While freezing foods for short or longer term preservation was more common in the colder regions of the colonies/states, it was both possible and accomplished by Virginia housewives and even those living farther south.
There are many records of ice pits, caves, and ice houses on larger estates and farms in the South. The principle of an ice house is fairly simple. A deep pit is dug into the ground and covered with a small above ground structure for access. Some pits were as deep as 18 feet. The pit is then filled with large blocks of ice cut from frozen ponds and rivers in the winter months.
By digging into the ground the temperature is naturally lower all through the year. The ice was insulated with sawdust and salt hay, which separated the layers and filled the spaces between pieces. People in northern Virginia could harvest ice themselves. River plantation houses often dug ice pits near the river. Those living in states farther south would need to purchase ice that had been shipped from New England.
Examples of ice houses in Virginia include the following:
Walkerton Tavern in Henrico county (3 ice houses to accommodate the business) Huntley, the home of Thomas Francis Mason (a domed ice house) The town of Waterford, VA had at least a few dozen ice houses George Washington’s Mount Vernon Jefferson’s Monticello (held 62 wagon loads of ice)
Both Washington and Jefferson used some of their ice to make ice creams. In fact, Jefferson was the first President to serve ice cream at the White House in Washington, D. C.
The Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph (1824) gives some good indications for the use of ice houses in the South for food preservation. Her book was the first regional cookbook in the United States. On pages 25-26 she gives a receipt titled “To Corn Beef in Hot Weather.” She gives the basic directions to cure the beef and then states “if you have an ice-house or refrigerator, it will be best to keep it there.”
Like many of her contemporary cookbook authors, Mrs. Randolph gives directions or “observations on ice creams.” She states on page 142 that “It is the practice with some indolent cooks, to set the freezer containing the cream, in a tub with ice and salt, and put it in the ice house; it will certainly freeze there; but not until the watery particles have subsided, and by the separation destroyed the cream.” It can be concluded from that statement that foods were not only kept chilled in an ice house, but that freezing could occur as well. There are many documented sources which show that ice creams were served in the summer in both the North and the South. The Fourth of July celebration in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1831 included free ice cream. Iced lemonade and limeade were also extremely popular at these summer festivities. None of this would have been possible without the use of ice stored in ice houses.
Ice houses served two purposes—they kept ice for use in the preparation of foods (like ice creams and the very popular mint juleps and lemonades) and they provided a storage area to chill or freeze foods for long or short periods of time. Refrigerators, also known as ice boxes, were marketed widely after 1830. In fact, it was possible to fashion one at home by inserting a small barrel inside a larger barrel and filling the space between them with ice. Of course, these early ice boxes were kept in the cooler parts of the house, not in the kitchen next to the hearth or stove.
Those American housewives who lived too far south to procure their own ice would have been able to purchase ice form their northern neighbors in the early 19th Century. The ice industry was born in 1803 when Frederic Tudor (later know as the “Ice King”) began shipping ice to the West Indies. He received a monopoly on the trade to the islands from Great Britain after the War of 1812. His first domestic shipment was to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1817, followed by Savannah in 1818 and New Orleans in 1820. By 1850 New Orleans was the second larges consumer of ice in the United States, surpassed only by Philadelphia. Mr. Tudor was the largest ice merchant, but certainly not the only one. Because his business was so large, there is excellent documentation on his business interests. Other smaller businesses would have been supplying other markets in the South. Improvements in the ice industry continued through mid-century with various inventions to cut, haul, and store the ice.
While not possible for every early American cook, freezing was a food preservation alternative for many, North and South. As with many subjects in culinary history, surviving sources do not go into great detail on subjects that to them were commonplace or commonsensical. For example, while Mrs. Randolph does mention the use of ice houses and refrigerators she does not discuss how to dry foods or preserve foods in salt or straw. Some “Northern” sources make no mention of ice houses. No single source documents the entire food history of a region or a nation. Many sources must be looked at in order to get a realistic picture of what might have been done in any given household.
A good example is maple syrup. It is well known that maple syrup and sugar was made, consumed and sold in the Colonies and Early Republic. It is very rarely found in any cookbook. The best description of making maple syrup is in the 1805 edition of The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, by the Englishwoman Hannah Glasse. Having studied many, many sources for more than twelve years, I have not yet seen a receipt that uses maple syrup. This does not mean that it was not used, only that it was not documented widely. It was recommended by one source as an “economical” substitute for sugar to be used by those who could not afford to purchase sugar. I believe that the same is true for some methods of food preservation. Women simply knew how to use what they had at their disposal.
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