sca-cooks Re: Spice Use and Food Poisoning, etc.

[linneah at erols.com]

Mark Schuldenfrei wrote:
> 
>   Sue Wensel wrote:
>   > Food, especially meat (though I wouldn't trust birds), can taste off before
>   > they are actually spoiled.  In fact, with some meats such as venison, people
>   > let it "cure" for a few days before they cook it.
> 
>   Adamantius answered:
>   True. Primarily the reason for this was (and still is) for tenderness.
>   The fact that this also produces a flavor some people enjoy is
>   secondary, although some people did hang their meats for the flavor they
>   discovered it produced. Bear in mind that the test for whether a piece
>   of game is sufficiently hung relies on testing it for
>   softness/tenderness, not on whether it smells bad. Generally it involves
>   the ease with which feathers can be plucked.
> 
> Indeed.  Adamantius is right, and the "spoiled meat" canard (:-) is an
> enduring myth.
> 
> Meat, when freshly slaughtered, is tender.  Fairly quickly, the muscles
> develop "rigor mortis" (literally "stiffness of death") and the meat is less
> tender.  Both pounding, and aging, can undo that stiffness, aging and
> hanging being the more successful.
> 
> Some of the things our ancestors did with food, we would not consider.  But
> eating rotten meat is not one of them.  (Eating live animals, on the other
> hand...)
> 
>         Tibor

I just had a discussion with my Medieval History instructor on this subject.  her 
belief is that the aging of meat, with the exception of beef, was probably not 
done.  Animals were killed for the purpose of eating them, not saving them to 
eat later.  Therefore, the use of spices to enhance flavor of spoiled meat _is_ 
probably a myth.  Aging of meat probably came about with the meat industry.  
Can't sell it today?  Lable it aged and sell it tomorrow.

Just our opinions,
Linneah