Food Preparation before Refrigeration

For many people on his planet, they can remember a time before air conditioning and before refrigeration. Cooking was challenging and methods of preserving then restoring food became quite an art… some of those recipes from an older technology are well worth trying…. here’s a couple I have been working on:

Key Limes and the unique preparation make all the difference

Take one of my favorite recipes for Key Lime Pie. It was a great deal of time before air conditioning, refrigeration and steady power came to “the Keys of Florida.”. (Some folks still complain… they do have hurricanes that swamp certain areas. I remember one restaurant that measures each flooding with high water marks on its walls.) Back to the dessert, this famous but simple pie (the State Pie of Florida) is made with Key Limes ( not to be confused with the Persian variety) and condensed milk  … most delicious on a graham cracker crust!

This next brings me to the South African dish called “Smoorvis”… a wonderful meal of fish, rice, vegetables and Cape-Malay spices! The fish historically used were dried, salted and preserved in the sun. An effort was then made to reconstitute and ‘plump’ the fish prior and during cooking… today, many folks use smoked salmon ‘straight from the box.’

However, I am preparing it the old fashioned way… and it looks intriguing. Recipe to follow.

Roger Freberg