This brings up an interesting sidetrack. Our society tends to rely on refrigeration for too much. Really, if you think about it, there's not much need for refrigeration if you plan a bit. The things I keep in my refrigerator and freezer are easily converted to canned goods, sacrificing freshness and an insignificant amount of quality in doing so. Veggies and fruits are easily substituted. The only advantage to frozen meat is in grilling or roasting, as most of the meat I cook goes into casseroles, stews, soups sauces or meatloaf. Canned meat is something we eat on a regular enough basis anyways, so the only meat to keep in the freezer then is stuff that goes on the grill or in the roaster. So what's left? Ice? Confections? Eggs or Milk in the fridge? Canned or even powdered milk isn't so bad if it means I don't have to rely on refrigeration so much. I drank gallons of powdered rehydrated milk in Iraq, and it was far better than what they were giving us in the cartons in the cooler. If the slightly off taste bothers you, add a little cocoa or malt or ovaltine or whatever and you'd never notice it. Eggs would be the tough thing to get around I suppose. Powdered eggs and egg substitute just don't quite cut it I reckon. I can make them work in baked goods without too much suffering, but reconstituting them into scramble or omlette is almost not pallatable, and I can tolerate a lot. I wish someone could make a decent, shelf stable egg substitute that also had reduced cholesterol. So far all I can find still comes in a carton and requires refrigeration. Oh, if only we would take to irradiating our food stock.

So anyaways the point of refrigeration is convenience and freshness, and it would be best if we adopted the same attitude as our forefathers and took to canning and preserving a little more anyways. I can get by on spagetti with meat sauce, tuna casserole, chicken ala king, turkey and rice, curried shrimp, shepard's pie and ravioli for a long time. Espeically if I am cooking them up from scratch myself.