SC - Puff pastry at camping events

[Kathleen M Everitt]

Hello folks! I hope you had a happy Turkey Day.

I am wondering if anyone can solve a mystery for me. Our recent discussion
about Corned Beef lead me to search for preserved beef recipes (corned in
particular, but I'm not fussy). I have a recipe from Apecius for preserved
beef that includes pickling, which I have used, but is not terribly similar
to corned beef. I have recipes for potted beef (a beef paste made w/butter).
Pressed beef is slightly out of period. I have a recipe for Collered Beef
which looks fairly close but is also just out of period. No where can I seem
to find a recipe for Corned beef, Salt Beef, Pickled beef, etc. in my
sources, unless they are out of period----mostly way out.

I ran across a referance to corned beef (allegorically) in a description of
a long winded 12th century Irish poem in a reference on the net. It seems
Corned Beef was the lure to tempt the demons of gluttony from the King's
stomach. It was called salt beef then. It seems the handle "corned" was
picked up around the time of the potato famine, when most of the beef in
Ireland was exported packed in kernels of salt the size of corn. 

So here is my quandry: Are there any preserved beef recipes from mid to
later period Europe or British Isles? My sources do not provide any, but my
library is by no means complete. I want to "corn" my own brisket as a
surprise for my mom, but I have an eye towards doing this for an event in
quantity. I have a site where the primary cooking aparatus are range-tops.
That makes it perfect for boiled beef.

It occurs to me that salt beef may have been one of those "so simple you
can't mess it up" recipes that were understood intuitively by period cooks.
Or possibly, an item supplied by somene who made it professionally and sold
it to many households. Or, quite possibly, preserving it was the job of
someone who did not write cookbooks or recipes! Or else, I've been looking
in the wrong places. I just don't know.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Aoife

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