Re(2): Re(2): Re(2): SC - mustard history

[Stephen Bloch]

Sue Wensel wrote:
> I believe that the common misconception about period food (which I have heard
> the opposite -- that period food was fresher than we eat now) is due to the
> inability of people to image how food would have been kept without
> refridgeration.  No one seems to wonder how we discovered such processes as
> salt-curing or smoking meat.  

Yes, salt-curing and smoking were both known and widely used in medieval
Europe.  But the simplest, and I suspect the most common, method of
preserving meat was to keep it ALIVE until shortly before it was to be
eaten.

Exactly how widespread were butchering equipment and knowhow in medieval
Europe?  I've always assumed that both were nearly universal, but
haven't really looked for evidence.
					mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch
                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu
					 http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/
                                        Math/CS Dept, Adelphi University