SC - 'Tainted Meat'

[Christine A Seelye-King]

I can certainly understand this, and am willing to believe your
hypothesis about the origin of the most common medieval food fallacy.
Christianna

This is personal experience that I'd like to research better:  a
co-workers 
elderly father-in-law called meat that was adrenalin drenched from the 
animal having been 'run' before it's death 'taint' meat.  For this
reason, 
his venison recipe used acid (orange juice) and spices (hot pepper
flakes, 
black pepper, plenty of salt) to counteract the taint flavor.  I don't
know 
where the idea that they ate bad mead came from.  Since hearing of Mr. 
Richardson, I've always wondered if someone translated a word meaning
'meat 
with the taste of having been run' in say, middle ages french, into 
'tainted' when writing it up in more modern english and that was the 
beginning of this 'fact'.

Also, meat that isn't at it's very best is not at all the same as meat
that 
is 'rotten'. It's not uncommon yet for those that can't afford to be prim

about it to simply wash the blood from meat that has a smell if you sniff
it 
from close range, and serve it well cooked in a strongly sauce. (Says
Bonne, 
shopper of marked down for final sale bins.)

There was some research out in the last year or two indicating that
spices 
such as cinnamon have preservative properties, meaning cooks of that time

may have been adding preservative qualities to their cooked dishes via 
spices even if they didn't realize it.
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