SC - Custard and Corned Silverside

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Lee-Gwen Booth wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
> 
> > What is "corned silverside"?  Animal, vegetable, or mineral?
> 
> Corned silverside (also called corned beef) is definitely animal, with a
> touch of mineral added (salt, mostly, I think).  It is a meat which when
> cooked keeps its very pink colour almost regardless of what one does to it!
> Generally, it is cooked for an hour or more in a vinegar and water solution
> (or do I mean mixture? :-)) and served with white sauce, hot mustard, and
> boiled vegetables.

I think Lady Brighid was thrown by the use of the word "silverside",
which isn't the term here in the USA. I believe silverside is a cut of
the round, or leg, of beef, so called for a particular shiny membrane on
one side of the meat. In the US, we occasonally see corned beef round,
but more often it is brisket, cut from the side of the animal. (And
brisket tastes better too, neener neener!)

As for corned beef, in general, being found in period, some believe it
is so called because of the method of curing. Originally (it's been
said) saltpeter was added to a basic dry-rub salt cure in the form of
corns of gunpowder, and it is supposedly a method of salt-curing made
common by provisioners of the British Navy, probably in the eighteenth century.

Corned beef is a semi-fermented product, salted in a container that
allows a natural brine to form, in which lactobacilli grow, effectively
pickling the meat in the salty, slightly acidic liquid. This accounts
for the slight acidic tang of corned beef and various other "pickled"
meats. (Some actually do contain vinegar, but that's another animal entirely.)

Salt beef, on the other hand, is quite old and is occasionally mentioned
in medieval recipes; usually a recipe for beef will say something at the
end like, "and add no salt if the beef be salted" or some such. Same for
pork, probably mutton, and fish, as well. Except in the case of
naturally occurring saltpeter as an impurity in some mined salts,
saltpeter doesn't seem to figure in the curing process in period, AFAIK.
Salt beef was probably grey, not the characteristic pink of corned meats.

A common medieval European sauce for a wide variety of salt meats and
fish seems to have been mustard. 

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com