Frigid

Today

The purchase of an ice-cream maker has, of course, resulted in the purchase of a new freezer. This is an upright freezer to supplement our existing freezer which is just the top 1/3 of our fridge.

We had an existing, small space to fill and spent much time Internet browsing to find the right one.

Eventually, we bought locally - a Hotpoint with automatic frost control, sensible-sized drawers and a 5 year guarantee.

Paul is preparing ice-cream and sorbet as I write.

"Hotpoint make the best fridge/freezers," I said confidently to the sales assistant. And who was she to disagree? Especially as they were also the most expensive in the shop.

In My Day

Daddy always swore that Kelvinator made the best fridges. To be honest, for most of my childhood this was academic as we didn't have a fridge.

Things were kept cool in the coal cellar - this meant mainly milk, cream and butter. Many a time I would forget to clean the base of the milk bottle, thereby depositing a circle of black on the tablecloth.

Cheese was kept in a cheese dish where it would sweat gently. Left overs got used up quickly to stop them going off. Daddy's main anxiety was flies and on more than one occasion he spotted clusters of fly eggs on left-over meat. I've a horrible idea that he sometimes just scraped them off and carried on.

There was a vegetable rack on the back porch which kept stuff cool, I guess. Much of our food was bought daily; the idea of a big weekly shop with stuff decanted into fridge or freezer to use up at will simply didn't exist.

There were also ways of using up some items that had gone off; sour milk went into scones and Mamma also used it to make a soft cream cheese, allowing the whey to drip through a muslin bag hanging from the kitchen ceiling.

There were many ways of preserving food. Fruit from our huge garden was sometimes bottled into big "Kilner" jars and Mamma also made jam and marmalade. This was an inexact science and jam would sometimes be too runny or too stiff. One lot of marmalade simply wouldn't jell, so Mamma cooked the whole mixture again, producing a dark sticky mixture that we name "Toffee Marmalade". It would have put Frank Cooper to shame. The jam was poured into jars, a little circle of greaseproof paper put directly onto the jam, then a paper cover help on with rubber bands. The jars stood on a high shelf and were taken down as needed; and mildew you just scraped off - the jam underneath would be OK.

In 1959 I went to Germany with Mamma. When we got back we discovered that Daddy had knocked an alcove into the kitchen, taking a bite out of our hexagonal hall (wouldn't be allowed today), thus making way for a washing machine and, of course, a Kelvinator fridge. The days of sour milk were over.

"Isn't it strange." I said to Paul "that it's hotpoint that make the best freezers?"