SC - sausage stuffers

[Marilyn Traber]

Sorry to join the fray a bit late. However,.... 

Ras Wrote:
As I pointed out in Charlemagne's estate inventory , there appear's to be a
definite distinction between hogs and pigs. And from that discription at
least
100 of the hogs on the estate had recently been slaughtered. From those
slaughtered,  'lard, 200 sides' had been obtained. 

I have two points here:

One, are we absolutely sure the definition of lard (or translation for that
matter) is the same now as it was in the middle ages? It could concievably
mean that those hogs and/or pigs were produced for fat bacon, for instance,
or that the fatty meat was preferred to the leaner and was therefore called
"lard" to differentiate it from lean pork. It is feasible that "lard" in
this case, became the name for fat at a later date. We use the word as an
adjective NOW as well as a noun.

Two, though OOP (17oos), I offer the following which seems to support Ras's
view of
the introduction of Chinese pig genes to the pool specifically the timing
of reaching marketable weight---otherwise the directions would likely not
exist in the book containing special recipes and household instructions
known as "Lady Castlehill's Receipt Book" (Molendinar Press, Glasgow,
original and complete MS in the posession of the Mitchell Library and the
property of  Sir Muir Edward Sinclair-Lockhart. It was produced,
frustratingly, as a coffee-table book rather than a serious work but pretty
accurate for all that. Punctuation was slightly changed but not the
original wording or spelling. ISBN 0904002-20-9  1976, copyright Hamish
Whyte):
 
                                                      
To Feed Brawne with Whey to be killed at Michaelmas to be up att midesunner
If you have a convenient place  tye the Brawne under a Tree; if not in a
Stye or Swyne house. Give only whey before it be boiled asit comes from the
cheese. You must give him butt a little at a time & give it often; be sure
to give it early and late. Sometimes you must put in the whey a little
Flower of Brimstone or Lye made with Ashes, doubting the Boare may have the
Meazels. A week before you kill him you must feed him with boiled barly.
The Brawne must be put up att midesummer.

(Note Michaelmas is in autumn, and I believe the end instructions  note
that
it will not keep forever: It must be further preserved when the weather
gets warm--midesummer). A further note for cheesemakers is that whey is
apparently boiled before consumption (in very late period there were
whey-houses much as we have coffee houses today).

HTH


Aoife




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