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More on refrigerators:


The first commercially available refrigerator was actually what was known as an Ice Box. It literally was a box that had ice atop inside a cabinet, and the cold air sunk down to keep food stuff cold. Obviously the ice would melt and would have to be replaced almost daily. Refrigeration in the form we know it dates as far back as the 1700’s when William Cullen an English doctor created a small vacuum over some diethyl ether and caused it to boil. Though no practical application came from this discovery, it would lead the way to modern refrigeration.

But besides the history which can be found on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icebox

And on About.com here: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrefrigerator.htm

The one real problem that has plagued ALL fridges from their first use is the nagging problem of the darn thing warming up. Well, in the old days, Ice boxes were lined with cork, wood shavings, straw and a variety of other materials to insulate it long enough to keep the ice for longer periods of time, and the box colder for longer.

With the advent of Styrofoam and its descendants, cooling down of a box became much more efficient. So much so, that the box can stay colder for longer periods of time without an additional cooling down.

The flip side is that it also will hold in heat, a lot of it!

So when storing food in an unpowered refrigerator, the one thing to remember is to keep the door open. If powered or if cooled down, keep the door closed!

Ok. So now here is the biggie: If you’re out of electricity, first as mentioned before, clean out the fridge, and re-prioritize the items in it. Put vegetables on the upper level, and the milk, cheese, eggs, meat on the lower levels. Keep the top shelf empty and get a plastic container. Fill it with ice and keep the ice coming once a day. Drain out the old water and keep this cycle going. Within a few days if enough ice has been put in, the ol’ fridge will be back in full service. There are a few things to remember:

1: Keep the fridge clean. This is important to keep out any molding items. Such items can spread mold spores quickly just by opening the door. (The spores travel via air currents.)

2: Prioritize items. Again; Keep veggies atop, and protein items below. This ensures that vegetables will not get too cold, nor wilt from heat.

3: Keep as many items on the lower end as possible. The cold will be absorbed by them and the more stuff on the bottom you have, the longer it will take for them to heat up.

4: Buy and keep ONLY what you can eat in a day or two. The logic here is multi fold. When buying food, the single biggest issue fridges created was the wanton waist of food in this world. How much food produced and how much wasted because we put it in the fridge and never ate it? This saves money, but also, if for some reason you cannot get any more ice, the food in the fridge will only last several days anyway.

Finally, get into the habit of rotating food. This old throwback from the 1950’s cold war paranoia was actually something practiced for many generations: Put new food to the back and move older food forward. This allows you to know when food was put in and how old it is.