SC - Tainted Meat - Nonserious

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Gretchen M Beck wrote:

> Actually, the question about butchering is quite apt--we know there were
> butchers in period, and that there were even regulations governing
> butchers and where they set up their shops in period.  This suggests
> that, at least in urban settings, many (perhaps even most) people did
> not do their own butchering.

Many (perhaps even most) people neither needed, nor could deal with, an
entire animal, either. Expense and limitations of living space are
obvious issues, and there may be others. This is all part and parcel
with the discussions we've been having on seasonal slaughtering,
preservation, and spices.

> It's also possible that butchers were
> like bakers -- some people bought the bread from the baker, others took
> their dough to the baker to be baked.  So, did butchers do the
> preserving, did they sell exclusively fresh meat, or did they do both?

Indications are that butchers killed and dismembered animals for meat,
and would have been a town phenomenon. Not all the slaughtering would
have been done by butchers, but it seems likely that farmers would have
done all this in the countryside, rather than a professional specialist.
I further suspect that the majority of salt or other cured meats would
have been made by those same farmers, who would bring hams, bacon, and
salt pork and beef to market in town. 

One common factor of virtually every recipe for curing meats I've ever
seen is the need to get the meat into the salt, the brine, or whatever,
as quickly as possible after the animal is killed. So, while I suppose
some pork butchers may have processed hams and bacon, I very much doubt
a local townsman would bring home a side of fresh pork to make his own
bacon. 

One interesting monkey wrench thrown into all this logic is the
frequently-mentioned passage on the annual hog-killing in The Goodman of
Paris. He is a townsman who apparently does (that is, oversees) his own
slaughtering and processing of pigs each autumn. I would have thought
this was rare, but the example certainly exists. Possibly this is only
an indication of the size of his household or the extent of his
frugality, indications of which are scattered throughout the text. I
suppose this could be the exception that proves the rule...

Adamantius