Yo Kass answered
Pirates often spent long stretches of time at sea, which meant that one problem they faced was an effective way to store food.
It was usually stored in the hull of the ship, and would often rot or become infested before the pirate had time to eat it.
Even fresh water turned foul in the squalid and unsanitary environment of a pirate ship hull!
However, pirates (and other seafarers) did have several clever ways of prolonging the life of their food
Pirates keeping their food fresh
Nowadays, we would usually put our groceries inside a refrigerator or freezer to stop them from spoiling.
Refrigerating or storing food at a cool temperature works to keep food for longer because a low temperature means that the bacteria (present in all food) find it harder to reproduce to harmful levels.
In fact, once the temperature inside a fridge reaches 5 degrees Celsius, bacteria becomes 'dormant'.
Unfortunately, pirates didn't have refrigerators on board their ships, so they had to come up with different ways to keep their food fresh (or even just edible).
How pirates stored food Until the advent of refrigeration units, people struggled with different ways of keeping food fresh. Before fridges became widely available in the early 1900s, the use of an 'icehouse' was the only way to cool food to safe levels for storing.
Luckily, there were other ways of preserving food that people could use - and all the following methods would have commonly be employed by pirates in an effort to keep their food lasting longer:
It was usually stored in the hull of the ship, and would often rot or become infested before the pirate had time to eat it.
Even fresh water turned foul in the squalid and unsanitary environment of a pirate ship hull!
However, pirates (and other seafarers) did have several clever ways of prolonging the life of their food
Pirates keeping their food fresh
Nowadays, we would usually put our groceries inside a refrigerator or freezer to stop them from spoiling.
Refrigerating or storing food at a cool temperature works to keep food for longer because a low temperature means that the bacteria (present in all food) find it harder to reproduce to harmful levels.
In fact, once the temperature inside a fridge reaches 5 degrees Celsius, bacteria becomes 'dormant'.
Unfortunately, pirates didn't have refrigerators on board their ships, so they had to come up with different ways to keep their food fresh (or even just edible).
How pirates stored food Until the advent of refrigeration units, people struggled with different ways of keeping food fresh. Before fridges became widely available in the early 1900s, the use of an 'icehouse' was the only way to cool food to safe levels for storing.
Luckily, there were other ways of preserving food that people could use - and all the following methods would have commonly be employed by pirates in an effort to keep their food lasting longer:
- Drying
- Curing with salt or sugar
- Pickling (in brine, alcohol, vinegar)
