It's amazing that ice was available in the summer in ancient times! How did they all preserve it?

Ancient people usually went to the river in winter to get ice and save it inside the cellar until summer, and later began to add saltpeter to the water to make ice.

Before people learned how to make ice, the ice in the cellar and the ice used in the summer were stored in winter. Ice was taken from the river in winter and put into a cellar or ice cellar, covered with quilts, and isolated from the outside world in terms of air and temperature exchange.

Because it was cooler underground, and because the openings in both the ice cellar and the cellar were smaller and the air was not circulated, it could be kept for a longer period of time and saved for the summer to be used for storing food and cooling.

The end of the Tang Dynasty, people in the production of gunpowder mining out of saltpeter, both and found that saltpeter dissolved in water will absorb a lot of heat, so that the water cooled down to ice, since then, there will be summer ice method, thus saving a lot of money and manpower.

Later, after the popularization of the ice-making method, ice makers gradually added sugar to ice to attract customers. In the Song Dynasty, there were more and more cold foods on the market, and merchants added fruit or fruit juice to them, and even added fruit pulp and milk to the ice, which was very similar to modern ice cream, in other words, the originator of contemporary ice cream and even Haagen-Dazs.

Expanded:

The Beginnings of Ice:

Earliest Ice cold drinks originated in China, the end of the Tang Dynasty, people in the production of gunpowder mining a large number of saltpeter, found that saltpeter dissolved in water will absorb a lot of heat, can make the water cooled down to ice, and from then on people can make ice in the summer.

Back then, the food chain of doing business was gradually formed, and they added sugar to the ice to attract customers. In the Song Dynasty, merchants also added fruit or fruit juice to it. Yuan Dynasty merchants even added fruit pulp and milk to the ice, which is very similar to modern ice cream. It is considered the ancestor of Chinese ice cream.

Besides the saltpeter used to make ice, there was another way to "store ice".

To the Qing Dynasty, the Qing dynasty, "the canon" "Ministry of Public Works are water Qingliang Division of the hidden ice" article cloud: "Where the ice from the Imperial River ...... years to the winter solstice in the second half of the month, the Department of the Division of an officer, to collect the man felled ice, take its clean and firm thick, to square feet of five inches for the block, and the ice, the ice, the ice, the ice, the ice, the ice, the ice, the ice. The ice is taken as a block of five inches in a square foot ...... for the public light house ...... to set up the summer soup." This custom was still practiced in the Republic of China. Every year, before chiseling the river to get ice, we have to worship the river god to thank him for the ice.

The chiseled ice would be trimmed to a four-square shape and had standard size requirements so that the space in the ice cellar could be used efficiently. Ice cellars were generally dug and built semi-subterranean. During most of the Qing Dynasty, the construction of ice cellars was a state monopoly, the people were not allowed to build. There were two kinds of ice cellars, one was the official cellar, exclusively for royal use, and the other was the government cellar, for the use of the princes.

In Beijing there is a Bingyaokou Hutong, which was the site of an official kiln during the Qing Dynasty, and it was built here because of the diversion of the city's water system right next to it. Water was diverted here from Yuchuan Mountain in the west to connect with the Tongzhou Grand Canal system in the east, the imperial Shichahai scenic spot to the south, and, of course, Taiping Lake, where Lao She later sank herself.

There are two main places to use ice. First, to cool the royal house, when the air conditioning roommate. The container for the ice was also elaborate. The outside is made of wood, the inside is lead or tin, as long as you do not drink directly will not be heavy metal poisoning. Second, for chilled food, because the summer ice is very precious, so the emperor will be favorite ministers of the summer cooling reward is issued according to the level of "ice tickets". Ministers can get ice with the ticket.

Later Ice is not only the nobleman can enjoy, ordinary people in the summer can eat ice.

Cellar ice old traditional customs of the year. Also known as "hidden ice". China's northern summer heat, winter ice, so there are in the winter to hide the ice in the ice cellar for use in the summer custom. Ice cellar in the Qing Dynasty is divided into three kinds: the official ice cellar, the House of ice cellar, commercial and civil ice cellar.

Every November thirty-nine, forty-nine days, that is, there are logging ice, hiding ice move, quite an event.

The Daming Lake is the place where the ice-making industry was developed earlier in the country (you know why the emperor liked to come here, right?).

Every winter, when the water in Daming Lake completely freezes over, villagers near the lake begin to prepare for the storage of ice. The first thing they have to do is to prepare a place to store the ice. It is to dig a cellar.

The cellar is dug, the following grass felt, while three nine days, Daming Lake, the thickest ice to the Daming Lake to cut ice, and then a piece of a piece from the bottom to the top of the pile up, until the top of the cellar. Stacked full and then covered with a layer of grass felt, grass felt covered with a layer of thick yellow soil, and finally the entrance should be sealed with soil, so that an ice cellar is completed.

Ice kiln because of its special characteristics, can only be opened once, that is, after opening the inside of the ice must be sold out, so buy ice need to make an appointment, to a sufficient amount of ice kiln before opening, people take the ice ticket to ice.

The most common use of ice is restaurants, and then part of the household, and then the street to sell "ice skates" vendors. Jinan was the first place in China to sell sodas because Daming Lake could produce ice.

The ice in the ice cellar is finished, people have not gone out, there is a group of children waiting at the door to pick up the broken ice on the ground to eat. This has become an indelible memory in the minds of the older generation of Jinanites.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Salt Water Ice Making