Care of the Refrigerator.—Put a saucer of unslacked lime in the re frigerator to keep it sweet. Place in the ice chest two or three lumps of charcoal as large as an egg, changing them two or three times a month. They will absorb all odors of cooked food and the like. Keep everything in the refrigerator covered. Have a number of glass fruit jars with screw tops in which to place liquids, and a glass jar for drinking water. This will save cracking off ice.
Few housekeepers take the necessary pains to keep the ice box scrupulously clean. It should be wiped out daily, and when the ice is exhausted, be fore a new piece is put in, a strong solution of caustic potash or sal soda should be poured through the waste pipes to cleanse and disinfect them.
To Break Ice.—Use an awl or a darning needle and tap it gently with a hammer. Make a row of holes across the ice, which will crack straight through beneath.
To Preserve Ice.—To preserve ice it must be isolated and surrounded with nonconducting material. There must be no access of the outer air to the ice except on top. Cold air is
heavier than warm, hence the air which has been cooled by the melting of the ice settles upon its surface and cannot be displaced by the warmer air from above unless the cold air is allowed to escape or is displaced by a current, which must be avoided. The larger and colder a block of ice is, and the less it is exposed to warmth before being placed in the refrigerator, the longer it will keep.
Ice varies in temperature all the way from below zero to 30° F. before melting. Hence the fact that a piece of ice is not all melted by exposure to warm air is,no criterion that it is not losing heat and rapidly approaching the melting point. If a piece of ice must be exposed to warm air for a time before being placed in the re frigerator it should be wrapped up in a heavy cloth or newspapers. If these are left on after the ice has been put in the refrigerator, so much the bet ter. The larger the block of ice, the slower it melts. Hence it is economy to purchase ice in as large quantities as the refrigerator will hold.