Fwd: SC - Jerky - OOP or...?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Gerekr at aol.com wrote:
 
> Seeing the "Sex-wine" jerky recipe go by, again, prompts me to wonder if
> there
> is any period reference to -complexly flavored- dried meat?

I'm not aware of any if there is. Doesn't mean, of course, that this
isn't just a natural gap in my edumacation.
 
> And am I correct that unflavored (air?-)drying and (dry) salt drying
> -were-
> techniques used to prepare meat for storage in period?

Yes, you are correct.
 
> Also we have "complexly flavored" spiced brine (Lord's salt); do I assume
> correctly that plain brine was also used?  (since I have a serious
> vinegar sensitivity to deal with, Lord's salt is absolutely out of the
> running at my house...)

You might look at one of the late (post?) period brawn pickling brines,
which tend to call for white wine, salt, sugar, spices, and are
generally fairly complex. Some call for vinegar, some don't. I dunno if
wine is  a problem for you.

On the other hand, things to consider:

Lord's Salt contains no salt and is therefore not technically a brine;
probably the most accurate term in modern culinary parlance would be a souse.

Seasoned pickling brines _appear_ not to have been used in connection
with anything like jerky. 

Western European medieval alternatives without vinegar might include
dried lean fish (which can be prepared from skinless fillets, then
whacked with a mallet or something into flakes/threads; this is a travel
food documented as having been eaten by various Viking types), various
cured hams, which are difficult to eat a slice at a time and too
expensive to throw away, so might be good party foods, dried or smoked
sausages, which can be made quite thin to dry quickly. These are
probably your best bet; Apicius' Lucanian sausage recipe is pretty
highly seasoned, and calls for the sausage to be drawn out thinly, as in
not filling the casing fully (start with lamb chipolata casings anyway),
to facilitate drying. What you end up with probably isn't too different
from Slim Jims (other than the obvious quality issues) and that ground,
extruded jerky stuff. The major difference to consider would be fat
content, which can lead to rancidity in some storage conditions. Luckily
a sausage casing seems to help somewhat with prolonging the safe
lifespan of a sausage.

HTH,
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================