SC - Pickles, Pickles, Pickles (or: Bounced message from Vika)

[david friedman]

Vika posted our recipe for pickled meat from the Miscellany, which is at:
>
>http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Articles/Camping%20without%20a%20cooler.html

and, after the recipe, commented:

>My notes:
...
>Strong (i.e. above 5% acidity) vinegar cost an arm and a leg for a small
>  bottle, so I used half reg. red-wine vinegar and half cider vinegar.
>As the recipe says, this is supposed to keep meat for up to three weeks
>  unrefrigerated.  I made it on, I think, Sunday, tried a bit Tuesday,
>  and served it Saturday.  The flavors were a bit better blended on Sat.,
>  I think, but it was perfectly acceptable on Tues.
>
The original recipe says strong vinegar. When I was researching this one, I
was worried about botulism, so I read up on the hazards of preserving food.
What I came up with was that vinegar of 5% or better will prevent the
botulism germs from getting a foothold in your stuff, and that 15 minutes
boiling will destroy the botulin toxin if it has developed. Given that some
meat juice is probably going to dilute your vinegar a bit, and that
standard wine or cider vinegar is sold at 5%, I would seriously recommend
paying that arm and a leg and mixing at least some of the strong vinegar
with your ordinary vinegar, as a safety measure.

We have in fact kept meat this way in a plastic tub on the kitchen counter,
covered but not specially sealed, for three or four weeks with no problems.
But that was with the stronger vinegar.

Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook


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