Ice houses The tribute given by the Arabic culture to the use of cold for food refrigeration was very significant such as the involvement of underground space in the management of this conflict. Yakahal were connected in the underground with qanats, the typical Mediterranean Southern Coast aqueducts, which were characterized by underground tunneling in the countryside and aboveground rural and urban channels. The external cone shaped building was completed by a underground heart were food was kept refrigerated and ventilated thanks to the qanats and the pressed snow stratifications . These buildings so had two location linkages: they could be build only in connection with the aqueduct and closed to snow sources. These difficulties in building and management caused the classification of cold as a luxury item. Perishable food was kept under salt, honey or dried. Cold was only a luxury! Ice houses in Northern Italy were not connected to aqueducts like Yakahal but they used to be provided by fresh ice in the winter as well. Sometimes ice was carried in the night from the surroundings mountains, sometimes it was produced in situ during very cold nights in special pools and then stored inside. This underground building had two entrance, one on the top for ice supply, one on the side to allow the deposit and the collection of food. Sometimes the use was private - in this case they were luxury facilities of rich houses -, sometimes collective; in this case they could be municipal or connected to private enterprises or trade companies. In this last case the side entrance led to a tunnel which went to the shop or to the distribution center. In Southern Italy, snow houses were at the center of local rituals. In the island of Ischia for example, during the night of snowy days, snow man moved to from the villages up to the mountains to collect the valuable item and to store it in underground buildings isolated by several organic and inorganic stratifications. Pressed snow was carried by horses in jute sacks by these seasonal workers equipped with typical black cloaks and laces shoes. They used to sell ice to rich people to improve the flavor of fruits and wine in summer time, for example Ferdinando II of Borbone when visited the island of Ischia was welcome with ice, fruit and wine and appreciated the cold temperature over all the food served as reported in his personal letter of thanks. But when did happen that cold was transformed from being a luxury item to a common service? It has happened after its introduction in the trade and transportation of food, specially meat and fish. Only later ice arrived to the city carried by colorful carriages which started being part of the summer street view of Naples and Sicily's cities. A tradition that is still alive and never has never been supplanted by contemporary ice-cram makers. Food cellars Underground food cellars have been historically the most significant alley in family food management. Items such as apples, potatoes, onions, vine and oil, suffer from being kept at extremely cold or hot temperature. They need something in the middle and the canteen was the answer. Its efficiency strongly influenced the family diet, Italian traditional cooking and women life. Unfortunately food cellars have been for a very long period considered only as annexes of the main building (private houses or collective buildings such as monasteries, prisons, hospitals, hotels, colleges, etc...) and it is very difficult for historians to study the role played by these underground buildings in the local economies and in the space organization. Nowadays the idea of underground cellars has been elaborated and new food cellars have been designed to offer low consumption facilities for private and public use. Local products Wine canteens are underground buildings, that is it. The secret of Italian wine production is kept in underground canteen: grapes selection, their production are fundamental but the seasoning influences strongly the final result as well. Italian contemporary architecture is strongly stimulated by the wine factory world, fashion architects are experimenting new shapes for wineries which have been transformed in symbols of the Italian style. However, even if these new structures are really fascinating, it is the natural equilibrium between constant low temperature and humidity given by the underground location that plays the predominant functional role of wine canteens. But not only Italian wine production is linked to the underground tradition, many other worldwide appreciated Italian products depend on the under zero level. In the case of typical products classified as DOP (Protected Denomination and Origin) - which is given by Italian government and approved by European Union as a guarantee of quality - when the use of underground space is part of the transformation of the final product (as for example for balsamic vinegar, cheese, or cold cuts) all the phases have to take place in a limited geographical area; it is true for the aboveground phases such as for the underground ones. For cheese, for example, milk must be produced by caws living in a certain area and eating food produced there, all the steps of the production must take place in farms whose location is in the area and also the seasoning, last but not the least, must take place in natural or artificial local cavities. The Aceto Balsamico di Modena must spend at least 10 years in the underground to be classified as original but the seasoning can last for many more decades giving to the product a unique flavor and economic value. Several worldwide popular cold cut need to be seasoned in the underground like... And last but not the least our popular cheeses. Parmesan, Pecorino di Fossa (by the way fossa means cave), Castelmagno and many other have in underground seasoning their secret. Underground for breeding In Italy sometimes underground was the place for breeding animals. Pigeons in Orvieto, sheeps in Southern Italy caved cities and rabbits in Procida and Ischia Islands. The first two examples are now part of the history of the relationship between underground and food production but rabbits are still now bred in underground pools to produce a characteristic very appreciated local product and which became a significant element of the typical local cooking tradition.
