Eli5: How did people make and keep ice in medieval times, and how do we manufacture ice cubes now ?
In: Technology
People don’t realise this but ice is actually quite hard to melt, especially when it’s gathered in large quantities. I remember when I was a kid it snowed unexpectedly in winter with a lot more snow than the area is used to. School was out and they brought bulldozers to clear out the schoolyard and they piled the snow up to the side making a small mound about 7ft tall and 20-30ft wide. That mound did not melt completely until late spring, nearly half a year later.
In a simillar fashion ice was harvested by professionals called Icemen who would collect ice from frozen lakes or mountains both during the winter and summer if there were peaks nearby that still had snow. The ice would be cut into blocks and stored in ice houses. This occupation existed since antiquity up until the early 20th century. The stored ice would actually melt very slowly, which meant that it could easily last months or years in the ice house with minimal losses due to melting. When someone ordered for ice they’d deliver it in blocks, which still lasted many days each but obviously melted faster. Of course your average peasant wouldn’t be the one buying ice by the block but richer people and lords would buy a lot of it and have a special area in their cellars for chilled foods or would use the ice to chill their wine or other drinks. Cellars were also fairly cold themselves so depending on the exact area sometimes the ice wasn’t even necessary.
Towns and villages also had cellars or purpose built storehouses meant to be as cold as possible to preserve everyone’s food collectively. Ice was also used for the transport of goods like vegetables or fruits by ship, which again took many months to completely melt due to the amount of ice used.
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