in warm weather is at least 3000 years old. Firstly, drinks were cooled with snow in Mesopotamia. Snow and ice were brought to Mesopotamia from the Taurus Mountains and were kept under the soil, wrapped in straw.
From the moment they quit nomadism, Turks have also attached importance to providing snow and ice. Snow and ice also had an important place in the cuisine of the Seljuk and its follow-up Ottomans. We know that even in our hot cities such as Diyarbakır, Antep, Maraş, snow, and ice are stored for summer use. We are talking about two foods that you will understand are very important for our kitchen.
We encounter amazing views when we turn the pages of history and look at the Middle East. Lebanon and Syria have cooled in the summer with the profits brought from the high parts of Lebanon; even with a fast transportation network, it was recorded that they managed to reach these profits even 600 km south of Egypt.
Today, there are foods such as halva, karsançç, bici bici, where snow and ice are sweetened and consumed. It is known that Turkish ice cream was produced by mixing the water obtained from milk and fruit with snow in the palace towards the end of the 17th century.
