SC - table decorations vine

[Helen]

Sorry to jump into a well-developed thread with a delayed response to
the original message, but...

snowfire at mail.snet.net wrote:
> 
> -Poster: Jean Holtom <Snowfire at mail.snet.net>
> 
>  From the Book "Food and Cooking in Prehistoric Britain: History and Recipes"
> 
> The following is a passage about the way butter was probably made in
> prehistoric times.  It is noted that this method was used until recently in
> the Orkney Islands.
> 
> "The milk was left to stand in the churn for 2 - 3 days until it thickened
> naturally.  When the butter was slow in coming some red hot "Kirnin' stones
> were thrown in to help the separation process.  When the butter had gathered
> at the top it was lifted out into an earthenware dish and washed several times
> in cold water to remove any remaining milk, which could turn it sour quickly.
> It then had to be de-haired by passing a knife through it several times to
> remove any animal hairs on the knife edge.  In many part of Britain it was the
> custom to bury the butter in wooden vessels or baskets, or occasionally in
> cloth, bark, or leather containers, in peat bogs.  Many discoveries of this
> "bog butter" have been made...."
> 
> Has anyone heard of this before?

Yes, I've heard of it before. A couple of comments:

1) The fact that butter has been found in bogs doesn't prove burying it
in bogs was a typical thing to do with butter. Many bog bodies have been
found; it wasn't something that was done to everyone. The reason for
doing so seems to be pretty unclear, but possibilities might include
some kind of sacrifice, an attempt to preserve the butter in a cool,
relatively airless place, and an attempt to preserve the butter with
various chemicals the bog water has in solution (tannic acid for one).
The butter may have been believed to have (and may have, in fact)
undergone some kind of chemical change making it medicinally useful.
Centuries later, many European recipe books for medicines and foods
would speak of May butter, which appears to be butter that has been left
in a sunny meadow for several days, in May. The modern explanation seems
to be that some vitamin is either created or stored in the butter upon
exposure to sunlight (I forget which).

Personally I think some of that butter found in Irish bog sites may have
been sunk to appease the hungry spirits of Elizabethan cavalrymen at
teatime...;  ) fun things to do with heavy cavalry in a swampy land,
#106: make them chase you into the bog you know like the back of your
hand. Splort!

2) Highland Scottish cattle breeds (such as one would find in the
Orkneys) were and are generally rather log-haired.
    
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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