The preservative effect of frost on dead animal matter are of the utmost
importance to the northern nations, by enabling them to store up a
sufficient stock of all manner of animal provisions for their winter
supply, and to receive stores from a great distance.
There is annually held at St. Petersburg and Moscow what is called the
frozen, or winter market, for the sale of provisions solidified by
frost. In a vast open square, the bodies of many thousand animals are
seen on all sides, piled in pyramidal and quadrangular masses: fish,
fowl, butter, eggs, hogs, sheep, deer, oxen, all rendered solid by
frost. The different species of fish are strikingly beautiful; they
possess the lustre and brilliancy of colour which characterises the
different species in a living state.
Most of the larger kinds of quadrupeds are skinned, and classed
according to their species; groups of many hundreds are piled upon their
hind-legs, one against another, as if each were making an effort to
climb over the back of his neighbour. The motionless, yet apparent
animation of their seemingly struggling attitudes (as if they had died a
sudden death), gives a horrid life to this singular scene of death. The
solidity of the frozen creatures, is such, that the natives chop and saw
them up, for the accommodation of the purchasers, like wood. These
frozen provisions are the produce of countries very remote from each
other. Siberia, Archangel, and still more distant provinces, furnish the
merchandize which, during the severity of the frost, is conveyed hither
on sledges.
In consequence of the multitude of these commodities, and the short
period allowed to the existence of the market, they are cheaper than at
any other time of the year, and are, therefore, purchased in larger
quantities, to be stored, as a winter stock.
When disposed in cellars, they will keep, with care, for a considerable
time during the cold season. All the provisions which remain, and are
exposed to the temperate atmosphere, speedily putrify; but as the
desertion of the frost is generally pretty well calculated, almost to a
day, but little loss is suffered in this respect. The same advantage is
taken of the cold in Canada, and all other countries, when the frost is
sufficiently steady.
Substances, so long as they are hard frozen, probably undergo no
chemical change, of which the most striking proof was afforded by the
body of an animal, probably antediluvian, being found imbedded in a mass
of ice at the mouth of the Lena; but in the act of freezing, or of the
subsequent thawing, some alteration is produced, which affects the
nature of the substance. This may be either merely mechanical, from the
particles of ice during their formation, tearing asunder and separating
the fibres, or chemical, by destroying the intimate union of the
constituents of the fluids, as in wine injured by having been frozen; or
by causing new combinations, of which we have an example in the
sweetness acquired by the potatoe.
Captain Scoresby, contrary to popular belief, states, that “the most
surprising action of the frost, on fresh provision, is in preserving it
a long time from putrefaction, even after it is thawed and returns into
a warm climate.[34] I have,” says he, “eaten unsalted mutton and beef
nearly five months old, which has been constantly exposed to a
temperature above the freezing point for four or five weeks in the
outset, and occasionally assailed by the septical influences of rain,
fog, heat, and electricity, and yet it has proved perfectly sweet. It
may be remarked, that unsalted meat that has been preserved four or five
months in a cold climate, and then brought back to the British coasts
during the warmth of summer, must be consumed very speedily after it is
cut into, or it will fail in a day or two. It will seldom, indeed, keep
sweet after being cooked above twenty or thirty hours.”
[34] Account of the Arctic Regions, with a History and Description of
the Northern Whale Fishery.
In freezing animal substances, for the purpose of preserving them, no
other precaution is necessary than exposing them to a sufficient degree
of cold. “Animal substances,” says Captain Scoresby, “requisite as food,
of all descriptions (fish excepted), may be taken to Greenland and there
preserved any length of time, without being smoked, dried, or salted. No
preparation of any kind is necessary for their preservation; nor is any
other precaution requisite, excepting suspending them in the air when
taken on shipboard, shielding them a little from the sun and wet, and
immersing them occasionally in sea-water, or throwing sea-water over
them after heavy rains, which will effectually prevent putrescency on
the outward passage; and, in Greenland, the cold becomes a sufficient
preservation, by freezing them as hard as blocks of wood. The moisture
is well preserved by freezing, a little from the surface only
evaporating; so that if cooked when three, four, or five months old,
meat will frequently appear as profuse of gravy, as if it had been but
recently killed.” Captain Scoresby has not informed us why fish cannot
be taken to Greenland in a frozen state, though this is a mode of
preservation much used in Russia and Germany, and even in this country.
Some attention is necessary for thawing provisions which have been
frozen. “When used, the beef cannot be divided but by an axe or saw; the
latter instrument is preferred. It is then put into cold water, from
which it derives heat by the formation of ice around it, and soon thaws;
but if put into hot water, much of the gravy is extracted, and the meat
is injured without being thawed more readily. If an attempt be made to
cook it before it is thawed, it may be burnt on the outside, while the
centre remains raw, or actually in a frozen state.” These observations,
which we have transcribed from Captain Scoresby, an excellent observer,
agree with the directions of earlier writers. Thus Krünitz says,[35]
“when fish taken under the ice are frozen, lay them in cold water, which
thus draws the ice out of the fish, so that it can be scraped off their
scales. They taste much better afterwards than when they are allowed to
thaw in a warm room.”
[35] Encyclop. Vol. X. p. 586.
Pickles.
The antiseptic power of vinegar is employed with advantage in domestic
economy for preserving from decay a variety of fruits, roots, leaves,
and other parts of vegetables, which by a species of refinement and
luxury, are often considered as condiments to improve the relish of
several kinds of food. Their qualities, no doubt, depends almost
entirely on the vinegar, spice, or salt imbibed by them.
The art of preparing vinegar pickles consists in impregnating the
vegetable substances with the strongest vinegar, to which are usually
added a portion of common salt, and the most heating spices. To effect
this object, the substance to be pickled is usually suffered to
macerate, or slightly boiled with the acid, and afterwards kept infused
in it, together with spices and salt.
It is customary to impregnate the article to be pickled first in a
strong brine of common salt; but this is not absolutely necessary for
the preservation of the pickled substance. To facilitate the action of
the vinegar or salt, the articles to be pickled, especially such as
walnuts, cucumbers, &c. should be punctured with a large needle or fork.
To assist their preservation, and to improve their flavour, a variety of
pungent and aromatic spices are added, which vary according to the fancy
of the cook; pepper, pimento, cloves, mace, ginger, capsicum, and
mustard, are the spices usually employed.
For the preparation of acid pickles, the vinegar prepared from wood, as
in itself containing no substance liable to a spontaneous decay, is
preferable to common malt vinegar, although the contrary has been
asserted, because it is free from mucilage, which promotes the spoiling
of common vinegar, and therefore the former is a better antiseptic than
vinegar abounding in mucilage. We prepare our home-made pickles with
this acid, and we are authorised to state that, although kept for years,
they are inferior to none met with in commerce.
All pickles should be preserved in unglazed earthenware jars, carefully
corked, and tied over with a bladder to exclude air. The vinegar used
for preparing them should always be heated in an unglazed earthenware
pan, it should never be suffered to boil, but poured over the substance
to be pickled, just when it begins to simmer. The spices may be simmered
with the vinegar.