sca-cooks Re: [ck] freshness of meat

[LYN M PARKINSON]

As to the keeping of meat, it can take some time to eat your way through
a large animal.  Not all households used up whole herds of meat animals
per 2 day feast, as Chiquart did.  Even so, he would have had the
butchers slaughter the animals well in advance.  A stone walled cellar is
about 40 degrees, if the outside entrances are kept closed and there is
no source of heat.  

I went to school in Switzerland for a while, in a little village.  The
butcher had an open air shop, and hung the meat carcasses and parts up on
hooks for all the world like the Medieval illustrations.  I remember
admiring the illustration aesthetics while still shuddering at the flies
on the meat, and the dust of the road.  Butchering in Europe, at least
this century, is usually done early in the morning.  If the meat hangs at
ambient temperature most of the day, then goes home with the customer, it
may get no refrigeration.  It may, depending on its usage, be kept in a
pantry overnight and put on the fire in the morning to simmer all day. 
If you kill your own animal, you have the entire carcass to deal with,
not just the piece you'd buy from the butcher.  Not all is meant to be
salted, preserved, dried, pickled, etc.



Adamantius, did you really mean three *weeks* instead of three days, for
hung meat to relax? 



And, has anybody noticed, when Chiquart is talking about not letting beef
or mutton be too salty, he is always talking about the broth or stock
made from it?  I've begun to think that he is refering to salted meats
rather than fresh for his stock.



Allison