SC - jerky documentation?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Jenne Heise wrote:
> 
> > a period where food writers were prepared to discuss, at length,
> > dragging sides of beef in perforated barrels behind ships in salt water,
> 
> Did anyone other than Plat mention this? I've wondered about it since I
> readit, because the way Plat wrote about it made it sounds as if he had
> neither tried it nor seen it tried. (Someone mentioned somewhere --
> Medeival Technology page? -- that this was done with Fish, though).

I doubt it would work, at least not because of the salt content of the
ocean water alone, which is not sufficient to keep bacteria from
multiplying. _May_be on a shortish journey, such as crossing the English
Channel (anybody know how cold the water gets, or rather, a temperature
range?), since Plat mentions this proving effective "on that honourable
voyage to Calais" or some such. It may be that it wasn't so much that
the method was particularly effective, as that the meat simply failed to
become putrid in the time the journey lasted. 
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com