SC - jerky documentation?

[Susan Fox-Davis]

Lady Brighid wrote:

>  I've seen recipes that use air-dried fish: hake and conger eel.
> There's a 1553 Spanish treatise on the benefits of physical exercise that
> mentions "tasajos", which the Royal Spanish dictionary says is meat
> that has been preserved by drying and salting it, or in oil.
>
> http://www.uida.es/mendez/portada.html
>
> So I searched for "tasajos" at google.com, and found a link to a page
> about food in Don Quixote.  (Okay, so I'm obsessive.  Everyone needs a
> hobby.)  http://www.jimena.com/cocina/apartados/quijote.htm
> It gives a quote from the novel, in which some goatherds are boiling
> tasajos of goat meat in a cauldron.  The explanatory note says that
> tasajos are:
> "Carne adobada durante cuatro días y dejada después a secar. Es
> como la cecina del cabrero. Se puede hacer con vaca, ternera, venado,
> jabalí..."
>
> "Meat marinated for four days and then left to dry.  It is the cecina [a
> type of hung dried beef] of the goatherd.  It can be made with beef, veal,
> venison, wild boar..."
>

Ain't Google great?  A modern reference to 'tasajos' as a product of the annual
pig-slaughter is mentioned on a tourist web site
<http://www.comarcadelavera.com/Ingles/Aldeanueva/Mas.htm>

Their 'explanation' includes the term 'cecina' for which I find a modern
description from an English site from the Agriculture and Livestock Council
<http://www.maff.gov.uk/foodrin/foodname/meatbase/spain/deleon.htm> :

"Specification:
        (summary of Article 4 (2))

         a) Name:
                                (see 3) "CECINA DE LEoN" Specific Designation
         b) Description:
                                the cured beef protected by the Specific
Designation comes in one of 4 forms, depending on the cut: Minimum weights are
3
                                kg for rump, 3.5 kg for thick flank, 4 kg for
topside, and 5 kg for silverside. The beef has a toasted surface colour
deriving
                                from the production process. When cut the
colour is from cherry to garnet-red, the latter especially at the edges at the
end of
                                the process, with slight streakiness.
Characteristic flavour, not too salty.
         c) Geographical area:
                                The production area comprises all the
municipalities in Leon province (Article 4).
         d) Proof of origin:
                                The protected items are obtained from cutting
up the hind-quarters of large cattle, preferably the native breeds of Castile
and
                                Leon. The acquisition of raw material and the
processing are carried out under Regulating Body control; the product goes on
                                the market certified and guaranteed by the
Regulating Body.
         e) Method of production:
                                Once selected and trimmed, the meat is salted
for a maximum of 0.6 days per kg at below 5°C. It is then washed in lukewarm
                                water and left to cure for at least 30 days. It
can then be smoked over burning oak or holm oak wood for 12-16 days. Drying
                                takes place in natural drying rooms with
adjustable windows to control temperature and humidity. It remains here until
                                maturing is complete. The whole process takes
at least seven months.
         f) Link:
                                With its average altitude, Leon province has a
dry, healthy climate which favours the curing of this product.

Selene here again.  This looks more like a beef 'ham' than a jerky.  However,
most of the 'restaurant menu' sources describe it as 'dried beef,' one as
'dried or semi-dried beef' so I suppose it could go either way.  This is all
modern, but seems to not contradict the Cervantes and Brighid's other period
citations.

Brighid concludes:

"I get the feeling that tasajos were often used as a food for travellers and
the poor."

Or our valiant anachronistic food-soldiery, perhaps!  Thank you for this
valuable lead in documenting a favorite food.

Best, Selene
selene at earthlink.net