SC - hypocras

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

>> Was "corning" a period practice?  Did it vary from area to area?  
What meats
>> were corned?
>
>Some authorities claim the process called corning is a reference to
>salting with the addition of "corns" of gunpowder, a commonly available
>source of saltpeter for military provisioners. While there is plenty of
>period evidence suggesting meats were salted, most of it seems to be 
dry
>salted and drained (effectively buried in solid salt), rather than
>salt-rubbed to make a brine from the meat's own juices, as is used in
>both modern corned beef and salt pork. What I do know is that the term
>_seems_ not to occur, at least in my experience, in any recipe sources
>in English until the eighteenth century or so. I was just looking at "A
>Newe Proper Boke of Cookery" c. 1545 C.E., and it makes a couple of
>references to "powdered beef"; earlier English sources refer to salt 
beef.
>Adamantius
>-- 

Drat!  in the final planning of my feast, I let myself fall prey to a 
"traditional" recipe for corned beef. Now I've got three weeks to 
substitute something else.

So, they packed it in lots of salt and kept it drained rather than 
slightly salted and a brine allowed to form.  Which would make the 
texture more like "smithfield" ham rather than corned beef, do you 
think? How would this be prepared and served?  

Bonne
(but the corned beef is good)


Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.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".

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