SC - sour cherry butter promise

[Olwen the Odd]

Ras wrote:
>There was use of ice houses in the middle east during the middle ages.
>Possibly Stefan has the posts on ice houses in his Flori-thingy.
>
>I am not saying that dried meat was not used, I am saying that, IMO, it was
>rarely used.
>(snip)
>I am not
>dismissing the idea entirely but rather am of the opinion that unless
>documentation can be found to the contrary, basing an opinion on what 'could'
>have been as opposed to what is known to have been done is very risky and
>should not be a basis for acceptance of the practice let alone proliferation
>of it as an accepted standard of how things actually were.

Then our opinions are not far apart. My point is that it is possible, 
therefore worthy of further research. I'm not saying that since it is 
possible (as many nonexistent things are :-), therefore it must be 
true. That's as bad as saying "well, if they'd had it, they would 
have used it".

The point of some of my details, period and not, was as possible 
pointers for further research.

First, I think it possible (i didn't say likely) that some city folks 
might have made or eaten it in a place without refrigeration (were 
these ice houses you mention accessible to everyone for food storage, 
or only to a certain limited segment of the population?), but that it 
might not have made it into cookbooks (the Indonesian home-made 
example), especially if the consumers are people not in the upper 
echelons - so worth reading literature with an eye to potential 
references.

Second, if it was eaten by non-city folk it is highly unlikely to be 
in cookbooks, although again possibly mentioned in literature. I 
haven't yet read enough to form an opinion. I've read a moderate 
amount of books on the area (and drag the Moorish Reading Room - many 
of my books on the area - to some events), but am by no means an 
expert in the area. I have books with tales by travellers, but have 
not yet run across a mention of dried meat. I'll keep my eyes open.

Anahita al-shazhiyya