Consider what great-grandma had to do. The following are bonafide recipes of her era.
To corn beef simply, rub in plenty of salt and set it in the cellar for a day or two. If you want to keep it longer, rub in more salt and secure if from flies (see the next recipe).
The fly may in some measure be prevented by dusting on the parts most likely to be attacked, pepper and ginger mixed, after wiping, which should never be omitted; but a more easy and effectual way is to exclude the fly by using a wire meat safe. In summer, meat should be wiped every day, or sprinkled with pepper to keep off the fly. In summer, two days is long enough to keep lanb or veal, and from three to four for beef or mutton; in cold weather these latter may be kept for double that time without risk of being tainted.
[Back during the War (WWII) my father had to build an ice-box in the window of our pantry because the refrigerator died and he couldn't get parts to fix it much less buy a new one. It was winter in Chicago, so we got along quite well without ice until the summer. Then, I enjoyed seeing the Milk Man, in a horse-drawn Milk Wagon, bring a small block of ice for our home-made ice-box along with the daily milk delivery. ed.]
To perserve apples, dry a glazed jar perfectly well, put a few pebbles in the bottom, fill the jar with apples, and cover it with a piece of wood made perfectly to fit, and over that put a little fresh mortar. The pebbles attract the damp from the apples, the mortar draws the air from the jar, and leaves the apples free from its pressure, together with the principles of putrefaction which the air contains, are causes of decay. Apples thus kept, since October, have been found quite sound, fair, and juicy, in July.
Thanks Lynn for the memories. I am sure there are other fond (and maybe not so fond) memories of auld lang syne that you may like to share with our members. Please see me, Fielder George Dowding, Newsletter Editor and Publisher, and I will help you get those memories in print.