SC - My Business Card (Was: FROM THE...)

[Brian Matthews]

When I grew up on a farm (my dad was a farm worker) we got meat supplied at
low cost from the farm.  The meat was mutton, only the older less productive
animals became "killers" and were kept aside for killing (for meat).  Makes
sense that this would also have been done in middle ages!

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG
> [mailto:owner-sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG]On Behalf Of Heitman
> Sent: Thursday, 27 May 1999 2:45
> To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG
> Subject: SC - Re: Lamb
>
>
> At 10:06 AM 5/26/99 -0400, you wrote:
> >Actually, there seem to be very few period recipes for lamb, although
> >there are many for mutton, and quite a few for kid and calf.  I would
> >surmise that this is because adult sheep of both genders are productive,
> >in a way that goats and cattle are not.  Anyone who is wise in medieval
> >animal husbandry wish to comment?
> >Brighid
>
>
>
> Actually, I would look at it in a different text.
>
> The number of kid and calf recipes would resultin the preponderous number
> of people keeping a single adult cow or goat. Remember that these are
> milking animals, and as such, need to calve or kid regularly to insure the
> production of that milk. If the milk animal doesn't have the correct
> internal hormone level, the milk dries up. In period, before the
> scientific
> intervention of drugs, the standard way for these animals to get that
> hormone level was to have a baby that needed suckling. NO animal will give
> milk until that infant is born (or those hormones are made present
> artificially).
>
> Combine that with the basic necessity that marks a limit on the number of
> animals an individuals acreage could support, if the milk was what was
> desired, why keep the infant? It would only endanger the future
> life of the
> mother by consuming the food supply of the parent after it is done
> suckling. Note that most veal and kid is defined by an age at
> which sucking
> has ended.
>
> Sheep, on the other hand, are kept in large numbers, require large tracts
> of grazing and penning land, and lambs go fairly quickly from suckling to
> grazing. We do NOT seek the milk from sheep, but rather the wool. I do not
> know of any instance where a single sheep was kept for its wool
> production.
> A single cow or goat kept for its milk production is still common today.
> And that one animal would be kept until it was to old to calve again. Then
> a single new animal would be purchased.
>
> In sheep farming, the herd is culled at least once possibly
> several times a
> year, depending on breed and wool harvest, with up to half the flock being
> sold. Prices for wool and for mutton will also work towards deciding which
> gets sold, the inside or the outside. This culling usually takes place
> after the spring clipping, significantly after the lambing season.
> Generally, it is the older sheep which demonstrate a loss in wool
> production or may not make it thru the next season, followed by other less
> productive or healthy animals. The lambs are kept to replace
> these animals.
>
> Then again, compared to cows and goats, how much faster does a sheep reach
> maturity? This might also make significant difference in what
> gets sold when.
>
> IOW, calves and kids are killed because they have already done their task
> and most people had a parent. Lambsgot slaughtered only because there is a
> small market for lamb, and were kept by a relative few. Finding
> period lamb
> recipes would therefore, IMO, be proportionally harder to find.
>
> One also might look at what the definition of "lamb" is. I recently helped
> cook a feast in which "leg of LAMB" was served. I expected to be dealing
> with a (max.) 5-6 pound bone in piece of meat. These averaged 10-12 pounds
> each. Sounds more like a Mutton Shank to me. But several butchers from
> different places quoted the same weight expectancy. Still tasted delicious
> (and NO, there was no mint- sauce, seasoning, or jelly.)
>
> Franz
> Calontir
>
>
>
>
>
>
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