underground and food management in Italy
Roberta Varriale
2016
Abstract
Ice houses The tribute given by the Arabic culture to the use of cold for food refrigeration was very significant such as the involvement of underground space in the management of this conflict. Yakahal were connected in the underground with qanats, the typical Mediterranean Southern Coast aqueducts, which were characterized by underground tunneling in the countryside and aboveground rural and urban channels. The external cone shaped building was completed by a underground heart were food was kept refrigerated and ventilated thanks to the qanats and the pressed snow stratifications . These buildings so had two location linkages: they could be build only in connection with the aqueduct and closed to snow sources. These difficulties in building and management caused the classification of cold as a luxury item. Perishable food was kept under salt, honey or dried. Cold was only a luxury! Ice houses in Northern Italy were not connected to aqueducts like Yakahal but they used to be provided by fresh ice in the winter as well. Sometimes ice was carried in the night from the surroundings mountains, sometimes it was produced in situ during very cold nights in special pools and then stored inside. This underground building had two entrance, one on the top for ice supply, one on the side to allow the deposit and the collection of food. Sometimes the use was private - in this case they were luxury facilities of rich houses -, sometimes collective; in this case they could be municipal or connected to private enterprises or trade companies. In this last case the side entrance led to a tunnel which went to the shop or to the distribution center. In Southern Italy, snow houses were at the center of local rituals. In the island of Ischia for example, during the night of snowy days, snow man moved to from the villages up to the mountains to collect the valuable item and to store it in underground buildings isolated by several organic and inorganic stratifications. Pressed snow was carried by horses in jute sacks by these seasonal workers equipped with typical black cloaks and laces shoes. They used to sell ice to rich people to improve the flavor of fruits and wine in summer time, for example Ferdinando II of Borbone when visited the island of Ischia was welcome with ice, fruit and wine and appreciated the cold temperature over all the food served as reported in his personal letter of thanks. But when did happen that cold was transformed from being a luxury item to a common service? It has happened after its introduction in the trade and transportation of food, specially meat and fish. Only later ice arrived to the city carried by colorful carriages which started being part of the summer street view of Naples and Sicily's cities. A tradition that is still alive and never has never been supplanted by contemporary ice-cram makers. Food cellars Underground food cellars have been historically the most significant alley in family food management. Items such as apples, potatoes, onions, vine and oil, suffer from being kept at extremely cold or hot temperature. They need something in the middle and the canteen was the answer. Its efficiency strongly influenced the family diet, Italian traditional cooking and women life. Unfortunately food cellars have been for a very long period considered only as annexes of the main building (private houses or collective buildings such as monasteries, prisons, hospitals, hotels, colleges, etc...) and it is very difficult for historians to study the role played by these underground buildings in the local economies and in the space organization. Nowadays the idea of underground cellars has been elaborated and new food cellars have been designed to offer low consumption facilities for private and public use. Local products Wine canteens are underground buildings, that is it. The secret of Italian wine production is kept in underground canteen: grapes selection, their production are fundamental but the seasoning influences strongly the final result as well. Italian contemporary architecture is strongly stimulated by the wine factory world, fashion architects are experimenting new shapes for wineries which have been transformed in symbols of the Italian style. However, even if these new structures are really fascinating, it is the natural equilibrium between constant low temperature and humidity given by the underground location that plays the predominant functional role of wine canteens. But not only Italian wine production is linked to the underground tradition, many other worldwide appreciated Italian products depend on the under zero level. In the case of typical products classified as DOP (Protected Denomination and Origin) - which is given by Italian government and approved by European Union as a guarantee of quality - when the use of underground space is part of the transformation of the final product (as for example for balsamic vinegar, cheese, or cold cuts) all the phases have to take place in a limited geographical area; it is true for the aboveground phases such as for the underground ones. For cheese, for example, milk must be produced by caws living in a certain area and eating food produced there, all the steps of the production must take place in farms whose location is in the area and also the seasoning, last but not the least, must take place in natural or artificial local cavities. The Aceto Balsamico di Modena must spend at least 10 years in the underground to be classified as original but the seasoning can last for many more decades giving to the product a unique flavor and economic value. Several worldwide popular cold cut need to be seasoned in the underground like... And last but not the least our popular cheeses. Parmesan, Pecorino di Fossa (by the way fossa means cave), Castelmagno and many other have in underground seasoning their secret. Underground for breeding In Italy sometimes underground was the place for breeding animals. Pigeons in Orvieto, sheeps in Southern Italy caved cities and rabbits in Procida and Ischia Islands. The first two examples are now part of the history of the relationship between underground and food production but rabbits are still now bred in underground pools to produce a characteristic very appreciated local product and which became a significant element of the typical local cooking tradition.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
